In a recent article for American Theatre Magazine, McCarter Theatre Center’s new artistic director, Sarah Rasmussen, talks about the forward-looking legacy she inherits, and about how post-pandemic theatres may resemble startups.

I mean, everything I do—and this is why I’m so moved to be in this theatre—is sort of based on the Emily Webb principle of, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?” That’s always been the heartbeat under my work: I want theatre to be the place that reminds us that we’re living life while we’re living it.
— Sarah Rasmussen

Rasmussen also talks about the possibilities of being at a theater on a University campus.

I was really drawn to the relationship between a theatre and university. I ran the MFA program at UT Austin as a professor before I went to the Jungle. So the potential between an academic institution that’s very devoted to liberal arts—it’s not a training program here, so it’s unlike other theatre or university relations in many ways, but the relationship between the university and and the theatre is really intriguing to me. I’m a big Jill Dolan fan, and Tracy K. Smith runs the Lewis Center right across the street, and Jane Cox at the Lewis Center—just such amazing people. I felt very spellbound by the conversations that happened during the search process and what was possible here.
— Sarah Rasmussen

Read the full interview between Rasmussen and Rob Weinert-Kendt »