Porchlight Music Theatre Announces New Members Of Its Board Of Directors

Award-winning Porchlight Music Theatre has announced the election of two new members to its Board of Directors, Todd Arp and Brandon John Harrington.

“Todd and Brandon bring expertise in two separate areas, finance and marketing, respectively,” said Board Chair Brian Troy. “We are pleased to welcome them to Porchlight at the start of our 29th season and look forward to working with them to utilize their skills in the most beneficial way for Porchlight and its long and short term goals.”

The new members join current Board members, in alphabetical order, Michelle Freeman Cucchiaro*, Brenda Didier*, Jeremy D. Eden+, Rhona Frazin*, William Gilmer+, Joshua R. Goderis+, Joseph Higgins+, Mark Hudson+, Kenny Ingram+, Jim Jensen+ (treasurer), Jonathan Klein+ (secretary), Charles Laff+, Michael Lowenthal+, Cesar Rolon, Jr.+, Tamara Sims*, Brian Troy+ (chair), Gretchen Upholt* (vice chair) and Amy Jaine Wielunski*.

Todd Arp is a retired business professional with an extensive career in accounting, finance and procurement at Kraft Heinz, one of the world's largest food and beverage companies. He began his career working at manufacturing facilities in Iowa and Ohio before moving to Chicago more than 20 years ago. His career specialized in operations cost management with an emphasis on budgeting and forecasting. He was regularly sought out to analyze and fix budget issues across the supply chain in the highly complex dairy industry. At retirement, he held the position of director of Cheese Procurement, leading a team of buyers that sourced over $1 billion of cheese each year. Originally from a small town in Iowa, Arp is a graduate of the University of Iowa where he earned both a BBA and MA degree in accounting. As a long-time supporter of the arts, he appreciates the unique and important role that Porchlight plays in the Chicago arts community and is pleased to support it as a member of the board of directors.

Brandon John Harrington is an avid supporter of the theatrical arts, having worked with theatre companies in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, on Broadway and in the West End. By day, Harrington is the global staffing lead for three product areas at Google. Prior to his time in talent acquisition, he spent three years working alongside C-suite leadership at the company. Before joining Google, he spent five years working in film and theatrical development for DreamWorks Animation & DreamWorks Theatricals. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from Northwestern University and is a proud Bay Area native.  

Porchlight Music Theatre is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago's most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.” 

Porchlight's history, over the last 28 years, includes more than 70 mainstage works with 16 Chicago premieres and five world premieres. Porchlight's commitment to the past, present and future of music theatre led the company to develop the Porchlight Revisits and New Faces Sing Broadway program series, both quickly becoming audience favorites. 

Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations, most notably the ongoing collaboration with Chicago Youth Centers. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form. 

The company's many honors include 192 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 45 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 12 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards, and was honored with eight nominations in both technical and artistic categories and won three awards in its inaugural year in this tier, most notably Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies. 

Through the global pandemic, Porchlight emerged as one of Chicago's leaders in virtual programming, quickly launching a host of free offerings like Sondheim @ 90 Roundtables, Movie Musical Mondays, Porchlight by Request: Command Performances and WPMT: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. Porchlight launched its popular, annual summer series in 2021, Broadway in your Backyard, performing at parks and venues throughout the city. 

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