The number had never had a comma in that position before. The Dramatists Guild Foundation raised $1,012,596 in gross contributions at its gala on Monday, October 19, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, passing $1 million for the first time in the event’s history, and it raised the money for the people Broadway pays last and argues about most: playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists.
The foundation, founded in 1962, pays for the unglamorous parts of a writing life. Its programs give theater writers emergency grants, fellowships, educational opportunities, and free writing space in Midtown Manhattan. The gala theme this year, “The Ripple,” made the case it always makes, that money put behind one writer travels outward into productions and audiences for years. Hosted by playwright Jocelyn Bioh and presented by Creative Partners Productions with leading sponsorship from Concord Theatricals, the evening honored producer Sue Frost, financial advisor R. Patrick Morrow, and playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
The honoree who once needed the grant
Jacobs-Jenkins gave the program its center. He told the room that DGF assistance helped him reach financial stability early in his career and pursue the next stage, including applying to the Juilliard School, where his mentors included Marsha Norman, Christopher Durang, and Jim Houghton. Harry Lennix performed a monologue from Purpose, the play that won Jacobs-Jenkins the Pulitzer Prize. Then the honoree turned the gratitude into a challenge. “It takes time. It takes dedication. It takes love. And it takes support,” he said. “So thank you, and all I ask is that the next time you see that a show recoups, I’d like you to ask the writer if they recouped.”
Frost, presented by director Christopher Ashley, described the foundation’s work in practical terms. “Emergency grants, the Fellows Program, free space to work, collaborate, and create in Midtown Manhattan. These are invaluable lifelines for writers,” she said. Barbara Olcott presented Morrow’s honor, and Bioh presented Jacobs-Jenkins’s.
A second million, given separately
The gala total was not the night’s only seven-figure news. The Roe Green Foundation has made a $1 million commitment to DGF, separate from the gala fundraising, and executive director Rachel Routh now carries the title Roe Green Executive Director for the duration of the Foundation’s ten-year commitment. Green, a theater patron often called the Fairy Godmother of the Arts, has given to DGF for years: her earlier $125,000 matching gift was the largest individual gift in the organization’s history at the time, and she has watched its annual operating budget grow from about $600,000 to about $3 million. Board member C. Graham Berwind III added a $100,000 match to the evening’s paddle raise, which Lucas Hunt led.
The performances kept returning to writers at the start of their careers. Jasmine Amy Rogers opened with “I Cain’t Say No” from Oklahoma!, written by DGF founding member Richard Rodgers with Oscar Hammerstein II, and when audio feedback cut into the song she paused, adjusted the speaker herself, and started again while the audience cheered. Erin Morton drew a standing ovation with “I Will Always Love You.” Stephen Schwartz presented the Stephen Schwartz Award to Joriah Kwamé, a 2022-2023 DGF Fellow, and Todd London recognized the nine 2025-26 National Fellows from the stage. Original cast members of Spring Awakening closed the night with “Touch Me,” a song from a show whose writers the foundation’s model exists to catch early.
A million dollars will not settle the question Jacobs-Jenkins put to the room. Writers still sign contracts that can leave them outside the profits of their own hit. What the evening proved is narrower and useful: the organization built to stand behind those writers can now fill a ballroom and pass $1 million in a night, twice over if the Roe Green commitment is counted, and it got there by insisting that the check is part of the art.
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