Stephanie J. Block climbed into her sleeping bag in a dark alley in Midtown Manhattan alongside 52 other members of the Broadway community. It was dark; it was late. And as she looked up at Covenant House New York, where dozens of homeless youth were also bedding down, safely, for the night, she could see their faces at the windows. Some looked puzzled, others tickled, others moved, by these actors sleeping on the rough concrete – for them.
That was the very first Covenant House Broadway Sleep Out, in 2013. Twelve years later, more than 1,000 actors, stagehands, producers, and other industry professionals have joined – some, like actors Audra McDonald and Rachel Brosnahan, director Jeff Calhoun, costumer Billy Hipkins and artist and producer Rachel Sussman, multiple times. Puppeteer Brian Carson has participated every single year since since 2013.
Capathia Jenkins and Stephanie J. Block at the 2017 Sleep Out.
Now called Sleep Out: Stage + Screen, the event has expanded well beyond the Great White Way and has raised more than $3 million to support young people overcoming homelessness at Covenant House.
Rachel Brosnahan and Rachel Sussman learn more about Covenant House from Kevin Ryan at the 2014 Sleep Out.
Stephanie and fellow actor Capathia Jenkins were there from the start, along with Kevin Ryan, a Tony-winning producer and former president and CEO of Covenant House. From 2008 to 2022, Kevin led the largest expansion of Covenant House's mission in its more than 50-year history. Today, Covenant House serves youth facing homelessness and trafficking in 34 cities in five countries, providing safety, medical and mental health care, education, career readiness and more.
Back then, though, Kevin had no idea whether the Broadway Sleep Out would take off.
"I don't think Capathia, Stephanie and I had any idea what this would grow into and how many lives the event would touch," Kevin says. "We just wanted to find a way to make a difference in kids' lives. It's become one of the Broadway community's biggest annual charity events. But it started out with a pretty direct question we asked ourselves over lunch one day in New York: What can we do to help the kids?"
Convening the Community
"Somehow the idea came up of Broadway stars sleeping under the stars in a visible place to stir up awareness and raise funds," Stephanie recalls. "The night had to be one of community and commitment but not convenience. It needed to be uncomfortable and unglamorous. Our goal was to step into the movement with proximity and empathy, allowing us a bit more understanding of these individuals we passed every day on our way to the theaters."
Capathia began talking up the Sleep Out to all her Broadway friends. It was a wild idea: How would you like to spend a muggy August night sleeping on concrete in the middle of Manhattan? Yes, there will be all-night bright lights, nonstop traffic noise from the Lincoln Tunnel nearby, and who knows what altercations beyond the safety of the Sleep Out. And, yes, this will be on your one night off from performing. But, I promise you, it will be worth it to enable young people facing homelessness to live their dreams like we get to live ours.
Jazz hands at the 2016 Sleep Out.
"The Broadway community galvanized in such a beautiful way around this cause," Capathia recalls. One person would tell another and they would tell another, and then, as the event took hold, they would "share how the Sleep Out changed their perspective on unhoused people. I think the youth felt seen, which is so powerful – that someone sees and acknowledges their challenges, and lets them know it will be ok."
That first year, Stephanie says, "was sobering and electric. The work leading up to that night was hard, but Capathia, myself, and the incredibly supportive Covenant House team brought us there with an extreme sense of purpose, vulnerability, trust, tears and … family."
How Sleep Out Works
Sleep Out: Stage + Screen is an intimate overnight experience of community, awareness, solidarity, and action. It's one of various Sleep Out "editions," each tailored to a particular group of professionals and community groups united in their desire to help youth undo the trauma of homelessness and trafficking and find healing at Covenant House. Each one builds on the natural connections and friendships of the group formed from a common profession or special interest.
Actor Darius de Haas, who's participated multiple times and served on the Covenant House board of directors, says the event "asks of its participants and those who donate to really open up their hearts and spirits to an experience they may or may not immediately think of, though many in our theater community can certainly relate and empathize."
The evening opens with a program, where participants, or "Sleepers," hear directly from residents and former residents about their experience of Covenant House. During small-group panel sessions, they dive deeper into the reality faced by unhoused and trafficked youth, and ask questions and learn more. As they do, they share their Sleep Out experiences in real time via their social media and fundraising pages to raise awareness and critical funds.
