ANNE VAN DRUFF
MPAC president and CEO Allison Larena, far left, and MPAC donors and supporters break ground on the institution’s ambitious expansion and restoration project.
With supporters, dignitaries and members of the press in attendance, The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown broke ground, May 6, on a $65 million expansion that will include the creation of a new arts and education center, in a separate building behind the theater, and improvements to the main theater and building. Between speeches, and before the ceremonial “first dig,” 15 teenagers from MPAC’s Performing Arts Company sang an inspirational version of “This Is the Moment,” from the musical “Jekyll & Hyde.”
An artist’s rendering of the Ilene and Bruce Jacobs Arts & Education Center.
“Today is about more than construction,” MPAC president and CEO Allison Larena told the crowd, gathered together in a tent. “It’s about possibility. It’s about the future. And most importantly, it’s about what we will create together through a vibrant new home for arts education: A transformation that will serve this community for generations to come.”
MPAC’s new Ilene and Bruce Jacobs Arts & Education Center will include seven education studios and classrooms and a 150-capacity rehearsal/performance space.
“In recent years, demand for our education programs has surged,” Larena said. “Our performing arts school now serves more than 1,300 students annually, and we continue to see wait lists even as we utilize additional offsite space. At the same time, the scale of the performances we present has outgrown the limits of our current facility. And that is why this project is so important.
“The new Jacobs Arts & Education Center will allow us to expand access for students, eliminate wait lists, and provide a dedicated space needed to support a growing performing arts school and a world class performing arts organization. … This project is an investment, not just in a building, but it’s an investment in young people discovering their potential — in artists cultivating and sharing their gifts.”
ANNE VAN DRUFF
The podium at the May 6 groundbreaking ceremony.
MPAC started buying the properties necessary to make the expansion happen about 10 years ago. In conjunction with the groundbreaking, it announced the launch of the public phase of a $22.5 million campaign to help fund the expansion. “Build Our Future: The Campaign for MPAC” has raised close to $20 million of it so far, including a $7.5 million lead gift from Ilene and Bruce Jacobs. For information, visit mayoarts.org/support/build-our-future.
In the main MPAC building, seats will be repaired, and walls and ceilings will be restored. A new meeting and reception space, called The Starlight Veranda, will be built, as will an additional loading bay, a two-tiered parking deck for MPAC staff, a new art gallery space, additional administrative space, and a new freight elevator.
Backstage space will be renovated, and work will be done on the theater’s lobby and outdoor plaza.
“Today, we’re not simply celebrating a construction project,” said Stephen H. Shaw, director of Morris County’s Board of Commissioners. “We are celebrating a bold investment in people, in creativity, and in the future of arts in our community. Just as visionaries transformed a 1937 movie house into the world class performing arts center we cherish today, we now stand at a threshold of another transformation — one that will open doors, spark imaginations, and shape lives for generations.”
An artist’s rendering of the Ilene and Bruce Jacobs Arts & Education Center.
The 150-capacity performance space in The Ilene and Bruce Jacobs Arts & Education Center will have retractable seating that will allow it to host many different kinds of shows. In a short interview before the ceremony started, Larena said that at the end of each semester, MPAC’s performing arts students showcase their skills for friends and family members, but it sometimes has been difficult to find open dates in MPAC’s main theater.
“This performance space will enable the students to present those final showcases,” Larena said, “and when we don’t have Performing Arts School performances, perhaps we’ll be able to use it for singer-songwriters, homegrown talent, and to cultivate, perhaps, some spoken word, or smaller comedy-type events. The opportunities are endless on what we can use that space for, in the future.”
The work that will be done in the main building will mean it will probably have to close in the summer of 2027, for a couple of months, she said. The theater is usually less busy in the summer than it is at other times of the year.
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