BC/EFA Annual Report 2005 - Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

oadway cares/equity fights aids
INTERNATIONAL
GRANTS
over the last few years, a number of broadway shows originating overseas or with
foreign-born actors in their casts have participated generously in BC/EFA’s six weeks of audience appeals prior to the Gypsy of the Year
and Easter Bonnet competitions.
In appreciation of their enthusiastic efforts, BC/EFA grants a portion of the funds raised by these companies to AIDS service
organizations in their native countries. These foreign charities are chosen and introduced to BC/EFA by the company members
involved. Once their charitable status has been officially established by BC/EFA, a grant in the name of the company is wired
overseas.
The first of these international grants was a $5,000 donation made by BC/EFA to West End Cares (renamed Theatrecares
in 2002), our sister theatre-based AIDS fundraising organization in London, in honor of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s
production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that participated in the 1996 Easter Bonnet Competition.
Since then, many performers from Broadway companies originating in London have very generously participated in BC/EFA’s
fundraising efforts. These include: Sir Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren (The Dance of Death), Dame Judi Dench and Samantha Bond
(Amy’s View), Petula Clark (the national tour of Sunset Boulevard), Sian Phillips (An Inspector Calls and Marlene), Alan Cumming and
Natasha Richardson (Cabaret), Patrick Stewart (The Tempest), as well as the companies of Matthew Bourne’s Play Without Words and Swan
Lake, Closer, Art, An Ideal Husband and many others. BC/EFA has also granted funds in the name of producers Bill Kenwright and Sir
Cameron Mackintosh for their committed and ongoing support.
Grants have also been made to The Actors’ Fund of Canada in honor of the Canadian actors in the first national touring
company of Mamma Mia!, Oz Showbiz Cares in honor of Baz Luhrmann’s Broadway production of La Bohemè and Hugh Jackman and
the cast of Broadway’s The Boy from Oz, and Om Sakthi Narayani in honor of the cast of Bombay Dreams.
The International Grants Program has expanded over the past eight years, most notably in grants made to South African AIDS
service organizations in appreciation for the efforts of the South African members of the Broadway and touring productions of The
Lion King. Since 1998, BC/EFA has sent over $1.2 million to 34 South African AIDS service providers in honor of and identified
by the South African actors in three companies of The Lion King.
Photos sent from our friends in South Africa who have benefited from grants made in honor of the companies of Disney’s The Lion King: children from
Ethembeni Community Center in Springs, SA; one of the Thembalethu Beaders in Johannesburg working on handmade animals and crafts to be sold as part of fundraising efforts
at The Lion King; a woman cares for two orphaned babies at the Malawi Children’s Village in Malawi, SA; preparing a meal at the Khanya Women’s Center in Kwa-Thema, SA;
Ron Kunene and Tshidi Manyi of the Broadway company of The Lion King announce BC/EFA’s South African efforts to the audience at The Easter Bonnet Competition.
international grants
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