Special Programming Director
William W. Lockwood, Jr. has been responsible for McCarter’s special programs for almost half a century and is currently the senior arts presenter in the United States in terms of continuous service. As Special Programming Director, his association with McCarter goes back even more than 50 years to the days when he produced his first events at the venue while a Princeton undergraduate. Since 1963, he has brought thousands of world-renowned and emerging artists in every genre to McCarter audiences—music (both classical and pop), dance, jazz, variety, family, cabaret, and even film. Mr. Lockwood is McCarter’s unofficial historian and the author of McCarter Theatre: 1930-2005, a memoir published at the time of the building’s 75th anniversary in 2005. From 1966 to l993, he served as Programming Director for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a tenure during which he helped create the Great Performers Series and the Mostly Mozart Festival (which he named), programs that both continue to this day. In l997, he helped inaugurate the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark (NJPAC) as its Principal Programming Associate, a title he continues to hold in addition to that at McCarter. He also served in the same capacity as the chief programming officer for the first two seasons of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Mr. Lockwood continues to curate an annual film series for the Priceton Adult School entitled “Second Chance Cinema,” and has served for 40 years as the Graduate Treasurer and Resident Faculty Advisor to the Princeton Triangle Club, of which he is a Trustee Emeritus.