Brian Stokes Mitchell doesn’t stop working. The Broadway icon and activist is preparing for a new star-studded PBS special, 20 Years of Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir, while also participating as the Chairman of The Actors Fund, working on the board of Americans for the Arts, and changing theater with fellow co-founders of Black Theater United. “Someone asked me, “How are you doing? Are you working?” Stokes Mitchell said in our interview. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve never worked so hard even when I was getting paid for it.’”
Beginning Monday, December 13 through December 25, PBS and BYUtv will air the Christmas special featuring performances from the past two decades by Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Angela Lansbury, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, and many others.These arejuxtaposed againstintimate performances and storytelling by Stokes Mitchell, which were taped last December inan empty 21,000 seat Conference Center on Temple Square. This will also mark The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s first-ever all virtual performance. Ahead of the special, we caught up with Stokes Mitchell to discuss this upcoming presentation and his work with The Actors Fund and Black Theater United.
You have your hands in so many different things, from this new PBS special to the vast charity work you do. How do you manage it all?
Precariously! It’s been a little tough. I do a lot of volunteer work, too. I’m on three boards—Black Theater United, The Actors Fund, and lastly, Americans For the Arts, as well. On top of everything, and getting this show out and doing multiple concerts and working on television and doing Crossovers Live!, I’m also going through the college applications with my son who’s in the 12th grade now. It’s a lot.
Ahead of this special, you accepted a check from the Tabernacle Choir for $100,000 in support of The Actors Fund. Can you talk me through how important this is for you, and how it will help with the work that you do with the organization?
It’s going to help immensely because these have been some really tough times. The Actors Fund, it’s not just for actors. It’s for anybody working in the show business or performing arts. And our sector’s gotten hit particularly hard. Theater was one of the first to go down [during the pandemic]. And we were the last ones to come back. And most people are not big, famous, multi-billion-dollar picture actors. Most people are gig workers, going from job to job, to job, and really living on the edge. A lot of people moved from New York, or Los Angeles, or the cities where they would normally work. A lot of people’s secondary jobs were disappearing. With many performers, their secondary jobs are working in restaurants, or maybe bartending. And the restaurants and bars were closed as well. So, it has been devastating to people. This $100,000 check is going to help us to help other people in our industry. We have our Emergency Assistance Fund at The Actors Fund, which normally gives out $2 million a year to about 1,500 people. In the last 20 months, we’re already up to $24 million to about more than 17,000 people. And that’s for people’s most essential things, food, paying the rent, buying insurance, buying their prescriptions. You can see how many people are in need. This check will really be useful.
Your activism has created such an impact within the theater community, but you also have an illustrious career as a performer. Can you talk to me about how you blend both acting and activism?
Here’s the deal, I’ve been doing this now for about 50 years professionally. I always call myself “the luckiest actor in the world” because it’s all I’ve done. I didn’t have to wait tables or have to take a second job. I’ve always been able to support myself and make a living performing, doing voiceover work, or concerts. I always say, “If the universe has been good to you, when the universe asks you to give back, you say yes.” And that’s why I’m involved in groups like The Actors Fund and Black Theater United and Americans For the Arts. If you’re feeling down, the best way to counteract that is to help somebody else. There’s always somebody else worse off than you, that will need assistance in some way, needs something, needs a helping hand, sometimes money, or whatever. And so, this has actually been therapeutic to me, in this time that I haven’t been working as well. When the pandemic started, Allison, my wife, and I were about to open Love Life at City Center. The theater closed four days before it was supposed to open. I had concerts, all of my concerts over the next probably eight to ten months were canceled. I was working on a television show, as a recurring character, that was canceled. And I had a film that was going on. Some of them have since gotten picked up. The film that I was working on, was tick, tick… BOOM! at that time. They asked me to do that. And then that got waylaid as well. So literally all four aspects of show business, I got hit in all of those places. It was good therapy for me to help other people.
