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(This article was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on December 2, 1998.
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From Berlind’s Heart
At a press conference this week that featured the
glamour
of actress Glenn Close and the buttoned-up rectitude of university
president Harold Shapiro, McCarter Theater and Princeton University
celebrated the establishment of the Roger S. Berlind Theater, the
fruit of a $3.5 million gift from the eminent theater producer and
member of the Class of ’52, at right in the photo above with Michael
Cadden and Emily Mann. Designed by Hugh Hardy ’54 of Hardy Holzman
Pfeiffer Associates, the new 350-seat theater will be constructed
on McCarter’s south lawn at a cost of $8 million; its opening is
planned
for early 2001.
The gift represents more than a new, state-of-the-art facility, but
a new partnership between McCarter and the university’s Program in
Theater and Dance, directed by Cadden. The gift grew out of a question
posed by Berlind more than four years ago as to what it would take
to raise the program’s level. Cadden’s response — a small,
purpose-built
theater — dovetailed with Mann’s long-held desire for a stage,
significantly smaller than her 1,100-seat McCarter stage, on which
to develop and present new works and revived classics. The two
entities
will share the facility and expand programs to bring students together
with theater professionals. As Berlind, who has produced 25 plays
and nine Tony winners, noted, "I remain a competitive animal.
I want to move the program in theater from excellence to
preeminence."
Berlind made his reputation in finance before a 1975 plane accident
took the lives of his wife and three of their four children.
Recovering
from the tragic loss with his 2-year-old son, Berlind, an alumnus
of both Princeton’s Triangle Club and Theater Intime, resigned from
his brokerage firm and followed his heart back to the theater. His
son, William Berlind, graduated from Princeton in 1995.
Berlind was introduced at the press conference by Glenn Close who,
in 1976, just two years into her professional career, was featured
in Berlind’s first show, Richard Rodgers’ "Rex." Also
celebrating
the launch was author Joyce Carol Oates, who holds Princeton’s Roger
S. Berlind professorship. "Regional theaters are vital if the
soul of this country is to remain intact," said Close, who
compared
establishing a new theater to establishing a church. "It will
inspire, challenge, and maybe save those who enter."
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