In a moment when many Americans feel disconnected from civic life, one truth remains powerful: people are more likely to participate when they feel they belong.
Belonging doesn’t begin with policy debates or political identity, but with shared experience — moments when individuals gather, listen, react, and feel something together. Long before someone votes, volunteers, or engages civically, they first need to feel connected to a community larger than themselves.
Live theater has always done exactly that.
Across the country, participation in civic life is declining. But disengagement is often less about apathy and more about alienation. Many people feel overwhelmed, unheard, or unsure where they fit within the civic landscape, or unable to relate to candidates in elections.
Civic belonging is the antidote to that disconnection. When people feel they matter — when they feel included rather than excluded — they are more likely to stay engaged. Belonging creates the emotional foundation that makes participation possible.
Without belonging, civic life can feel distant or unimportant.
Shared cultural experiences are one of the most effective ways to foster that sense of belonging. When people gather around art, music, or storytelling, they experience something collective without being asked to agree or align.
Research consistently links shared cultural participation to increased empathy, trust, and social cohesion. These are not political outcomes; they are social ones. And they are essential prerequisites for healthy civic participation.
Civic engagement, at its core, is relational. It grows out of connection, not coercion or fear.
Live theater is uniquely powerful in this regard. When the lights dim and a curtain rises, strangers become an audience. People laugh together, cry together, sit in silence together, and reflect together.
In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms and fragmentation, theater remains one of the few spaces where people across generations, backgrounds, and beliefs occupy the same room with the same focus. Differences don’t disappear, but in these spaces, they seem to matter less. Humanity comes forward when we find a shared space or common ground.
And that collective presence matters. It reminds audiences that participation doesn’t require uniformity, but simply presence.
We all know that people need to feel grounded in something shared before they are willing to step forward. When individuals feel connected to others, they are more likely to seek information, remain curious, and engage with the world around them. The shift from audience member to civic participant doesn’t require persuasion, but invitation and perhaps a nudge of inspiration
Broadway — and live theater more broadly — occupies a rare position in American life. It's national in reach, recurring in attendance, and deeply trusted. Millions of people gather each year not to be told what to think, but to feel, reflect, and connect.
In an era of institutional skepticism, division and political tension, cultural spaces remain among the most credible and welcoming environments for civic learning and engagement. Broadway reaches people where they already are.
This makes it a uniquely responsible place to support civic belonging without partisanship, pressure or judgement.
Civic engagement requires connection and a sense of duty. It asks people to stay present, remain curious, and recognize themselves as part of a shared story.
Before someone becomes a voter, a volunteer, or an engaged citizen, they are first a member of an audience — listening, learning, and belonging to the community around them.
That is where civic engagement begins.
And that is the bridge Broadway for Democracy exists to build.
