McCarter Theatre
Encyclopedia
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
. It is one of the most active cultural centers in the nation, offering over 200 performances of theater, dance, music and special events each year. Over 200,000 people come to McCarter each season.
Mission
McCarter Theatre Center is recognized as one of the leading regional theaters in the United States, and is the only organization in the country that is both a professional producing theater and a major presenter of the performing arts. The theater creates, develops and produces new work for the stage, produces classical theatrical repertoire, and hosts performing artists.History
Built as a permanent home for the Princeton University Triangle Club (who continue to perform at McCarter) with funds from Thomas N. McCarterThomas N. McCarter
Thomas Nesbitt McCarter was an American lawyer who served as the Attorney General of New Jersey from 1902 until 1903, resigning to organize the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey....
, class of 1888, McCarter Theatre opened on February 21, 1930 with a special performance of the 40th annual Triangle show, The Golden Dog. One of its stars was Joshua Logan
Joshua Logan
Joshua Lockwood Logan III was an American stage and film director and writer.-Early years:Logan was born in Texarkana, Texas, the son of Susan and Joshua Lockwood Logan. When he was three years old his father committed suicide...
, a junior, and a sophomore named James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
was in the chorus.
During the 1930s, McCarter gained popularity as a pre-Broadway showcase, due to its large seating capacity, its 40 foot proscenium stage, and its short distance from New York. Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
's Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
had its world premiere at McCarter, as did George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
and Moss Hart
Moss Hart
Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
's You Can't Take It With You
You Can't Take It with You
You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936, and played for 837 performances...
, James Thurber
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...
and Elliot Nugent's The Male Animal (starring Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include...
), Philip Barry
Philip Barry
Philip James Quinn Barry was an American playwright born in Rochester, New York.-Early life:Philip Barry was born on June 18, 1896 in Rochester, New York to James Corbett Barry and Mary Agnes Quinn Barry. James would die from appendicitis a year after Philip's birth, and his father's marble and...
's Without Love (starring Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
) and William Inge
William Inge
William Motter Inge was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s, he had a string of memorable Broadway productions, and one of these, Picnic, earned him a Pulitzer Prize...
's Bus Stop
Bus Stop (play)
Bus Stop is a 1955 play by William Inge. The 1956 film is only loosely based upon it.-Characters:Bus Stop is a drama, with romantic and some comedic elements. It is set in a diner in rural Kansas, about 20 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri during a snowstorm from which bus passengers must take...
(starring Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances....
and Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
).
Although not built as a concert hall, McCarter played host for almost a half-century to the Princeton University Concerts before they moved to Richardson Auditorium. The first major, non-campus-related program of "classical music" was the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
in March, 1932, to be followed by the Cleveland Orchestra
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
, the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, Rudolf Serkin
Rudolf Serkin
Rudolf Serkin , was a Bohemian-born pianist.-Life and early career:Serkin was born in Eger, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a Russian-Jewish family....
, Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...
, Myra Hess
Myra Hess
Dame Myra Hess DBE was a British pianist.She was born in London as Julia Myra Hess, but was best known by her middle name. At the age of five she began to study the piano and two years later entered the Guildhall School of Music, where she graduated as winner of the Gold Medal...
, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, Zino Francescatti
Zino Francescatti
René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti was a French virtuoso violinist.Zino Francescatti was born in Marseilles, to a musical family. Both parents were violinists. His father, who also played the cello, had studied with Camillo Sivori. Zino studied violin from age three and was quickly recognized as a...
, and Gregor Piatigorsky
Gregor Piatigorsky
Gregor Piatigorsky was a Russian-born American cellist.-Early life:...
.
The first dancer was Ruth St. Denis
Ruth St. Denis
Ruth St. Denis was an early modern dance pioneer.-Biography:Ruth St. Denis founded Adelphi University's dance program in 1938 which was one of the first dance departments in an American university...
