Head of McCarter Theater stepping down
A personal love and joy exists for the word “fierce”.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. incorporated the phrase during his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial and again during a 1967 address entitled “Beyond Vietnam” at Riverside Church in New York City.
King connected fierce with “urgency of now” a phrase that came to mind as a press statement announced that award-winning playwright and director Emily Mann, “who has served as the Artistic Director and Resident Playwright of the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton since 1990, will retire from the position following the upcoming 2019-2020 season,”
The McCarter statement identified Mann as “a fierce champion of works by women and people of color” during a bold career that fashioned more than 160 productions and 40 world premieres. Mann gave amplification to causes for women and people of darker hues, telling their stories and allowing them to offer firsthand accounts of struggle, challenge, triumph and despair.
The statement noted that Mann’s final season, which will be announced in March, will be “Signature Emily” - a capstone series of plays celebrating diverse and emerging artists that will pay homage to her monumental 30year tenure at McCarter.
“Three decades ago, McCarter took the brave and bold step of casting a young female artist as its artistic director, long before women writers and directors were widely embraced in American theater,” said Mann, whose play, Gloria: A Life, a biodrama based on the life of Gloria Steinem opened off-Broadway in October.
“After what has been an extraordinary journey, it is time to pass the torch to the next generation of artistic directors, many of whom I have been privileged to mentor, so that they may impart their own unique signatures at McCarter as I enter a new personal and professional chapter of writing and directing opportunities.”
One can only imagine what Mann’s mentees will create as well as where this new chapter of life will lead the acclaimed playwright who gave us William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and Tennessee Williams and a litany of other awardwinning efforts.
Personally, her production of “Having Our Say” adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth, remains a most memorable evening inside McCarter Theater.
“Emily ushered in an exceptionally robust artistic period that catapulted McCarter to the world stage. She has been a trailblazing force in shaping the course of American theater through her focus on diversity and inclusiveness and her passion for nurturing scores of emerging and established artists whose creative expression has challenged convention and enriched our collective community,” said Reginald M. Browne, Interim President, McCarter Board of Trustees. “Her imprint as an agent of change is as inspiring as it is indelible.”
“As both Emily and McCarter turn to our next acts, it is an honor to thank her for her lifetime of service to McCarter and salute her for the numerous achievements that have earned our theater and community worldwide recognition,” he added.
The press release recognized that “As McCarter’s Artistic Director and Resident Playwright, Mann created a home for theater legends as her tenure earned McCarter Theater the prestigious Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and Emily herself was twice nominated for Tony Awards as a playwright and director.
Her other numerous personal awards include: The Peabody Award, the Hull Warriner Award from the Dramatists Guild, a Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright award, awards from the NAACP, eight Obie awards, a Guggenheim, the 2011 Person of the Year Award from the National Theater Conference, as well as the Margo Jones Award, given to a “citizen-of-the-theatre who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the encouragement of the living theatre everywhere.” Mann also received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from Princeton University.
The Theater announced a Board of Trustees search for Mann’s replacement will occur over the next several months. They hope to “build on Emily Mann’s storied legacy to become en even more vibrant home for artists, audiences, students, trustees and staff.”
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Find him on Twitter @LAParker6 or email him at LAParker@Trentonian.com.