Ferro also joins the Artist Board of the Chicago Artists’ Guide this year
Chicago, IL. BroadwayWorld, the leading theater news website in the United States, announced today that Filipino actor Van Ferro won his third BroadwayWorld Award at the regional Chicago BroadwayWorld Awards. Ferro won his second consecutive award for Best Supporting Performer in a Play for his critically-acclaimed performance as John N. Fail in Oil Lamp Theater’s Failure: A Love Story.
Ferro won over 61 other nominees with 16% of the votes as of 11:59 PM of December 31, 2022, the last day of voting. In addition to his win, Failure also won Best Play, another consecutive win for Oil Lamp Theater. Last year, Oil Lamp Theater won for Shipwrecked: An Entertainment, the same production that won Ferro his first of two BroadwayWorld Awards last year. “It was down to the wire, but I really appreciate everyone who cast a vote and everyone who asked their friends and family to vote for me. I hope that this encourages more people of color to participate in Chicago theater, especially Filipinos,” Ferro reacted with his win. In addition to the wins, Failure: A Love Story also won runner-up citations for the following categories: Best Lighting Design of a Play/Musical (Hannah Wien), Best Perfomer in a Play (Kendal Romero), Best Scenic Design of a Play/Musical (Jay Pastucha and Ellen Markus), and Best Sound Design of a Play/Musical (Jay Pastucha).
Playing against type consistently and outside his usual range, Ferro essayed the role of John N Fail. “Van Ferro is comical as the short-wit John N,” raves Rick McCain of Let’s Play Theatrical Reviews. The play itself was rated as Recommended by the same publication, as well as by the renowned Chicago theater scene website Theatre in Chicago.
In 2022, Ferro remained as one of the busiest actors in Chicago theater, also appearing in A Theater in the Dark’s Murder in the Court of Xanadu, Cock and Bull Arts’ The Octopus; Act Your Page’s productions of Bernard Slade’s Same Time, Next Year (as George), and Lucas Hnath’s The Christians (as Pastor Joshua); and a cameo role in Sigman Brothers’ first play In Memoriam. This past calendar year, Ferro also continues his commercials and industrials with leading brands such as Sam’s Club, Kohls, and Calypso Lemonade.
Because of Ferro’s theatrical achievements and current status as a working actor, Ferro has been invited and had accepted membership to the Artists’ Board of the Chicago Artists’ Guide, a new initiative to help diversify theater hiring and casting in Chicago theater, “I am honored to serve with talented and driven theater professionals to help in opening the door wider for BIPOC people in Chicago theater,” Ferro muses.
Ferro is currently non-exclusively multi-listed with The Talent Networks, Stavins Talent, Lori Lins, Ltd., and DreamTeam Talent. He is exclusively represented in the Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati and Columbus markets by Helen Wells Agency.
Another Filipino, five-time Jeff Award-winner musical director Eugene Dizon, ended as a runner-up in the Best Music Direction and Orchestra Performance for Mercury Theater’s Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical.
The BroadwayWorld win ties Ferro with Rachelle Ann Go’s three BroadwayWorld Awards in 2014, 2015 and 2018 at the UK/West End edition of the BroadwayWorld Awards. Previous acting winners in Chicago include Broadway luminaries such as Patti LuPone, Brian Dennehy, Diane Lane and Santino Fontana.