Darius de Haas, Stephanie J. Block, Capathia Jenkins, Jeff Calhoun, Kevin Ryan and Audra McDonald at the 2016 Sleep Out.
Sometimes, as you might expect, there's magic involved.
Capathia recalls a moment when Sleepers, looking up at the residents' windows, serenaded them with a spontaneous, a cappella rendition of "Lean on Me." Actor Jonalyn Saxer says that at her first Sleep Out, it was the youth who "broke into song and music improv. Tons of the Sleep Out participants joined in." Both Jonalyn and Capathia felt those moments as "magical."
Gabi Stapula, Jonalyn Saxer and Caroline Schettler from the Back to the Future team in 2023.
Then comes lights-out, when participants gather their sleeping bags and other things and head outside to sleep. Covenant House staff are always nearby in case a Sleeper feels restless or unsettled and needs to talk it out with someone. In the morning, Sleepers meet in small groups to share their reactions to their night outdoors.
Though the night may have been "uncomfortable and unglamorous," Jonalyn says, "Sleeping on the concrete is such a small part of the overall event. Sometimes I even forget it's part of it. Instead, I'm always focused on the moments and interactions with the young people and Cov House alum." This August, Jonalyn will be joining Sleep Out: Stage + Screen for the sixth time.
"While we all sleep on the ground," she adds, "we also do it all together. It's such a universal experience that it makes you reflect in new ways. It also says, 'I'm willing to get uncomfortable to help those who need it most.' Which is just a step beyond any other fundraising event I've ever encountered before."
A Singular Opportunity to Do Good
The difference with other fundraising events, Darius says, is that "we're asked to symbolically share in the experience of being homeless for one night. And while it in no way compares to a young person who has nowhere to go and is forced to sleep on the streets, [it results in] a better understanding that, hopefully, leads to a charge that … we must do better by our youth – systemically, educationally, empathetically, so that youth homelessness is eradicated."
Since the first Sleep Out: Stage + Screen 12 years ago, the funds raised have helped Covenant House build new program offerings like the innovative Career Pathways and Youth Mental Health First Aid programs; ensure the continuity of safety and services during the global, yearslong COVID pandemic; rebuild Covenant House New York into the state-of-the-art residence it is today; and envision a bold, new strategy called The Journey Home to do just as Darius suggests: End the youth homelessness crisis.
Broadway Serves at the 2016 Sleep Out.
That vision is very ambitious when you consider the critical moment we find ourselves in, where social safety nets are deteriorating. We have a singular opportunity in which we can either embrace The Journey Home and halve youth homelessness by 2035, or watch the crisis multiply threefold in the same period if we do nothing. Sleep Out is a way to do something.
Michael Kushner, Remy Germinario, Rachel Sussman, Jason Ralph and Ariana DeBose from Team Cov Love at the 2023 Sleep Out.
"I didn't know much about Covenant House when I first joined," Jonalyn says. "I enjoy volunteering, community work and supporting great organizations. Sleep Out seemed like another way to engage in those activities. Then at the event, I learned all the incredible things Covenant House does for young people, and I was so moved and inspired. I knew immediately this was an organization I wanted to support as much as I could."
All these years later, Stephanie J. Block is just as inspired and hopeful as she was back in 2013, when she and a handful of Broadway colleagues tested the cement outside Covenant House New York for the first time.
"The Broadway community is a huge-hearted and involved bunch," she says. "We show up and want to improve, well, everything: ourselves, our community, the world! My involvement with and passion for Covenant House's mission is one of the proudest aspects of my career. It has shown me time and again how coming together as a family for one, focused, unselfish cause can create deep meaning and change in the name of both art and humanity. It's a lifechanger."
Learn how Covenant House supports young people overcoming homelessness and trafficking. And join dozens of entertainment industry professionals who've signed up for Sleep Out: Stage + Screen on Aug. 10–11, 2025.
Enthusiastic participants at the 2023 Sleep Out.
Written by Linda Unger, Covenant House International.
All photographs courtesy of Covenant House International.