Broadway's charities are so familiar today that it's easy to forget someone had to start them. Many of the institutions at the center of Broadway giving were built, or rebuilt, by women who saw a need and organized the theatre community to meet it.
For Women's History Month, here are some of the women behind Broadway's culture of giving.
Rachel Crothers was one of the most successful American playwrights of the early 20th century, and she directed many of her own plays at a time when few women did. In 1917, as the United States entered World War I, she helped found Stage Women's War Relief. Its members sewed clothing and bandages, ran canteens, collected supplies, and performed for troops.
That group became the foundation of the American Theatre Wing, which still supports theatre today. Read our guide to the American Theatre Wing.
Antoinette Perry was an actress, director, and producer who helped revive the Wing as World War II approached and led it during the war. Under her leadership, the Wing ran the Stage Door Canteen in New York, where Broadway performers served meals and entertained service members.
When Perry died in 1946, the Wing created an award in her honor. The first Antoinette Perry Awards, the Tonys, were presented in 1947.
Isabelle Stevenson led the American Theatre Wing for decades, first as president and later as chair, until her death in 2003. She expanded its education programs and its role in the Tony Awards. Today the Tonys include a special award in her name for humanitarian and charitable work.
During the 1919 Actors' Equity strike, chorus performers organized too. Comic actress Marie Dressler became the first president of Chorus Equity, standing up for some of the lowest-paid performers on Broadway. Read more about Actors' Equity and the 1919 strike.
The founders are only part of the story. Generations of performers, stage managers, wardrobe supervisors, and volunteers have carried red buckets, organized benefit performances, and staffed the programs that make Broadway philanthropy work. Many of Broadway's charities, from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS to the Entertainment Community Fund, depend on that work every season.
What these women share is a belief that theatre people owe something to the wider world, and that the theatre community can organize to deliver it. It's the same tradition we trace in our history of Broadway activism, and one Broadway for Democracy carries into civic life. You can see how the field fits together in our guide to Broadway nonprofits.
It grew out of Stage Women's War Relief, founded in 1917 by Rachel Crothers and other theatre women.
Antoinette Perry, who led the American Theatre Wing during World War II.
A wartime club in New York run by the American Theatre Wing, where Broadway performers served and entertained service members.
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