BROADWAY CARES: Your Students’ Voices Make a Difference
Plus, your weekly round-up of theatre news you may have missed!
Welcome to The Scene, your weekly round-up of theatre news you may have missed. In this week's email,
We hear from Taylor Mattes of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS on how your students have the power to make lifesaving differences in your community and across the country.
Plus, we keep you informed about the most crucial theatre news and stories from the last week.
So, raise the curtain, shine the spotlight, and dive into another thrilling week in the world of theatre. Welcome to The Scene.
Sutton Foster to lead Broadway revival of ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ by Ruthie Fierberg, Broadway News | The limited engagement will open this summer. Read...
George Clooney Will Star in the Broadway Adaptation of ‘Good Night and Good Luck’ by Logan Culwell-Block; Playbill | Clooney and Grant Heslov have adapted their 2005 film for the stage, to be directed by David Cromer. Read...
‘Death Becomes Her’ Musical Will Open on Broadway This Fall, Starring Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard by Andrew Gans, Playbill | The musical, currently making its world premiere in Chicago, will also feature Christopher Sieber and Michelle Williams. Read...
Emcee Squared: Joel Grey and Eddie Redmayne on ‘Cabaret’ by Michael Paulson, The New York Times | When two actors who have played the Emcee several times finally met, they discussed fear, courage, and Berlin’s bawdiest nightclub. Read...
Watch the Cast of Broadway's ‘The Notebook’ Perform 2 Songs on Today by Andrew Gans, Playbill | Composer Ingrid Michaelson, and 2024 Tony nominees Maryann Plunkett and Dorian Harewood also spoke about the new musical. Read...
Photos: ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Makes Its High School Premiere by Logan Culwell-Block, Playbill |The newly available school edition of the Tony- and Olivier-winning play is shorter and includes guidance for achieving the show's magical effects. Read...
We’ve Hit Peak Theater Nobody knows how to succeed on Broadway anymore. by Boris Kachka, Vulture | Spring 2024 saw a frenzy of new shows opening in the face of two formidable obstacles: costs that have nearly doubled over a decade and an audience almost 20 percent smaller than it was pre-pandemic. Read...
Sarah Paulson Dares to Play the People You Love to Hate by Julia Jacobs, The New York Times | The actress has received a Tony nomination for ‘Appropriate,’ in which she portrays a woman who makes a sport out of verbally eviscerating her family members. Read...
Why This Broadway Season's Truths Are Stranger Than Fiction by Naveen Kumar, Town & Country | Is that the six o'clock news or your eight o'clock curtain? Read...
Outstanding Debut Performers Cole Escola, Rachel McAdams, Maleah Joi Moon, and More Honored with the 2024 Theatre World Awards by Darryn King, Broadway Buzz | The Theatre World Awards' board of directors has announced the 2024 honorees for the Theatre World Award, recognizing an Outstanding Debut Performance in a Broadway or Off-Broadway Production. Read...
The Big Idea
BROADWAY CARES: Your Students’ Voices Make a Difference
by Taylor Mattes, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
Your students have the power to make lifesaving differences in your community and across the country - they just need to know it. The young artists in your classroom are the future of the theater community, and now is the time to encourage them to think beyond themselves. Join Broadway Cares to explore how incorporating philanthropy into your theater program builds character and camaraderie among your students. Together, we can empower them to create change and join a powerful movement within our theater community.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the philanthropic heart of Broadway, helping ensure those affected by HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses receive medication, healthy meals, counseling, and emergency assistance. By collaborating with high school and college students and teachers across the country, Broadway Cares brings the fundraising done on Broadway closer to home, creating opportunities for these young artists to use their art for good, give back, and connect with the theater community at large. Just this year, we’ve already seen how these experiences can be powerful learning opportunities for students.
At Bronxville High School in New York City, student Jack Pasquale led the charge to start making a difference at his school by adding a Red Bucket fundraiser to his school’s winter musical, Curtains.
