The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center has received a $600,000 gift from Broadway and West End producer John Gore to the National Theater Institute scholarship endowment, one of the largest gifts the NTI has gotten.

The John Gore Scholarship will support students from underrepresented backgrounds at NTI. NTI’s college-credit-earning intensives offer comprehensive theater training.

NTI Artistic Director Rachel Jett says, “Truly, what (Gore’s gift) does is it helps us ensure that the education of these young artists will continue at NTI. The difference that it makes for NTI is hard to overstate because of course, in this time especially, our students come to us with significant need, and … the financial barrier up until recently was a real one."

With this gift and those from the Miranda Family Fund, playwrights/O’Neill alums Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, and various national foundations, NTI has been able “to say yes (to students) on a scale that we’ve never been able to say yes before — to an outstanding group of applicants,” Jett says.

(The Miranda Family Fund, led by Lin-Manuel Miranda, has made a $1 million commitment to NTI scholarships over a 10-year period; the Fund supports scholarships to further the inclusion of artists of color in all areas of theater.)

Gore couldn’t be reached for an interview but said in a statement, “In this uncertain time, it is critical to invest in the future. We are thrilled to provide this support for NTI to help provide the training for the next generation of theater creators and performers to develop the shows that will engage audiences for years to come.”

Gore is head of the John Gore Organization family of companies, which include Broadway Across America, Broadway.com, The Broadway Channel, BroadwayBox.com and Group Sales Box Office. The company has produced shows around the world, and musicals have included “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Disney’s The Lion King,” “Wicked,” “The Book of Mormon” and ”Hamilton.”

Gore has been a friend of the O’Neill’s for a long time, Jett notes, and she says the O’Neill is immensely grateful for his support, especially at this time.

In terms of philanthropy, Gore and his companies provide support for more than 60 organizations involved in theater.

With gifts that go toward scholarships, NTI has been able to expand its group of students, Jett says.

NTI has gone to greater lengths to talk to students at state schools, to post-graduates and to gap-year students.

“For people in state colleges, where tuition doesn't line up with ours — our tuition is closer to a liberal arts college — closing that gap has meant we have a group of students and a group of creators that truly reflect the diversity of the country and also the world," Jett says.

“It’s hard to sum up, but for us, it means that the material we can approach, the original material from the students that we now receive and are able to do during our playwrights and librettists weeks, our company projects, all of those projects are reflecting a wider range of thought and experience than we would have seen two decades ago at NTI. Particularly in our national landscape, that’s more important to us than ever. That's one of our primary missions, the access and opportunity for all the students that may want to come to us. This builds a bridge for us that is quite significant.”

Jett notes that the Gore gift is an endowment so it’s ongoing and NTI has access to the interest from it for present-day scholarships.

The first three students to receive the John Gore Scholarship completed their training at NTI this spring.