You were a former guest member of this choir. How did it feel to be a part of this holiday celebration?
I just felt very fortunate that they asked me. This is a 20-year retrospective of the choir. It’s been on PBS, and is their top-rated holiday show every year, pretty much. And I just felt really honored because when I was taping the show, there was nobody there. I started having conversations with them and they were thinking about doing a show with an empty theater. And so, I started getting into conversations about what the show could be, and they were talking about me hosting it. And so basically, I give everybody a tour of this empty 21,000 seat theater. The nice part about it is because it’s the 20-year retrospective, it’s like a highlights reel from the last 20 years. And there have been some incredible performers. There have been people from Broadway, from opera, from pop music. Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, all kinds of genres performing there. It’s also a two-hour special, as normally it’s a one-hour show. I was really moved just watching it. I’ve been watching the progress, over the last number of months that we’ve been doing it, and every time I see it, something moves me to tears in some surprising way. It’s something to watch if you want to feel good.
Black Theater United has been doing some incredible work these days. Can you talk to me about the work that you do with the organization?
The main thing that we’ve been working on for a very long time was the New Deal, which came out three months ago now. We were able to gather all of the producers, theater owners, designers, directors, and actors. It was, I believe, the first time all of these groups had ever gotten together in a room to meet and talk about something, work on a common problem and challenge, which was EDI in live theater. We were going from a commercial theater standpoint, but have been working on it from a regional theater standpoint also. We’re really starting to take care of the entire industry. We have a mentorship committee. We were working with Williamstown Theater Festival, and bringing Black artists that are starting out to be mentored there. I just had a meeting about how we can continue this sort of mentorship. We’re going to continue with our town halls and discussions. There is good news and bad news. The good news is we’re working again. So, we don’t have the time that we had, so much. The bad news is, we’re working again. It’s bad news because since we started in June of last year and formed, our founding members have been the staff, and the board, and have been on the committees, and have been doing all of this work alone. We’re just starting to be able to pass it off to other people as well, and it’s just coming in time.
A part of the New Deal, a couple of theater owners agreed to rename a theater after a Black playwright. Can you give a little more information about that and how that will come to be?
That’s what we’re putting together now. I know all of the theater owners because we got to meet with everybody. That was my committee, actually, when we were doing the New Deal. Everybody was with a different group and my group included NaTasha Yvette Williams and Audra McDonald, and we were tasked with working with the theater owners. The renaming was one of the things that we discussed. Jujamcyn already has the August Wilson Theatre, so the Shuberts and the Nederlanders have committed to all also naming a theater after a Black theater artist. And so that’s part of the process that everybody’s going through right now. It’s really exciting, because as you know, and I know, Black artists have been at the forefront of what is happening in music, and dance, and theater. Just Audra alone! But, I think they’re going to want to name the theater after somebody who’s passed on, perhaps. But I’m really excited to see there are conversations going on about “Who do you name the theater after?” and all that. I’m just glad to see forward motion on it all.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Photo credits to Intellectual Reserve Inc.
Privacy Policy
Last updated and effective as of January 14, 2019
Introduction and Your Acceptance of These Terms
Broadway Direct ("Us", "We", "Our") knows that your personal information is very important to you, and We respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how your personal information is collected, used, and protected and the choices available to you with respect to Our handling of your data. This Policy applies to all visitors to Broadway Direct.com, Our mobile services, services available via telephone, and those transactions that take place in person, by postal or electronic mail. (Collectively, the "Site"), including ticket sales, comments on articles, and any information provided to Us.. By visiting this website, you consent and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and to the collection, use and storage of your information by Us. From time to time, We may change this Privacy Policy. When We do, the “Last Updated” line above will be revised. You are responsible for regularly reviewing this Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this Site following the posting of a changed Privacy Policy indicates your acceptance of the changes. Unless We provide you with specific notice, no changes to Our Privacy Policy will apply retroactively. Please also refer to our Terms of Use and Lottery Terms & Conditions. If you require any more information or have any questions about Our privacy policy, please feel free to contact Us by email at [email protected].
