STORIES

At her memorial service on September 23, 1991, Rodger McFarlane, then the Executive Director of Broadway Cares said, “Colleen Dewhurst was the best friend a person with AIDS could ever hope for.”

And with those few words, a theatre packed with luminaries, award-winning Broadway professionals, politicians, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and fans applauded and cheered the woman whose fierce advocacy, eager kindness, impatience with the status quo and rare courage had in some way touched or moved them all.  They had certainly witnessed Colleen’s great humor and felt the expanse of her heart.  Many undoubtedly were living with AIDS, some in secret, others obviously so.

I’m Tom Viola and I was the co-founder and Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS from 1988-2024.   I was fortunate enough to work with Colleen Dewhurst as her executive assistant at Actors Equity from 1987 until her passing in 1991.

In 1988, Equity Fights AIDS and Broadway Cares first came into being as two separate organizations in the Broadway theater community, created in response to the heartbreak, despair, anger and tremendous loss of the AIDS epidemic.  At that time, there were few in the theater community, on Broadway and indeed working in theaters across the nation who had not seen the panic in someone’s questioning eyes, witnessed the abandonment, held a trembling hand, or offered loving comfort to someone suffering or experiencing the loss of a colleague, dear friend, or precious loved one.

Broadway Cares was founded by a group of Broadway producers and managers to assist and offer modest financial support to the then fledgling social service agencies springing up in New York City across the country in response to government, church, and community indifference to the mounting health crisis of AIDS, perceived as just affecting gay men, but truly cutting a swath through many parts of the community who were often viewed as expendable.

At the same time in 1988, Equity Fights AIDS was created as a committee of Actors Equity, the national union of actors and stage managers of which Colleen Dewhurst had been President since 1985.  Equity Fights AIDS was positioned to raise funds with the Broadway community and beyond to support the then recently established AIDS Initiative of The Actors Fund (now entitled the Entertainment Community Fund).

A brilliant two-time Tony Award winning actress, Colleen dearly loved “the chosen family” created again and again in the professional collaboration and personal connections inherent in any theatrical production.  Now she was deeply distressed and horrified by the early devastation of AIDS within the Broadway community and beyond.  But the steady weakening and ultimate death of a fellow member of the cast of the hit Broadway revival of You Can’t Take It with You, in which she starred, was the moment that compelled her to join in the creation of Equity Fights AIDS.

In its earliest days, Equity Fights AIDS efforts were, at best, modest.   They were the scrappy beginnings of what would become legendary events:  The Broadway Flea Market, the Easter Bonnet Competition, Gypsy of the Year, Broadway Bares, and more.  Events – along with the well-known audience appeals at the end of performances – that today raise millions of dollars.

On August 22, 1991, Colleen Dewhurst passed away at her home in South Salem, Connecticut from cancer, the diagnosis of which she shared with few but family and a small circle of her closest friends.   The Broadway community was shattered by the unexpected news.  Her overlapping circles of friends, colleagues and fans were shocked.  But for those who had borne the relentless brutality of the AIDS epidemic, the heartbreak was overwhelming.

Their hearts had been comforted and filled by the empathy, fierce loyalty, and kindness she brought to all affected.   The seed that had just been planted a few years before she passed by the forming Equity Fights AIDS, now truly took root in her name and began to grow into what was to become a lasting and far-reaching legacy.

In May of 1992, Equity Fights AIDS and Broadway Cares merged to become Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.   This newly created fundraising and grant-making organization took on the missions of its two components.   Since then, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has awarded over $325 million to The Entertainment Community Fund and to more 450 social service agencies in all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico through its now widely recognized National Grants Program.   Most of the organizations funded today by Broadway Cares now have expanded missions – AIDS and other critical illnesses, health care, meals and housing for the underserved – missions that without doubt would deeply please Colleen.

I learned perhaps the most invaluable lessons of my life simply by being a part of Colleen’s for those few years.  They are:  You don’t have to be perfect to make a difference.  Decency is not weakness.  In kindness, there can be found the strength that creates change.  Push back.  Laugh, outloud.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is today often referred to as “the philanthropic heart of Broadway.”  But that heart found its earliest, tentative rhythm from a woman, a brilliant actress, and activist whose own heart knew no bounds, beating fiercely on behalf of those closest to her and many more she would never know.

Thank you, wise, wonderful, and exuberant Colleen Dewhurst.  You are remembered today with love.