Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) has established an advisory council and a board of directors.
This announcement marks the first formal governing bodies of the 17-year-old industry initiative dedicated to educating, motivating and inspiring the theater community to implement environmentally friendlier practices.
“Demand for our programs has exploded, and it was clear we needed a stronger foundation to expand our reach and impact,” BGA director Molly Braverman told Broadway News of the announcement.
That foundation will come from personnel representing all corners of the industry. The advisory council will comprise performers Nicole Ansari-Cox, Leon Addison Brown, Kerry Butler, LaChanze, Brian Cox, Jenn Gambatese, Montego Glover and Idina Menzel, producers Sue Frost, Miranda Gohh, Tom Kirdahy and David Stone, director Kenny Leon, choreographer Luis Salgado, composers Marc Shaiman and Shaina Taub, stage manager Sarah G. Harris and wardrobe supervisor Abbey Rayburn Hirons.
Additionally, the council will include Producer Hub’s programming director Dani Barlow, Museum of Broadway co-founder and executive producer Julie Boardman, Ambassador Theatre Group executive vice president and Broadway League board chair Kristin Caskey, Shubert Organization executive vice president Charles Flateman, Disney Theatrical Group managing director Andrew Flatt, Steppenwolf Theatre Company co-founder Terry Kinney, 2025 BGA College Green Captain Award recipient Juliette Maners, IATSE Green Committee chair Stasia Savage and Times Square Alliance vice president of communications TJ Witham.
The council will also have representation from outside the Broadway industry, specifically Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice founder Catherine Coleman Flowers, New York Senator and chair of the New York State Senate Finance Committee Liz Krueger, University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media director Michael Mann and U.S. Youth Climate Strike co-founder and Earth Uprising founder Alexandra Villaseñor.
The BGA board of directors will be led by co-chairs Charlie Deull (executive vice president of Clark Transfer) and Colleen Jennings-Roggensack (vice president for cultural affairs at ASU and executive director at ASU Gammage and recipient of a 2024 Tony Award Honor for Excellence in the Theatre). Board members will include performers Mara Davi and Anika Larsen, director and educator David Alpert, Situation Group founder and president Damian Bazadona, Climate Action Now president Tim Guinee, Second Stage Theater director of operations Jim Joseph, company manager Susan Sampliner, Nederlander Organization vice president of production and touring Christina Selby and John Gore Organization (parent organization of Broadway News) president and Broadway League past chair Lauren Reid.
BGA was founded in 2008 as an ad hoc committee of the Broadway League and became a fiscally sponsored program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in 2010. Since BGA’s inception, the Natural Resources Defense Council has served as its environmental advisor. While BGA has been an inimitable part of the industry for years, the establishment of the council and board allows the organization to strengthen its scope, reach and capacity.
“Until now, we have operated on a shoe-string budget, primarily with part-time staff and an extraordinary group of volunteers,” said Braverman. “We believe that our new board and council will give us the foundation to sustainably fund our operations and programs, ensuring they remain accessible to the entire community, while also opening doors and offering insights that will help us expand our mission and have an even greater impact.”
This announcement has been a long time in the making. BGA started the process of building the board in 2021. “We designed our structure to be iterative, with each wave of members helping to bring in the next, making sure the board reflects the full diversity of our community,” Braverman explained of the process. “Once the board was in place, they launched the advisory council with that same spirit. It’s still growing, with new members joining through ongoing conversations.”
The inclusion of the aforementioned climate leaders from outside the Broadway ecosystem was a timely necessity. “This moment is also so much bigger than us — the climate crisis is here, and the transition to a clean energy future and healthier planet is suffering devastating setbacks,” Braverman said. “That’s why we believe it’s time for the BGA to grow within the theater community, and for the theater community to play an even bigger role in building a sustainable world. We believe that our new board and council — leaders in their fields and deeply committed to this work — are ready to meet this moment and help enable this change.”
Immediate next steps for BGA include determining specific goals and strategy for the near future.
“Our community has called on us to grow, to deepen our impact in areas we’ve already been serving, and to expand into new areas where we can support artists and audiences in going even further,” Braverman added. “Now that our new board and council are in place, we will develop benchmarks that ensure the theater community makes increasingly meaningful progress.”