Information We Collect
Information we collect directly from you: Your provision of your personal information to Us is completely voluntary; it is not a statutory or contractual requirement. Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) is information that is uniquely identifiable to you, such as your name, address, email address, phone number, credit card number and other personal information that is not otherwise publicly available. Certain features of Our website may require that you provide Us with your personal information, including:
Contests/Sweepstakes
Surveys
Newsletter Sign-Up
Mobile Alert Sign-Up (SMS)
Contact Us (email)
Public forums (e.g. message boards)
E-commerce (ticket purchases)
To use these features, We may require you to provide your email address, mobile number, name and/or address and certain demographic information. When you give Us PII to use the features above, you expressly consent to Our collection, storage, use and disclosure of this information as described in this Privacy Policy. We may use your personal information to communicate with you about:
Your use of any of the features above;
New content on Our website;
New contests;
Prize information;
News that We think may interest you about Us;
Responses to your questions/comments to us; and
Information relating to a ticket purchase.
We may use your demographic information for in house statistics, advertising and marketing target information. Our processing of your personal information is necessary for the performance and fulfillment of the contract between us and to provide you with Our services. We will also process, transfer, disclose and preserve personal information when We have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary, to resolve disputes, enforce our agreements and otherwise required by law. You can always opt-out of receiving future promotional communications from Us; see the Choice/Opt-out section below.Information We Collect Automatically: Even if you don’t use any of the features above, when you visit Our website, We may collect certain information about you.
From your Browser. For example, Our servers keep an activity log that tracks all visitors to the website. The information in the activity log does not identify you individually. The information collected may include among other data: your IP address, your registered domain or home server, time of access, date of access, web page(s) visited, number of clicks, software crash reports, type of browser used, session identification number, search terms, search results, access times and referring website’s address. We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with Our server and to administer Our website. Your IP address is also used to gather broad demographic information, such as country of origin and geographic location. We use such data in the aggregate to run internal analyses to improve upon your experience on Our website.
Cookies. “Cookies” are small text files that are stored on your computer and record your preferences when you visit certain online pages. Our website uses cookies to track your use of the site and its features and links. If you provide Us with personal information, cookies may be linked to that information. We may use cookies to control the display of ads, to track usage patterns on the sites, to deliver editorial content, to record requests for subscriptions and to personalize information. Our cookies may contain PII and such cookies may be shared with others to the same extent indicated in below in the section regarding “Information Collected By/Shared With Third Parties”. We (or third party service providers on Our behalf) may also use cookies to collect aggregate information about web site users on an anonymous basis (“Anonymous Information”). We may share aggregate demographic and usage information with Our prospective and actual business partners, advertisers and other third parties for any business purpose.
You may occasionally get cookies from third parties with links on Our website. We do not control these cookies, and these cookies are not subject to Our Privacy Policy. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but, if you prefer, you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. Please note, if you chose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of Our Site. If you need help with this, contact Us at [email protected]. For more information on cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information provided by the Interactive Advertising Bureau at www.allaboutcookies.org.
Tracking Tags (also known as “web beacons,” “action tags” or “single-pixel gifs”). Our website may also use tracking tags. Tracking tags are invisible graphics embedded in the pages of Our website that are programmed to collect non-personal information about your use of Our website. Like cookies, tracking tags provide overall usage patterns for Our website that We use for analysis and to provide personalized services and advertising content.
We comply with the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising set forth by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). You can opt-out of targeted advertising from certain providers at www.aboutads.info/consumers.
