BC/EFA Annual Report 2004 - Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS
NATIONAL SUPPORT
A strong commitment to BC/EFA extends far beyond New York City. In regional, stock, and dinner
theatres across the country, as well as in cities that play host to Broadway’s national touring shows, casts come together as they do in
New York to raise funds continually for BC/EFA.
Broadway’s national tours are BC/EFA’s ambassadors on the road. Without the added administrative expense of official chapters
in cities across the country, BC/EFA is able to raise funds through autographed poster sales and curtain speeches as companies travel.
These efforts raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year and are an important piece of the financial support BC/EFA provides
through the National Grants Program to many AIDS service organizations in the very cities visited by the national tours as they wind
their way across the country. These special appeals have been made by such touring shows as 42nd Street, A Few Good Men Dancin’, Aida,
Beauty and the Beast, Blue Man Group, Chicago, Flower Drum Song, Hairspray, Jesus Christ, Superstar, Les Misérables, Mamma Mia!, Movin’ Out, The Phantom
of the Opera, The Lion King, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Urinetown.
Cast members from many tours go to the added effort of presenting special cabaret evenings in local clubs of theatres, the
proceeds of which are then shared with local AIDS organizations and BC/EFA. However you measure it, the generous efforts of our
friends on the road amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars that go back through BC/EFA to local AIDS service organizations
nationwide.
Fourteen years ago, the first “Equity Fights AIDS Week” was declared. What was then the Equity Fights AIDS Committee sent
letters to every equity theatre asking that an appeal be made during Thanksgiving Week. That first year brought in over $70,000 from
a few dozen theatres. Over the years, more local theatres joined in what turned into annual efforts, and in 1992, EFA Week became
BC/EFA Week, a fundraising tradition which continues to this day. More importantly, over time, many regional theatres became
allied with their local AIDS service organizations, raising funds for them as the national tours do for BC/EFA. Some theatres
continue to do both. The Actors’ Playhouse at The Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables, FL; the Sacramento Theatre Company, CA;
the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, MA; Portland Center Stage, OR; Syracuse Stage, NY; Actor’s Theater of Louisville, KY;
Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park, OH; Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA; Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, PA; North
Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA; Connecticut’s Goodspeed Opera House, Charlotte Repertory Theatre, NC; Arena Stage in
Washington, DC; Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta, GA; New Jersey’s Papermill Playhouse, and Hartford Stage, CT are just a
few of BC/EFA’s stalwart supporters across the country. Our thanks go out to each and all.
One of BC/EFA’s greatest ongoing national supporters is the Carousel Dinner Theatre in Akron, Ohio. In 2004, seven of its musical productions raised over $41,000!
(Miss Saigon is pictured); The Merry Go-Round Theatre’s production of Show Boat in Auburn, New York raised $1,535; the smash hit production of
Smokey Joe’s Café at the Oqunquit Playhouse in Maine raised over $14,000 during the course of its summer run. Jacques Brel at the Stuart Street Playhouse
in Boston raised more than $1,000.
national support
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