Students hoping to produce theatrical performances will soon have a venue in addition to 185 Nassau.
McCarter Theatre has announced plans to build a second auditorium to serve as, among other things, a stage for the University's theater and dance program.
The new theater, which will seat about 350, will be located behind McCarter, on the grassy hill that slopes toward the Wawa Market.
Jeffrey Woodward, McCarter's managing director, said the auditorium would take three years to build and would cost about $8 million. The University will solicit donations from alumni as well as McCarter benefactors to fund the project, he explained.
The building, which will be attached to the back of McCarter's current structure, will also include two rehearsal halls, offices and a lobby. It will be two stories tall.
The idea for the auditorium came from Michael Cadden, director of the University's theater and dance program.
"An alum came forward and said, 'How can I help to put the theater and dance program on the map?'" Cadden explained. The alumnus, whose name Cadden would not release, is planning to make a large donation to the project.
The theater and dance program currently operates out of a converted elementary school gym at 185 Nassau. "To the extent that it's not purpose-built, you make some aesthetic compromises working there," Cadden said.
However, he added that, rather than abandoning the old studio, the group would use it to supplement the new facilities at McCarter. "It's an excellent blackbox theater," he said of the program's current home.
"We needed a first stage as badly as McCarter needed a second stage," he added.
Cadden said the theater and dance program's larger productions – such as the fall show and the spring dance concert – would move to the new auditorium while smaller projects would remain at 185 Nassau.
"It's not clear that a new play in the early stages of development would benefit from being on a larger stage," he said.
In addition to providing a new venue for the theater and dance program, Woodward said the new theater would benefit McCarter as well. "We've been feeling that our artistic program would be enhanced if we had a second theater," Woodward said.
The idea of adding a second auditorium to the McCarter complex has been discussed on and off for the last 15 years, Woodward said.
Most regional theaters comparable in size and artistic stature to McCarter have two theaters, according to a McCarter press release.
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