The Community Theatre opened on 23 December 1937 with Selznick's Nothing Sacred, the flagship of Walter Reade's New Jersey cinema chain. By the 1980s it had fallen into disrepair and stood idle for close to a decade. It reopened in 1994 as a performing arts centre with a gala by the Kirov Orchestra and the pianist Alexander Slobodyanik; air conditioning installed in 2007 made a year-round season possible. The name changed to Mayo Performing Arts Center in 2011, completing a three-year transition.