Today is Jeff Woodward’s last day as the managing director of McCarter Theatre Center. He has been leading McCarter since 1991, and will be heading to New York State as the managing director of Syracuse Stage and Syracuse University drama department. While I have certainly teased Jeff in the past (see blog posts here, here, here and here), I wanted to take a moment on the blog to express how sorely he will be missed by me and the rest of McCarter’s staff. Also I had a funny picture of the two of us, so I thought I needed a good excuse to put it online before he left for good.

When I first arrived at McCarter, I was a directing/producing intern. I sat in an office directly in between Emily Mann’s office and Jeff Woodward’s office. From the get-go, Jeff was incredibly kind, supportive and attentive. He used to proof the minutes I took on our weekly Department Heads Meeting, and my goal was always to try to sneak in some editorial comments and make him laugh. He cut most of my zingers (artistic censorship!!!), but I felt like it was a fun game we played together.

As my internship ended and I joined McCarter’s full-time staff, I came to view Jeff as a collaborator. During my brief stint as Grants Writer, I was in Jeff’s office several times a week, strategizing a grant proposal or asking questions about our funders. One of the highlights of that year was working with Jeff on the New Jersey State Council on the Arts “Building Arts Participation” grant—a grant to support this blog and McCarter’s online media.

To all of us on staff, Jeff is fair, thoughtful and considerate. Under his leadership, McCarter has added an additional theater space to our building (the Berlind Theatre, a $14.1 million dollar campaign) and McCarter’s endowment has grown from $300,000 to $12,000,000. More importantly, staff retention during Jeff’s tenure has been enviable; our current full-time staff has worked at McCarter an average of 9.8 years—a testament to Jeff’s leadership and the health of our institution.

Thank you, Jeff, for everything you have brought McCarter. We’ll miss you terribly, but hopefully we’ll keep seeing you around the building. Although now, you have to pay for your tickets.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.