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

oadway cares/equity fights aids
NATIONAL
SUPPORT
across the country, fundraising efforts on behalf of bc/efa have grown
substantially in the past several years. In regional, stock, and dinner theatres across the country, as well as in cities that play host to
Broadway’s national touring shows, casts collaborate to raise funds for BC/EFA year-round.
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 cities visited by the
national tours as they wind their way across the country. Appeals have been made by such touring shows as 42nd Street, Blue Man Group,
Big River, Chicago, Evita, Hairspray, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Les Misérables, Little Shop of Horrors, Mamma Mia!,
Movin’ Out, Peter Pan, Riverdance, The King and I, The Lion King, The Phantom of the Opera, The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie and White Christmas.
Cast members from many tours go to the added effort of presenting special cabaret evenings in local clubs or theatres, the
proceeds of which are then shared with local AIDS organizations and BC/EFA. 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.
Fifteen 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 Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY; San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre;
The Carousel Dinner Theatre in Akron, OH; The Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, KY; The Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little
Rock; Coral Gables, FL’s Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Boston’s Charles Playhouse; North Shore Musical Theatre in
Beverly, MA; The Pittsburgh Public Theatre; The Boarshead Theatre in Lansing, MI; Capitol Repertory Theatre in Albany, NY;
Seaside Music Theatre in New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre; Triad Stage Company in Greensboro, NC, and Ohio’s Cincinnati
Playhouse in the Park are just a few of BC/EFA’s stalwart supporters across the country. Our thanks go out to the theatre community
nationwide for its efforts on our behalf.
national support
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