At the Educational Theatre Foundation (ETF), strengthening student experiences and increasing access to theatre is a year-round commitment. One of the newest ways that impact is growing is through a partnership with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the philanthropic arm of the Broadway community.
At Thespian Festivals around the country, that partnership is turning the same red buckets Broadway audiences recognize from theatre lobbies—and tables of Broadway memorabilia—into something bigger: a hands-on lesson in care, community, and advocacy for young theatre artists.
ETF chatted with Broadway Cares Philanthropy & Community Engagement Officer Nick Mayo to reflect on the organization, how the partnership has taken shape, and why working with Thespians feels like investing directly into the future of theatre.
The Story Behind the Red Buckets
For 12 weeks out of the year, Broadway Cares mobilizes the entire Broadway community—onstage, backstage, and front of house—to show to support colleagues and neighbors in need. That tradition began in 1988, at the height of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, when Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS emerged as a support system for theatre artists facing a growing health crisis.
As treatments evolved, their work expanded from supporting access to antiretroviral medication to funding organizations that provide healthy meals and housing, and later stepping in with emergency assistance during events like the California wildfires, Hurricane Maria, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Broadway Cares + ETF
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A Partnership at Thespian Festivals
Today, that impact extends to Thespian Festivals around the country through a partnership with ETF. Mayo has attended festivals in Georgia, Florida, and the biggest festival of all, the International Thespian Festival, with the aim of creating a connection with students. The Broadway Cares and ETF initiative is bringing the Broadway Flea Market experience to 28 chapter events and many additional district and school-based events as well. At each stop, the partnership looks and feels the same: a shared booth, student Thespian representatives, and materials that connect students’ love of Broadway to a broader culture of care.
Mayo describes these spaces as intentionally immersive. “I’m a kid of the 90s and we would go to CD shops and just spend hours going through CDs and records,” he said. “It feels nostalgic because these young students have the opportunity to dig through playbills and posters and merchandise and things from Broadway shows they love so much.”
That experience quickly turns into community.
“It’s a gathering place. They grab their lunch and come to the table and dig through things and socialize,” he said. “The fundraising is lovely and essential, of course…but the secret is that we’re also building community.”
Students often linger at the table, comparing what they’ve found, swapping playbills, and sharing stories about favorite shows. For Mayo, those small interactions are as meaningful as the dollars raised.
“Making them understand that a dollar in a red bucket or a purchase of a playbill or a poster, that that’s not just the purchase of a poster, that’s life-saving medication or a healthy meal,” he said.
In the case of school theatre programs around the country, that impact is similar says ETF Director Janie Slavens. “Every dollar raised through this partnership for ETF goes straight into educator and program grants for under-resourced and Title I schools,” she said. “Even $5 can be the difference between an empty stage and a class of middle schoolers stepping into the light in a show they’ll never forget.”
Over the past two years, Broadway Cares and ETF have raised approximately $70,000 through this shared work at Thespian events. Mayo broke that down into simple terms: 28,000 healthy meals served to someone who is suffering from food insecurity, 14,000 grocery bags, or a year’s worth of antiretroviral for 280 people. For ETF, that same support has helped fund 50 educator and program grants—supporting productions, equipment upgrades, and professional development—reaching more than 15,000 students and launching 30 new Thespian troupes serving nearly 2,500 theatre kids nationwide.
Empowering Thespians to Make a Difference
For ETF and Broadway Cares, the partnership isn’t only about how much is raised; it’s about who students are becoming in the process and the kind of theatre culture they’ll help shape in the years ahead.
“By the time they’re here and in Broadway shows or working behind stage or working wardrobe on a show… it’s part of who they are,” he said. “It really does become the bedrock of who you are… this service minded, giving back principle.”
That belief is grounded in a broader case for arts education. “These teachers do this work because they love the work and because they have seen that arts education is transformative,” he said. “It can give confidence where confidence didn’t exist. It can give voice to someone who hasn’t found their voice. It can give problem solving. It gives community, but it also gives the gift of creativity.” For Mayo, that transformation reaches beyond individual classrooms and into the future of the field itself. “The importance of arts education is paramount to a continued society, because as we know, the artists are the reflection of the society they live in,” he said.
“We know that theatre kids can change the world,” says Slavens. “ETF is delighted to partner with Broadway Cares to give our Thespians a tangible place to start enacting change for issues they care about. By working together, Broadway Cares and ETF are making a meaningful difference in both the professional artist community and the world of educational theatre.”
Looking Ahead: A Community Waiting for Them
Through this partnership, Thespians are discovering that the Broadway community they dream about is not a distant destination. It’s already reaching back toward them in festival hallways, at tables piled with playbills, and in every red bucket they choose to hold.
When asked what he wants students to know before they step up to the booth, Mayo’s answer was simple and direct: “I would want them to know. Come step up to the booth. And learn about a community that is waiting for you. And we can’t do it without you. And you are enough.”