Our Story
Acting for a Cure is a non-profit production company founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 2004 for the sole purpose of producing the theatrical musical Richard O’ Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure (formerly the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation). For more than 20 years, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has been a global leader in the fight against breast cancer through its support of innovative research and community-based outreach programs. Working through a network of U.S. and international Affiliates and events like the Komen Race for the Cure, Komen for the Cure fights to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by funding research grants and supporting education, screening and treatment projects in communities around the world.
In August 2004, then fifteen-year-old Louisville native Rachel Helson formed Acting for a Cure. After returning home from a summer theatre intensive at Circle in the Square, Rachel learned that doctors had diagnosed a fourth aunt of hers with breast cancer. She decided that she needed to do something to help fight the disease. Because of her acting experience and involvement in theatre, she conceived Acting for a Cure to serve a dual purpose: to raise money for the Komen Foundation and to raise awareness of breast cancer prevalence.
She gathered donations from corporate sponsors to back the show, secured a venue and the rights from Samuel French, and assembled a talented cast and crew of professional actors and musicians. Performed at the Kentucky Center for the Arts’s Bomhard Theatre to sold-out houses of 555 seats, the two successful productions of Rocky in 2004 and 2005 raised over $50,000 net and were openly embraced and tremendously supported by the Louisville community.
In 2007, Acting for a Cure brought "Rocky" to the American Airlines Theatre stage on Broadway and raised over $30,000 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Many corporate partners from Louisville as well as new national sponsors provided their support in New York assuring a third successful fundraising event.
Now nineteen, Rachel Helson is a senior at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Stella Adler studio. |
