In order to allow shows the space to prioritize resuming performances safely, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ traditional in-theatre red bucket appeals will be on hiatus until next year. That means the audience favorite Red Bucket Follies will not take place in 2021, after also being canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
However, the Easter Bonnet Competition is already on the calendar for April 25-26, 2022. A virtual fundraiser, The Red Bucket Match-Up, served as a sort-of replacement for both Red Bucket Follies and Easter Bonnet Competition earlier this year.
“The priority for the theatre community this fall is to carefully and safely resume its eight-shows-a-week schedule in front of enthusiastic, vaxxed and masked audiences with all the appropriate backstage protocols,” said Broadway Cares Executive Director Tom Viola. “If productions are interested in ad hoc fundraising efforts for Broadway Cares this fall during the six-week window permitted by theatre owners and producers, we stand ready to help facilitate those initiatives, knowing that the safety and viability of the shows are of paramount importance.”
The appeals typically take place twice a year, at the height of spring and fall, during six weeks of fundraising by Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring productions.
Despite the fundraising hiatus, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ grant-making will continue. Recently, Broadway Cares awarded $3 million to The Actors Fund, the first payment of a minimum $5.45 million commitment for fiscal year 2022. Since March 2021, Broadway Cares has awarded $18.95 million to The Actors Fund in support of its social service programs like the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund, Every Artist Insured, the HIV/AIDS Initiative, and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts.
Broadway Cares also provided $4.98 million in grants to 424 social and medical service agencies in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico through its National Grants Program. In January 2022, the organization will continue its national grant-making efforts with regularly scheduled awards to food service and meal delivery programs across the country, the first of three annual grant rounds.