How We Use Your Personal Information
The personal information We collect allows Us to keep you posted on updates to Broadway Direct. It also helps Us to improve Our services, content, and advertising. If you don’t want to be on Our email list, you can opt out anytime by clicking the “unsubscribe” button or sending an unsubscribe email to [email protected]. From time to time, We may use your personal information to send transactional emails, such as communications about purchases and changes to Our terms, conditions, and policies. Because this information is important to your interaction with Broadway Direct, you may not opt out of receiving these communications. We may also use personal information for internal purposes such as auditing, data analysis, and research to improve Broadway Direct’s services, and customer communications. If you enter into a sweepstakes, contest, or similar promotion We may use the information you provide to administer those programs.
Information Collected By/Shared With Third Parties
Other than as provided in this Privacy Policy, we do not share your personal information with third parties.
Advertising. We partner with advertising companies who may use information from cookies and the tracking tags they place on our website to provide you with targeted advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to you based on your use of our website and to track the effectiveness of ads served to you. These advertising company partners may anonymously track your Internet usage across other websites in their networks beyond our website. Any information that these advertising companies collect via cookies and tracking tags is generally not personally identifiable (unless, for example, you provide personal information to them through an ad or email message). You are welcome to browse the site in private/incognito mode, which means cookies will not be activated and previous cookies will not be tracked. If you need help with this, contact us at [email protected]. If you would like more information about the use of cookies and tracking tags and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, see the Network Advertising Initiatives consumer Web site at http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/.
Ticketing Partners. Your information may be shared with our ticketing partners (i.e. Telecharge and Ticketmaster) in order to fulfill your transaction and send you updates, special offers, and other information via electronic messages. For more information on our ticketing partner’s data collection and use practices, please review the Ticketmaster privacy policy and/or the Telecharge privacy policy. You can withdraw your consent for any promotional or marketing messages at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” on any promotional or marketing e-mails you receive or by contacting us directly at [email protected] and requesting to be unsubscribed from Telecharge or Ticketmaster.
Third Parties Doing Work for Us. Third parties have no rights to use any data We have collected on your behalf. However, We may employ other companies or individuals to perform functions on Our behalf, such as sending postal mail, email, and text messages, conducting sweepstakes/contests, prize fulfillment and promotional activities, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments and providing customer service. These outside suppliers, agents and vendors have access to your personal information only as needed to perform their functions.
Third Parties with Links from Our Website. From our website, you may be able to click on links to third party sites to buy tickets and merchandise and for other purposes. These third party sites may collect information, including personal information. We are not responsible for, nor do we have access to the information they collect. The collection of this information is governed by the privacy policies on the applicable third party sites.
Social Networking Services. Our website may integrate with social networking services. We do not control such services and are not liable for the manner in which they operate. While we may provide you with the ability to use such services in connection with our website, we are doing so merely as an accommodation and, like you, are relying upon those third party services to operate properly and fairly.
When necessary. We may also release personal information when we believe, in good faith, that such release is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Ourselves, Our clients, Our users, or others. We may disclose personal information about you to law enforcement, other government officials, or other third parties, as We, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, or other activity that is illegal or may expose Us to legal liability.
Public Forums
Please be aware that when you disclose PII through the comment feature or message board on the Site, the information may become public and accessible to all or a part of the Site community, so it is important for you to exercise discretion and appropriate caution when deciding to reveal PII in these areas. In addition, when you choose to make a posting, certain PII may be available for other users to view. We urge you to exercise discretion and caution when deciding to disclose your PII, or any other information, on the Site. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE OF ANY PII YOU VOLUNTARILY DISCLOSE THROUGH THE SITE VIA THESE FORUMS AND OTHER INTERACTIVE FEATURES. Please note that We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to republish content posted (including any PII contained therein) as further set forth in Our Terms of Use.
Co-Branded Pages
We may enter into relationships with “powered by” partners, business partners, sponsors, and co-branded sites (referred to here as “co-branded pages”). These might include, for example, pages that share our name and that of another entity. There may be a specific privacy policy on any such co-branded page. Any personal information that you provide when signing up at any co-branded page may be collected by, or shared with, our third party partner. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, our third party partners’ use of your personal information. If you want to learn more about other entities’ privacy practices, please review the websites of those third parties.
