About broadway serves
Our mission
Broadway Serves is a NYC based service organization whose mission is to connect theater professionals to volunteer opportunities, locally, nationally, and abroad. We are committed to creating a platform for theater makers to “be the change beyond the stage” by engaging in activities that directly impact the needs of our most vulnerable communities. By partnering with organizations whose missions align with ours, as well as developing socially responsible original programming, we create a bridge between the theater industry and the community at large to address issues of accessibility to basic human rights.
Our Team
Dionne figgins
Co-Founder; Director of Programming
Dionne Figgins has over 24 years of experience as a multi-hyphenate artivist and educator. Her passion for service was born out of a desire to use her art to bring awareness to societal issues and develop a sense of community wherever she goes. Since 2012, she has coordinated many original programs for Broadway Serves including In the Heights Serves VillageCare, Motown Serves Mapplethorpe, Broadway Serves The Children's Aid Society Summer Theater Intensive, and Covenant House Open Mics. In 2021, Ms. Figgins became the Artistic Director of Ballet Tech.
Kimberly Marable
Co-Founder; To Go & Kids Serve Coordinator
Actor and advocate Kimberly Marable has always sought to inspire her peers and the next generation of theater professionals to practice in uplifting humanity. She serves on the Board of Trustees for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and as Eastern Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Entertainment Community Fund's Looking Ahead program, which supports the needs of child performers. For Broadway Serves, Kimberly has facilitated volunteer and service opportunities for a number of touring productions and NYC’s young performers. Kimberly has performed on Broadway, internationally, and on stages across the US.
Carla Martinez
Program Manager
Carla Martinez (she/ella) is a New York based artist, activist, and union leader. A proud queer Afro-Latina, she is incredibly passionate about racial equity and social change within the performing arts and beyond. She serves as an Eastern Principal Councilor and the co-chair of the EEO committee for Actors’ Equity. Onstage, she’s performed off-Broadway and regionally across the country. Carla is also on the teaching roster for Ballet Hispanico’s Community Arts and Partnership Program– the largest Latiné/Hispanic cultural organization in the United States.
Dana Marie Ingraham
Co-Founder Emeritus
Dana Marie Ingraham served as an active organizing Co-founder of Broadway Serves from its inception in 2012 through 2022, helping to build connections with community partners, lead service projects, and develop organizational efforts. Prior to co-founding Broadway Serves, Dana’s volunteer efforts included AmeriCorps' City Year program, and while performing on tour, volunteering with the Cerebral Palsy Center of St. Louis, the St. Patrick Center of St. Louis, and the St. Bernard Project in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a multidisciplinary artist whose career spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, concert dance, national and international tours, film and television, and was awarded as a United States Presidential Scholar of the Arts.
Our story
In April of 2012, co-founders Dionne Figgins, Dana Marie Ingraham, and Kimberly Marable recognized there was a need for a platform for theater professionals to take an active role in social issues and current events. Following an earlier meeting of minds at the Million Hoodie March responding to the murder of Trayvon Martin, they quickly realized that they could create a real opportunity for change; moreover to “be the change beyond the stage” by partnering with service organizations in order to provide volunteer opportunities to their theatrical peers. Plans for upcoming service projects ensued including: NYC AIDS Walk, the SAG Foundation's BookPALS program, the Children's Museum of Manhattan's program with Homes for the Homeless, and City Harvest's Mobile Market produce distribution events, to name a few. August 2012 saw the beginning of the Broadway Serves "To Go" Program, which allows those in national touring companies and working at regional theaters across the country, to serve the community wherever their show may be. . By January 2013, Broadway Serves’ impact was worldwide, with volunteers having served communities in Canada, St. Maarten, and volunteer efforts having had an impact as far as Uganda. After a year in service, Broadway Serves was invited to join the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS community as an affiliate organization. In July 2014, the Kids Serve program was born, providing theater’s brightest (and youngest) stars with age-appropriate volunteer opportunities for those under the age of 18. By 2019, Broadway Serves had partnered with close to 100 organizations in over 60 different cities across the globe and served alongside hundreds of Broadway Serves volunteers. In 2020, the world was rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly impacted Broadway Serves’ ability to safely participate in community service opportunities. Like many organizations, the pandemic forced us to further reflect on how we engage in the community. With our ability to serve communities in person all but shuttered, we re-directed our team's funds to organizations whom we had partnered with in years past, and hosted donation based service opportunities through Zoom. Following the pandemic shut-down, we sought to find a new perspective and re-engage the theater community in acts of service in a post-pandemic world. During this time, Dana Marie Ingraham made the difficult decision to complete her tenure as an active organizing member of our founding team, as extenuating circumstances required her efforts for matters closer to home. Remaining co-founders Dionne and Kimberly invited Carla Martinez to join the Broadway Serves Team as a Program Manager, and they set about the goal of reintroducing themselves to the theater community. Currently, Broadway Serves offers a line up of monthly service opportunities in New York City with St. Luke's Soup Kitchen, Breaking Ground, God’s Love We Deliver, and other organizations; hosts Kids Serve events throughout the year; and is working to remount their “To-Go” program with several touring productions throughout the country. We are thrilled that for over 10 years the theater professionals of Broadway Serves have been agents for change in the New York City, national, and global communities by way of volunteerism.