By JAMES POLLARD, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Philanthropy isn’t so different from theater for Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell .

“Life is a collaborative art,” explained Mitchell, one of Broadway’s preeminent leading men for more than two decades and a leader who steered the industry’s support of performing arts professionals as the longtime chair of The Entertainment Community Fund. “It’s about people working together to make something impossible happen.”

And, just as a stage production requires the combined talents of celebrated actors and behind-the-scenes stagehands across professions and socioeconomic statuses, Mitchell finds there are “all kinds of ways” for everyone to lend a helping hand. He brought that message Tuesday to Town & Country’s annual Philanthropy Summ

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