Transactions With Third Party E-commerce Partners, Vendors and Advertisers
When you provide personal information to one of Our Site’s third party e-commerce partners, vendors or advertisers (i.e. Ticketmaster.com, Telecharge.com), this transaction will occur in connection with the site of the e-commerce partner, vendor or advertiser, not on the Site, and, as such, the personal information you provide is collected pursuant to and controlled by the privacy policy of such e-commerce partner, vendor or advertiser. Broadway Direct is not responsible for such parties’ privacy policies and We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the applicable privacy policy of the e-commerce site with which you transact business or to contact the operator of such site for more information.
Delivery of Advertising and Other Content
In addition to ads and content that We may serve you directly, We use third-party advertising companies and marketing services companies to serve ads and other content when you visit Broadway Direct and elsewhere on the internet and in other media. Both We and these companies may use information about your visits to Broadway Direct and elsewhere to serve ads and other content to you. In the course of doing so, a unique third-party cookie may be placed or recognized on your browser by such companies. In addition, We and these companies may use Web beacons to help manage Our online advertising and content. These Web beacons enable Us and the third-party companies to recognize a browser’s cookie when a browser visits this Site and to learn which banner ads bring users to our website and to serve you ads that you may find of interest elsewhere on the internet and in other media. Both Broadway Direct and these companies may use information obtained from your visits to Broadway Direct or other websites, and information received from you offline in order to provide advertisements about goods and services and other content of interest to you across the internet and in other media. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used in this manner by Our third party advertising companies, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp and/or www.aboutads.info/choices. European users may opt out of receiving targeted advertising by visiting http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/. In addition, we may provide PII and Anonymous Information to marketing services companies. This may include information we received from you offline or online. These companies may combine information we provide (including PII and Anonymous Information) with personal and anonymous information they may have about you, using cookies they place or that We place on their behalf, as described in the section regarding “Cookies and Tracking Tags”. We require these companies to delete the PII we provide them. These companies may use the resulting non-personal information and such cookies for their own marketing purposes, and they may provide the same to their customers for their customer’s marketing purposes. Some of Our emails may contain tags that allow Us and Our advertisers and other partners to determine the types of content that may be of interest to you. Those tags may contain PII and may be shared with others to the same extent indicated in the section regarding “Cookies and Tracking Tags”. Those tags may not be deleted but you can opt out of receiving the emails.
Use of This Site by Children
The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and We request that such individuals do not provide personal information through the Site. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided Us with PII without the parent or guardian’s consent by, for example, misrepresenting his or her age, that parent or guardian should contact us at [email protected]. If Broadway Direct determines that it has collected personal information of children under the age of 13, Broadway Direct will immediately delete such information and any accounts believed to be held by children under 13. In addition, we may not collect or process information from a citizen of an EU member state under the age of sixteen (16) without such person’s parental consent. If you are a citizen of an EU member state under the age of 16, please tell your parents that you are using the Site and have your parents email Us at [email protected] so that We may delete any information We may have collected about you.
California Visitors
California Civil Code § 1798.83 permits California residents to request information about whether we have disclosed personal information to any third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. California residents have the right to request in writing: (a) a list of the categories of Personal Information, such as name, email address and mailing address and the type of services provided to the customer that a business has disclosed to third parties (including affiliates that are separate legal entities) during the immediately preceding calendar year for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes and (b) the names and addresses of all such third parties. To make a request, please contact Us at the following email address: [email protected].
EU Visitors
If you are located within the European Union, you should be aware that your personal information will be transferred to the United States, the laws of which may be deemed by the European Union to have inadequate data protection. If you are located in a country outside the United States and voluntarily submit personal information to Us, you thereby consent to the general use of such information as provided in this privacy policy and to the transfer of that information to, and/or storage of that information in, the United States. We transfer Personal Information from the European Economic Area and Switzerland to the USA and other countries, some of which have not been determined by the European Commission to have an adequate level of data protection. Personal Information of EU residents will be transferred in compliance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).
