125 YEARS AGO (1898)
World-renowned playwright and director Bertolt Brecht is born in Augsburg, Germany. Among his acclaimed works will be Mother Courage and Her Children, The Three Penny Opera and Fear and Misery of the Third Reich. Brecht will go on to develop the theory and practice of epic theatre—using theatre as a political forum in hopes of forging a new social order.

75 YEARS AGO (1938)
Our Town by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway at Henry Miller’s Theatre. Produced and directed by Jed Harris, it features cast members Frank Craven and Martha Scott, in her Broadway debut. The production will play 336 performances and will win the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

25 YEARS AGO (1988)
Broadway Cares is founded by members of the Producers Group, to raise money for AIDS service organizations nationwide, among them Equity Fights AIDS. The two organizations will merge in 1992, to become Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, one of the nation’s leading industry-based HIV/AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. It is a major supporter of the social service work of the Actors Fund. To date, BC/EFA has raised over $195 million.