McCarter Theater Center has appointed Michael S. Rosenberg as managing director. It has also completed a $10 million fundraising campaign.
Rosenberg will work together with McCarter’s artistic director/resident playwright, Emily Mann, and special programming director William W. Lockwood in leading the institution. Rosenberg, currently the managing director at La Jolla Playhouse in California, will assume his new role this spring.
“I am delighted to return to New Jersey, where I have continued to maintain a home during my time in California,” Rosenberg said in a prepared statement. “Having spent most of my professional life working in New York, I’ve been well aware of McCarter’s illustrious reputation. I am delighted to accept this position at one of the most respected regional theatres in the country.”
He replaces Tim Shields, who left McCarter last fall.
In other McCarter news, the theater center has concluded its largest fundraising campaign in its history, bringing in more than $10 million for the institution’s endowment.
The campaign, led by McCarter trustees Kathleen Nolan and Robert J. Caruso, increased the theater’s annual fund support for general operations in addition to contributing to the endowment. McCarter’s endowment funds include the McCarter LAB; the Presented Events Series; Audience Access Programs; Education and Engagement; and the Emerging Leaders Program.
“We have just concluded the largest fundraising effort in our 88-year history and have built a sound financial foundation for the future. With the completion of the Lewis Arts Complex on the Princeton University campus and two new restaurants at our doorstep, there is more creative energy coursing through our building than ever before,” said Leslie Kuenne, McCarter’s board president.
The campaign was bolstered by two challenge grants. A $500,000 challenge grant from Betty Wold Johnson and a $250,000 challenge grant in support of the Presented Events endowment. This endowment will be renamed as the William W. Lockwood Presented Series Fund, in honor of McCarter’s long time Special Programming Director.
“This campaign has been critical to ensuring that McCarter remains a vital cultural institution for the next generation of theater lovers, an artistic home for emerging and legendary playwrights from all backgrounds and a beacon of the very best in the performing arts in our community,” said Emily Mann. “Having a vibrant producing theater coupled with a world class roster of Presented Events is foundational to the extraordinary quality of civic life in this region.”
The theater says it receives around $1.5 million a year in donations from the community.
In addition to hosting hundreds of performances a year on its two stages, the theater provides arts education to several local school districts, sending its teaching artists into classrooms to assist teachers and educators. The McCarter LAB is an incubator for emerging and established playwrights, providing support for and development of new work.
McCarter Theater Center, 91 University Place, Princeton 08540. 609-258-6500. Emily Mann, artistic director. www.McCarter.org.