, who appeared in a solo evening on March 7, 1930 and returned that same fall with Ted Shawn
Ted Shawn
Ted Shawn , originally Edwin Myers Shawn, was one of the first notable male pioneers of American modern dance. Along with creating Denishawn with former wife Ruth St. Denis he is also responsible for the creation of the well known all-male company Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers...
and the full troupe of the pioneering Denishawn dancers. But the next several decades saw few dance offerings of any significance, with perhaps one notable exception: a single performance in 1935 by a company of dancers touring under the name of "American Ballet
American Ballet
The American Ballet was the first professional ballet company George Balanchine created in the United States. The company was founded with the help of Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Mortimer Morris Warburg, managed by Alexander Merovitch and populated by students of Kirstein and Balanchine's School of...
" – the first troupe of dancers assembled in this country by an émigré Russian choreographer named George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
, and as such the early precursor of what would eventually evolve into what we know today as the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
.
In the post World War II years, Broadway producers cut costs by having extended preview periods in New York City rather than out-of-town try outs. Thus, the number of touring Broadway shows declined. With increasing debt, the Theatre could no longer be self-supporting and in 1950, Princeton University and the Triangle Club agreed that the University should take title to the building and assume responsibility for its operating costs. In the late 1950s, Princeton University appointed a Faculty Advisory Committee to determine the best use of the building.
Noted director Milton Lyon was hired in 1960 as consultant to the Faculty Advisory Committee and in time was appointed the first Executive Producer of the McCarter Theatre Company. Lyon's vision was to create a theater which "should reflect the outlook of the University, and thus become an educational asset to the University and the community, as well as a place of entertainment."
Lyon proposed to the University that McCarter become a "producing" rather than a "booking" theater. His plans included the formation of a company to perform plays, thus establishing the first resident professional theater in America on a university campus. He instantly formed such a company by hiring APA (Association of Performing Artists) for the inaugural theater season, 1960-61. Under the artistic direction of Ellis Rabb
Ellis Rabb
Ellis Rabb was an American actor and director who in 1959 formed the Association of Producing Artists, a theatre company that brought new works and noteworthy revivals to Broadway and to regional theatres...
, actors in the APA company included Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris is an English actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Throughout her career she has been nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and has won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Tony Award, an Obie, and five Drama Desk Awards.-Early life:Harris was born in...
, Donald Moffat
Donald Moffat
Donald Moffat is an English-born actor, now a naturalized American citizen.-Early life:Moffat was born in Plymouth, Devon, the only child of Kathleen Mary and Walter George Moffat, who was an insurance agent. His parents ran a boarding house in Totnes...
, Frances Sternhagen
Frances Sternhagen
Frances Hussey Sternhagen is an American actress. Sternhagen has appeared on and off Broadway, in movies, and on TV since the 1950s.-Personal life:...
, and Edward Asner.
In 1973, Princeton University transferred its direct operation of McCarter to the McCarter Theatre Company, which was separately incorporated at that time. McCarter flourished as a producing theater under Milton Lyon and his successors – most notably Arthur Lithgow
Arthur Lithgow
Arthur Washington Lithgow III was an American actor and director.-Life and career:Lithgow was born in Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic, the son of Ina Berenice , a nurse, and Arthur Washington Lithgow II, an entrepreneur. His parents were of American descent...
, Michael Kahn
Michael Kahn (theatre director)
Michael Kahn is the Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., USA. He held the position of Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School from 1992 to 2006....
, Nagle Jackson, and the Theatre's current artistic director, Emily Mann – while continuing to present a wide range of dance and classical music concerts.
Emily Mann’s tenure as Artistic Director has been notable for its emphasis on the creation and development of new work, marked especially by an on-going program of commissions and the fostering of long term relationships with playwrights both established and emerging, including Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
, who has come to regard McCarter as a “home away from home”. Awarded the 1994 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Outstanding Regional Theatre, McCarter has evolved into a nationally and internationally acclaimed theatre, recognized for its first rate productions and lasting contributions to the American theatrical canon.
In 1990s McCarter unwent major renovations and expansions including construction of a smaller second theater adjacent to the main auditorium (the Roger S. Berlind
Roger Berlind
Roger S. Berlind is a New York City theatrical producer and director of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc...
Theater, named for the Princeton graduate and acclaimed producer), allowing two productions to be mounted simultaneously.
Theater Series
At the core of McCarter’s programming is the Theater Series, which is built around the commitment to new work and to exploring and re-imagining classic works from the AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and world canon. Under Artistic Director
Artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...
