Call Number:

AC131

Repository:

Princeton University Library: University Archives

Extent:

• 209 boxes
• 1 folder
• 6 items

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); McCarter Theatre Records, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1922-2016 (inclusive)

Creator:

McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton, N.J.), Princeton University. Library. Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Blackburn, Charles, and Lyon, Milton, 1923-1995

Form:

Clippings., Correspondence., Photographs., Playbills., Scrapbooks, and Scripts.

Abstract:

The McCarter Theatre was conceived as a permanent home for the Princeton University Triangle Club. McCarter began as a booking theater but ultimately moved into producing its own performances. The McCarter Theatre records document the history of the McCarter Theatre, including administration, performances and productions, and the building itself.

The McCarter Theatre was conceived as a permanent home for the Princeton University Triangle Club. It opened on February 21, 1930.

McCarter began as a booking theater. The McCarter Theatre did not produce its own shows, rather they booked touring shows and performers. During the 1930s, McCarter was often used by Broadway producers as a venue for previews of shows yet to debut on Broadway. The theatre also hosted Princeton University Concerts prior to their moving to Richardson Auditorium.

Following World War II, many Broadway producers reduced the number of non-Broadway previews virtually eliminating one of McCarter's main revenue generators. Mounting debt forced the theater to transfer the title and the building and the reasonability of its operating costs to Princeton University. Now a University entity, Princeton hired Milton Lyon as Executive Director of the newly McCarter Theatre Company in 1960 McCarter. Lyon immediately transformed McCarter, turning it from a booking theater into a producing theater. McCarter Theatre flourished under Lyon and his successors Arthur Lithgow, Michael Kahn, Nagle Jackson, and most recently, Emily Mann. McCarter significantly increased its music and dance bookings in the 1960s and remains known for offering a wide variety of quality performances in the arts.

Today, the McCarter Theatre Company continues to produce its own shows and serves as the home for Princeton University theater.

The McCarter Theatre records document the history of the McCarter Theatre, including administration, performances and productions, and the building itself. Documents related to productions include annotated scripts, programs, set and costume designs, drafts, sheet music, photographs of performances, and promotional material. Documents related to McCarter Theatre administration include memoranda, correspondence, reports, and financial material. Blueprints, plans, reports, and photographs document the construction and maintenance of the building. Also included are numerous documents related to the Lake Carnegie construction project. The records cover the administrations of Benjamin Franklin Bunn, Richard Pleasant and Isadora Bennett, Milton Lyon, Marguerite McAneny, Arthur Lithgow, Louis Criss, Michael Kahn, and Nagle Jackson. Also included are records of events presented at the theater, such as Music-at-McCarter, Princeton University Concerts, and Dance-at-McCarter.