A GoFundMe campaign seeks $15,000 in scholarships so no student misses out on seeing three shows in New York

Thirteen months after the Eaton Fire destroyed their school campus, theater students at Eliot Arts Magnet Middle School are raising money to experience Broadway in New York City — a dream that began when the students performed their spring musical on one of Los Angeles’ most prominent stages.

Drama teacher Mollie Lief and dance teacher Billy Rugh launched a GoFundMe campaign on Feb. 10 seeking $15,000 to fund scholarships for the trip, called Eliot Arts Broadway Bound. Sixty students are set to go to Manhattan, where they would see three Broadway shows, attend workshops and explore the city, according to the campaign page.

As of Thursday, the campaign had raised $5,271 from 73 donors.

The funds will go to families who cannot afford the full cost of the trip, according to the GoFundMe page. For many of the students, the trip would be their first time leaving California.

The Broadway ambition grew out of a remarkable chapter in the school’s post-fire story. On January 7, 2025, students held their first rehearsal for the annual spring musical, Shrek The Musical JR. That same night, the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena and destroyed much of the Eliot Arts campus, including its auditorium. Many students and staff members lost their homes.

The school, part of the Pasadena Unified School District, relocated to McKinley School at 325 S. Oak Knoll St. in Pasadena, where students continue to attend classes. Despite the upheaval, the students pressed forward with the musical. In April, Center Theatre Group and Pasadena Playhouse offered the students the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles — a 2,100-seat venue — for a one-night-only benefit performance.

“I asked the students, ‘You just got to perform on this iconic stage. What else would you like to do in the world?’ There was like a resounding, ‘We want to go see Broadway,'” Lief said in an interview with ABC7.

Rugh said the trip would carry meaning beyond the performances themselves.

“But also after the fires, that people are still there supporting them, that they’re there still helping make their dreams come true, and trying to find ways to keep their passion going forward,” Rugh said, according to ABC7.

Lief described the students as passionate about their craft. The students at Eliot “eat, sleep, and breathe musical theater,” she said, adding that a Broadway trip would be “transformative” for them.

The GoFundMe page describes the students’ resilience in the months following the fire. Lief and Rugh wrote that the students “poured their energy into our annual musical” despite the loss, and “used their creativity to sing, dance, and tell a story of courage in the face of loss,” according to the campaign page.

The organizers said they have already held several local fundraisers and need community help to reach their $15,000 goal.

Eliot Arts Magnet offers music, dance, theater arts and visual arts programs, and has an after-school conservatory with more than 20 courses. It has been co-located at McKinley in Pasadena since January 2025 and is expected to remain there for the foreseeable future while the original campus is rebuilt.

Those who wish to donate can visit the GoFundMe page at gofundme.com/f/eliot-arts-broadway-bound-scholarships.

“They’ve had so much taken away from them,” Rugh said last April, when the Shrek JR. production was announced. “This is one thing we can help make sure they don’t lose.”