“It was awesome to get so much support in bringing the iconic Red Buckets to Bronxville High School from students, teachers, administrators and the local community,” Pasquale said. “The fact that we were able to join together and do our part to raise money to provide meals, medication, and health care to those in need across the country made Curtains even more meaningful and impactful."
Just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, West Chester University has produced its annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit for 24 years. This fully student-produced event features performances from the university’s theater department, as well as on-campus dance, improv, and vocal groups. While the benefit offers an enjoyable evening of performances, the students know that the impact of their work is greater than that.
"As performers, we love to make people happy,” Courtney Parker, the student choreographer for 2023’s benefit, said. “We love to evoke emotion from audiences, but to know that our work is really going toward something tangible that is helping real people is extremely rewarding and makes the work of the show that much more meaningful."
Young artists are providing support to those in need today while planting the seeds for a lasting commitment to giving back. As they sing, dance, and hold Red Buckets, students not only develop essential skills in collaboration and community engagement but also learn the importance of thinking beyond themselves. Your students can stand side-by-side with fellow artists to provide meals, medication, health care, and hope to those in need—using their voices for good.
Join the Broadway Cares movement with a Red Bucket fundraiser in your school. Click here or email education@broadwaycares.org to get started.
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About Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. Drawing upon the talents, resources, and generosity of the American theater community, since 1988, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people living with HIV/AIDS, struggling with COVID-19, and facing other critical illnesses in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the single largest financial supporter of the essential social service programs at the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund), including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative, and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. They also award annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.
Visit the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS website to learn more.
Judi Dench’s Eyesight Keeps Her From Reading, but Not From Books by The New York Times | “They’re snapshots of the past: first-night gifts, holidays abroad, memories of lost friends and loved ones,” the award-winning actress says. Her latest, written with Brendan O’Hea, is “Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent.” Read...
Passing Strange Makes London Premiere Starring Giles Terera by Logan Culwell-Block, Playbill | The 2008 musical by Stew and Heidi Rodewald is playing the Young Vic. Read...
‘Precarity and Burnout’ – Report Shows Impact of Covid on Early Career Workers by Matthew Hemley, The Stage | Half of early career theatre workers do not feel as though they have a long-term future in the sector, findings of a new report into the impact of Covid-19 has found. Read...
South Coast Repertory Unveils 2024-25 Season by Zach Dulli, The Scene | South Coast Repertory has announced an enticing 2024-25 season, promising a captivating blend of world premieres, renowned classics, and cutting-edge contemporary theatre. Read...
How to Get Young People to Theatre? Children’s Theatre Company's Peter Brosius Has Thoughts by Diep Tran, Playbill | The longtime artistic director of the Minneapolis theatre is stepping down after 27 years. Read...
Jordan E. Cooper's ‘Oh Happy Day!’ Sets World Premiere at Baltimore Center Stage by Logan Culwell-Block, Playbill | The Maryland company has revealed its 2024–2025 season. Read...
‘A Wrinkle In Time Musical’ to Premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. by Diep Tran, Playbill | The theatre has unveiled its 2024–2025 season, which includes world premieres from Larissa FastHorse and John Leguizamo. Read...
Free Read of the Week
You can read entire plays for free! Free Reads titles are perfect for your theatre, school, and competition performances. Click on the image or the button below to be taken to the Play’s page; once you are there, click the "READ NOW" button and enjoy!
Not Medea by Allison Gregory
The Story: An exhausted working mother escapes for just one night to the sanctuary of the theatre - except the play is one she desperately doesn't want to watch. As the show goes on, she finds herself drawn from her reality into Medea's, even as she draws the audience into her own raw and surprising personal history. Myth and magic meet searing truths about parenting, love, and desire in this story that begins as Medea - and ends as something else entirely.
Drama | 75 - 80 minutes | 2 W, 1 M | Set: A bed, table, and chair. | Content Notes: Some adult language and themes.
