Allison Larena

Ms. Larena served as Executive Director and now serves as President and CEO of the Mayo Performing Arts Center which houses The Community Theatre since May 2002. She is responsible for overseeing all administrative, financial and operational aspects of the organization. Under her leadership, Ms. Larena has been instrumental in transforming the theatre into a full fledged performing arts center and growing the annual operating budget from $1.5 million to approximately $13 million. As a result, the venue now welcomes more than 200,000 patrons to 200 events annually, generates over $9 million in ticket sales and has an estimated impact of $15 million dollars on the local economy.

While establishing the Mayo Performing Arts Center as one of New Jersey’s most popular venues to see worldrenowned entertainers such as Diana Ross, Tony Bennett, BB King, Liza Minnelli, Rob Thomas, John Legend and Ringo Starr, equally important has been the establishment of an extensive arts education program. Under Ms. Larena’s leadership, the Theatre annually touches the lives of tens of thousands of children, many getting their first live theatrical experience, whether through in-theatre school performances, the Center’s Performing Arts School, in-school residency programs, and outreach programs at local community based organizations.

Ms. Larena also spearheaded the Theatre’s completed fundraising campaign totaling $10 million dollars for renovation projects which expanded and upgraded the Theatre, built in 1937 as a vaudeville/movie house, into a state-of-the-art facility. Due to the extensive growth of the organization, the theatre is now privileged to hold the designation of Major Presenting Organization by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In spring, 2012, Ms. Larena was awarded by the Arts Council of the Morris Area (now Morris Arts) the honor of “Arts Advocate of the Year” and soon after was appointed to serve on the Board of Trustees of ArtPride New Jersey, an arts advocacy group that works to increase awareness and support of the arts on local, state and national levels. Ms. Larena now proudly serves as ArtPride’s Secretary. Ms. Larena also serves on the board for the Morris County Tourism Bureau. In March, 2016 Ms. Larena was awarded NJBIZ’s “The Best Fifty Women in Business”.

Ms. Larena has more than 20 years of related experience and education in arts management. Before joining the MPAC staff in May of 2002, Ms. Larena spent eight years working as the Arts Center Administrator for the Garden State Arts Center Foundation and Arts Center Manager for the Garden State Arts Center before it privatized. In this time, Ms. Larena supervised programming and operations for the performance series held at the arts center in Holmdel, NJ. For the Garden State Arts Center Foundation, she booked the Cultural Fund’s free performance series presented at the PNC Bank Arts Center as well as theaters throughout the state, directed fundraising efforts and coordinated all special events. From 1991 to 1994, Ms. Larena served as General Manager of John Harms Center For The Arts (now Bergen PAC) in Englewood, NJ, where she managed theatre day-to-day operations, selected programs and handled artist bookings.

Ms. Larena is a graduate of Montclair State University where she received a Master of Arts degree in Theatre Arts/Speech Communication and Rutgers University where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts/Speech.