McCarter Theatre Center Thanks Community for “Outpouring of Support”
To the Editor:
We would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support McCarter received since announcing the cancelation of the balance of our season. This was a difficult decision to make, however we recognized early on that in order to do our part to flatten the curve we needed to darken our stages and keep our audience members safe.
The motto “The show must go on!” is core to our mission and our character. It is very challenging to break out of that mindset, but sometimes the show cannot go on. Theatres and performing arts organizations around the world were forced to close in response to the current situation and McCarter was no exception.
What is truly exceptional is the response from our audience. Our patrons have rallied around McCarter with kind words, ticket donations, and other support. We want to let you know just how much everyone at McCarter appreciates this outpouring of support. When we asked our patrons to consider donating their tickets to support our general operations, the response was overwhelming.
To date, we have contacted just a small fraction of the 6,000 ticket buyers impacted by our closure, and many ticket holders we have spoken to have donated their tickets back to the theatre. We are personally reaching out to all ticket holders so if you haven’t heard from us yet, please understand the delay. We are truly grateful for these donations — each one positively impacts our current financial situation.
This is a wonderful first step to help us through this unprecedented time. Like other arts organizations, we will be turning to our community of supporters and subscribers to ask for assistance to get us through the next few months as we rebuild in the wake of this crisis.
And like many of you, we feel the pressing and immediate need to support the health and human services providing relief for this community. McCarter staff are helping in myriad of ways. We are sewing masks for health care workers and service people. We will soon be offering online content to help parents and arts lovers manage the stay-at-home order. And we will be here, ready to entertain and enlighten our community when the time is right.
Robert J. Caruso
Board President
Michael S. Rosenberg
Managing Director
Emily Mann
Artistic Director/Resident Playwright
William W. Lockwood, Jr.
Director of Special Programming