Rights of EU Data Subjects
If you are a resident of the European Union, under the GDPR, European Union residents, as data subjects, have the following rights:
Right to access – This right allows individuals to obtain confirmation as to whether or not personal information concerning him or her is being processed and provide access to such personal information. It also allows individuals to request details of the processing of his or her personal information, including, without limitation, categories of recipients to whom the personal information have been or will be disclosed and purposes of processing.
Right to rectify – This right allows individuals to rectify any inaccurate personal information about him or her.
Right to restrict processing – This right allows individuals to block or suppress processing of personal data under certain circumstances.
Right to be forgotten – This right is also known as the “right to erasure”. It is an individual’s right to have personal data erased or to prevent processing in specific circumstances.
Right of data portability – This right allows individuals to move, copy or transfer personal data from one place to another in a secure manner without interrupting the integrity and usability of the information.
Right to object to processing – This right allows individuals to object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing, profiling and providing for purposes of scientific or historical research and statistics.
An EU resident has the right to access his or her personal data that We hold and to ask that their personal data be corrected or erased and to port their data. An EU resident may also have the right to object to, or request that We restrict certain processing or to withdraw consent previously provided. If you would like to exercise your rights under the GDPR, please contact us at [email protected]. If you are an EU resident and have a concern about our processing of your personal data that we are not able to resolve, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority where you reside. For contact details of your relevant local Data Protection Authority, please see http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/item-detail.cfm?item_id=612080
Security of Your Personal Information
Broadway Direct employs reasonable security measures consistent with standard industry practice, for personal information collected through this Site, including physical, electronic and operational measures to maintain security and prevent unauthorized access. While Broadway Direct takes all appropriate steps to safeguard personal information under Our control, unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or method of storing data can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As such, We cannot guarantee that personal information supplied by users will not be accessed on Our servers, or intercepted while being transmitted to Us over the Internet. We assume no liability for any damages you may suffer as a result of interception, alteration or misuse of information during such transfers.
Retention
We will retain your information for as long as your account or inquiry is active and for a reasonable time thereafter in accordance with Our standard procedures or as necessary to comply with Our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce Our agreements. Even if We delete some or all of your Personal Information, We may continue to retain and use aggregate or anonymous data previously collected and/or anonymize or aggregate your Personal Information. Please note that We will not be liable for disclosures of your data due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties.
Choice/Opt Out
This Site provides users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from Us, at any time, by email at [email protected], or by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email communication. The Site gives users the following options for removing their information from our database, to not receive future communications or to no longer receive our service, at any time.
Users can send mail to the following postal address: Broadway Direct 1501 Broadway 14th floor New York, NY 10036
Users can call the following telephone number: (800) 223-6715.
Users can opt-out of receiving future newsletter emails from Us by selecting the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of our email. However, We are not responsible for removing your information from the lists of any third party who has previously been provided with your information or is collecting your information through their cookies. You have the right to withdraw your consent for Our processing for your personal information by contacting us at [email protected].
Correct/Update
This website gives users the following options for changing and modifying information previously provided, at any time.
Users can send mail to the following postal address: Broadway Direct 1501 Broadway 14th floor New York, NY 10036
Users can call the following telephone number: (800) 223-6715
Successors
In the event that We are, or any component of our operations is, merged with, or is acquired by, another entity, then any such successor or acquiring entity may become the successor to Our obligations with respect to the personal information that you have provided to Us, which would be necessary for the entity to effectively continue our business. By using this website, you consent to any transfer and use of such personal information by an entity assuming control of Our operations as a result of a merger, purchase of assets, or liquidation in bankruptcy or insolvency.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this website, or your dealings with this website, you can send an email to [email protected]. Our data protection officer can also be contacted at [email protected].