A new group of producers has stepped up to match $1 million in donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund.
The fund, which is aimed at helping members of the theater community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, has already surpassed $2 million in donations thanks to a previous match pledged by producers including Scott Rudin, Jeffrey Seller and David Stone. Now to bring the fund to the $3 million mark, producers including Sonia Friedman, Mara Isaacs and Kevin McCollum have agreed to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $1 million.
Production company No Guarantees, led by Christine Schwarzman and Darren Johnston, helped start the new match group. The group includes The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, Deborah Barrera/FireMused Productions, Adam Blanshay & André Desmarais, Jamie deRoy, Barry Diller, David Geffen & Scott Rudin, Amanda Dubois, Wendy Federman, Barbara H. Freitag, Sonia Friedman, Getter Entertainment, Mara Isaacs, Junkyard Dog Productions, Kevin McCollum, Fiona Rudin, Jayne Baron Sherman, Allison Thomas, Joop van den Ende and Ken & Liz Whitney.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has already sent four payments of $500,000 from the fund to The Actors Fund, which is allocating the donations to those in need.
The emergency fund began on March 17 with $250,000. In addition to the matching pledge, Lin-Manuel Miranda raised $52,000 during a segment on “The Tonight Show” and $73,000 was raised through a virtual reading of “Lips Together, Teeth Apart.”