Emily Mann
Emily Mann (director)
Emily Mann, born April 12, 1952, is the multi-award–winning Artistic Director and Resident Playwright of McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, where she has overseen over 85 productions....
, noteworthy productions include the premieres of new plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
by Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
, Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
, Nilo Cruz
Nilo Cruz
Nilo Cruz is an Cuban-American playwright and pedagogue. With his award of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play, Anna in the Tropics, he became the first Latino so honored.-Early years:...
, Christopher Durang
Christopher Durang
Christopher Ferdinand Durang is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s.- Life :...
, Regina Taylor
Regina Taylor
Regina Taylor is an American actress and playwright. She has won several awards throughout her career, including a Golden Globe Award and NAACP Image Award.-Biography:...
, Beth Henley
Beth Henley
Elizabeth Becker "Beth" Henley is an American dramatist and actress. She writes primarily about women's issues and family in the Southern United States. She is also a screenwriter who has written many film adaptations of her plays...
, Dael Orlandersmith
Dael Orlandersmith
Dael Orlandersmith is an actress, poet and playwright who is best known for her Obie Award winning Beauty's Daughter and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Yellowman....
, Steven Dietz
Steven Dietz
Steven Dietz is an American playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City...
, Marina Carr
Marina Carr
Marina Carr is an Irish playwright.Born in Tullamore, County Offaly, Carr attended University College Dublin before holding posts as writer-in-residence at the Abbey Theatre and Trinity College Dublin. She served as Heimbold Professor of Irish Studies at Villanova University in 2003...
, John Henry Redwood, Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...
, Theresa Rebeck
Theresa Rebeck
Theresa Rebeck is an American playwright, television writer and novelist. Her work has appeared on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, in film, and on television. Among her awards are the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award.-Biography:...
and Emily Mann. Many, including Having Our Say, Anna in the Tropics
Anna in the Tropics
Anna in the Tropics is a play by Nilo Cruz.When Cuban immigrants brought the cigar-making industry to Florida in the 19th Century, they carried with them another tradition. As the workers toiled away in the factory hand rolling each cigar, the lector, , would read to them...
, Crowns, Valley Song and Yellow-man, have gone on to be some of the most frequently produce
Produce
Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...
d plays in the American theater. In addition, McCarter is recognized for its re-investigations of the classic canon, including Stephen Wadsworth’s acclaimed adaptations of plays by Marivaux, David Leveaux
David Leveaux
David Leveaux is a British theatre director who has been nominated for five Tony Awards as director of both plays and musicals...
’s production of Electra
Electra
In Greek mythology, Electra was an Argive princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. She and her brother Orestes plotted revenge against their mother Clytemnestra and stepfather Aegisthus for the murder of their father Agamemnon...
, featuring
Featuring
Featuring, often abbreviated to ft., feat. or f/ is a term used in the music industry to credit a musician who is not the main artist for their performance on a song or, on occasion, an album...
Zoë Wanamaker
Zoe Wanamaker
Zoë Wanamaker, CBE is an American-British actress. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company; in films, including the Harry Potter series; and in a number of television productions, including a long-time role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family.-Early life and family:Wanamaker was...
, and Emily Mann’s adaptations of Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
’s The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
and Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
.
The theater series also hosts touring shows that fit into the commitment of the theater, such as Mary Zimmerman
Mary Zimmerman
Mary Zimmerman is an American theatre director and playwright, born in Lincoln, Nebraska.-Career:Zimmerman is a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company and is an Artistic Associate of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. She received her BS, MA and PhD from Northwestern University, where...
's The Odyssey. Two of its 2006-2007 productions, Translations
Translations
Translations is a three-act play by Irish playwright Brian Friel written in 1980. It is set in Baile Beag , a small village at the heart of 19th century agricultural Ireland...
and Radio Golf
Radio Golf
Radio Golf is a play by American playwright, August Wilson, the final installment in his ten-part series, The Pittsburgh Cycle. It was first performed in 2005 by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut and had its Broadway premiere in 2007 at the Cort Theatre...
moved to Broadway where they were nominated for Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
s.