Gainesville, Fla.—Leading developer, producer, distributor and marketer of Broadway theatre worldwide, the John Gore Organization and its namesake CEO made a significant contribution to the University of Florida School of Theatre and Dance’s theatre management program.
The John Gore Organization is providing support for UF’s new theatre management program, which launched in fall of 2020. Headed by UF Professor of Practice Miles Wilkin, founder of Broadway Across America and a UF Warrington College of Business alumnus, the theatre management program offers a specialization for undergraduate students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre.
“We are thrilled to support the University of Florida’s theatre management program to provide training for our industry’s future leaders,” said John Gore, CEO and owner of the John Gore Organization. “With Miles Wilkin leading the program, they are learning from the best in the business!”
“An investment from one of the theatre industry’s leading experts like John Gore demonstrates the clear direction and benefit of the theatre management program,” said Onye Ozuzu, dean of the UF College of the Arts. “Professor Wilkin is building a program that demystifies the challenges of breaking through the industry, offering students connections and insights from the most successful performers, producers, and managers. John and his organization’s generosity will further enhance opportunities for students to leverage professional experience and skills to position themselves for successful careers in the North American theatre community.”
The academic specialization features specific theatre management courses, a professional internship and a senior project. Some of the courses include The Commercial Theatre Industry, Theatrical Producing: Developments & Trends, Arts Administration and Producing for Regional Theatre. Students have been known to take Theatrical Producing multiple times, for its rotating topics and industry-leading guest lecturers.
A committed philanthropist, Gore and his companies provide support to a diverse array of organizations establishing and expanding theatre education programs from middle school to the post-graduate level, providing access to Broadway for underrepresented communities, supporting emerging artists, and keeping performing arts centers throughout North America thriving. Recent programs include endowing scholarships for students from underrepresented backgrounds at the Eugene O’Neill Center’s National Theater Institute, establishing a new award supporting emerging artists with the Princess Grace Foundation USA, underwriting Hamilton’s education programs with the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, providing theatre educators in the NYC public schools through the Arthur Miller Foundation, as well as supporting Columbia University’s Prince Fellowship Program, and the American Theatre Wing’s Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative. In 2017, Gore partnered with Scarlett Johansson to organize a one-night-only, all-star benefit reading of Our Town featuring Johansson, Robert Downey Jr. and the cast of the Avengers, raising $500,000 for the Hurricane Maria Community Relief & Recovery Fund.
