Theatre Within and the Red Door Community:

The Story of an Enduring Partnership

It started in the summer of 2015 in unlikely fashion — with a cold call from Theatre Within Executive-Artistic Director Joe Raiola to Gilda’s Club NYC’s then-CEO Lily Safani.

Raiola was seeking a home for Theatre Within’s new John Lennon Real Love Project (JLRLP) songwriting workshop, which had launched the previous fall at the Children Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx.

“It was a nice idea, but we quickly discovered that a children’s hospital isn’t well-suited for an ongoing songwriting group," Raiola recalls.

The problem was that long-term patients were too ill to participate and short-term patients were discharged quickly, making it impossible to establish a continuity of participants.

For the JLRLP to grow it would need a place to take root and community to serve.

With its inspiring history, Raiola thought of Gilda's Club, the non-profit founded by actor Gene Wilder in memory of his wife, SNL legend Gild Radner who died of ovarian cancer at 42.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect Lily to take my call,” Raiola admits. Fortunately he was wrong.

“Of course I accepted the call,” remembers Safani. “Why wouldn’t I at the mention of John Lennon? I believed from the start that the program would have tremendous value for our community and I was excited that Joe had thought of us.”

A few months later the JLRLP started at Gilda’s Club NYC as an experimental 4-week songwriting workshop for teens impacted by cancer.

For Raiola it was an eye opener: “Suddenly our entire mission crystalized for me. I saw the potential for enormous growth, not just for the JLRLP but for a full complement of Theatre Within workshops.”

The following year a new JLRLP workshop was formed for 5-12 year-olds who had lost a parent to cancer or with a parent in treatment.

In 2017 an adult group formed for cancer patients, survivors and family members.

By 2019, with the addition of workshops in art, meditation, and more, Theatre Within was providing about 75 workshops onsite — and then came the Covid pandemic, bringing with it unimaginable challenges and forcing a total transition from in-person programming at Gilda’s beloved clubhouse to virtual programing that mirrored everything that was being offered.

Under the respective leadership of Raiola and Safani, both organizations were quick to adapt to the new virtual paradigm. By the end of 2020, in the midst of a chilling pandemic, Theatre Within had provided 200+ workshops for the cancer community through its partnership with Gilda’s Club NYC, a number that has been maintained annually ever since.

While there have been significant challenges in recent years, the partnership forged in 2015 has remained strong.

In 2021, Gilda’s Club NYC, which had been part of a worldwide network of clubhouses, evolved to become the Red Door Community (RDC). After guiding the organization through an extraordinarily difficult period, Safani stepped down as CEO in the spring of 2024 after 17 years of service. (The RDC’s new CEO is Dan Latore.)

Reflecting back, Safani says, “I am forever grateful for the impactful programs Theatre Within provided over the years. It was Joe’s perseverance that made the programs grow.”

“None of it would have happened without Lily,” Raiola says. “Her enthusiasm for what we do created the space we needed to flourish.”

The enduring spirits of John Lennon and Gilda Radner surely played a part too