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Volunteer Profile: Steve Bratton
In his bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes the importance of “connectors,” people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. After spending a few minutes with Steve Bratton, Broadway Bares dancer and powerhouse fundraiser, its obvious he’s one of those people—someone who, after 13 years in New York, can walk down almost any street in Manhattan and run into friends like he’s still living in a small town. During the four years he’s participated in The Broadway Bares’ Strip-a-thon pledge drive, Bratton has used his networking skills and natural enthusiasm to raise more than $20,000 for BC/EFA. And, although he doesn’t always win, Steve (who came in 2nd this year) has helped set the fundraising bar for other dancers. “For Bares 14: Now Showing, I came in first with $2,900,” he says. “This year, I was second with $6,900. It’s very exciting to me that every year the number of dancers participating and the fundraising total goes up.” Bares Producer Anthony LaTorella praises Bratton’s team spirit. “Steve is a force of motivation, optimism and love! We look forward to being around him every year…I know it’s corny, but he is all that!” Not in Kansas Anymore… A performer since childhood, with a resume of high school and college productions already under his belt, young Steve got a taste of wider fame when a crew came to Lawrence to film 1983’s “The Day After.” This modestly budgeted look at the aftermath of a nuclear blast on a small Kansas town became one of the most widely seen TV movies of all time. “It was an amazing project. They had a big-screen premiere in our hometown,” he remembers. “I was on screen for a few seconds; I played a ‘day after’ burn victim who’d survived the blast.” During the next decade, he performed with jazz groups, choirs and gave solo cabaret performances in Southern California and spent two hot summers earning his equity card in an old-fashioned summer stock program at Michigan’s Barn Theatre. “Being in their apprentice program was hard work, but so rewarding,” Steve says. With his love of performing live, LA friends pushed him to move to New York and he took the leap in 1994, when his day job at Crate & Barrel offered him a transfer. That job vanished, but serendipity led him to The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, where his innate gifts for event planning and fundraising found a home. It’s a career path he’s followed – with a few interruptions to pursue his performing career – ever since, serving as finance manager for the Boston-to-New York AIDS Ride (helping raise $6 million annually) and later managing stops for Avon’s 3 Day Breast Cancer Walks and other AIDS Rides throughout the United States. Today, Steve is the busy logistics coordinator for two non-profit fundraising events:
Steve’s work with Broadway Cares began more than 10 years ago and his first BC/EFA interaction led to a Broadway credit. “I had gone to Flea Market a few times, but then, in 1995, I got caught up in an auction and ended up winning a walk on role in How to Succeed (in Business Without Really Trying). I’ve been hooked ever since.” He’s also held his share of silver buckets, collecting after Broadway shows during our six-week Gypsy of the Year and Easter Bonnet collection periods each fall and spring and showing up for a full day of heavy lifting at BC/EFA’s Flea Market and Grand Auction in Shubert Alley each September. Fit to Strip “I’ll need this. Every year, training for Bares gets a little harder. And every year the dancers get younger and younger,” he laughs. “When March hits, I have to start thinking about this…exercising more, eating right.” “It’s always in the back of my mind—I’ve got to be NAKED in JUNE.”
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By Andy Smith