Jesse Tyler Ferguson lends starry support to nonprofit theater funding bill at Capitol

SPOTTED: “Modern Family” star Jesse Tyler Ferguson trading the small screen for the halls of Congress as he made a pitch to lawmakers for legislation that proponents say would help support theaters around the country.

The 48-year-old actor was eyed in the Senate subway at the Capitol on Thursday, flashing a peace sign to The Hill and saying he was there to give a star-studded boost to a bill providing “funding to nonprofit theaters.”

Also visiting the Capitol to support the bill were “Black Panther” actress Danai Gurira, The Public Theater’s Oskar Eustis, and the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s Maria Manuela Goyanes, an aide confirmed.  

Introduced this week by Democratic Sens. Peter Welch (Vt.), John Fetterman (Pa.) and Jack Reed (R.I.), the Supporting Theater and the Arts to Galvanize the Economy, or STAGE, Act would establish a grant program to help nonprofit theaters hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The grants, supporters said, “would be used to pay rent and payroll, employ artists and support professional personnel, attract new audiences, invest in industry workforce development, study how to best sustain the long-term success of this industry, and — most importantly — ensure the show can go on.”

Aris Folley contributed.