The Colonial Theatre
Executive Director
Jennifer Carlson
Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, PA recently named Jennifer Carlson as Executive Director following a national search led by Dunleavy & Associates.
Prior to joining Colonial Theatre, Ms. Carlson served as Executive Director of the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, Connecticut, which preserves the maritime heritage and marine environment of that waterway. Ms. Carlson is returning to her native Pennsylvania, having previously served as Executive Director of a national landmark, Germantown’s Wyck Historic House. At Wyck House, Ms. Carlson helped secure a Save America’s Treasures federal grant and also developed its Home Farm Club: a collaboratively run kitchen garden.
Ms. Carlson gained theatre management experience as Program Director for Historic Philadelphia; Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music & Dance; and Assistant Dean at La Salle University's School of Arts & Sciences. Early in her career, she was also a Box Office Manager at People's Light and Theatre Company in Malvern.
Ms. Carlson graduated from Temple University with a degree in theatre and spent her high school years at the historic Capitol Theatre (now Appell Center for the Performing Arts in York, PA). Ms. Carlson has dedicated her career to providing shared experiences in arts spaces, which she views as platforms for education, human connection, and empowerment. “The mission of the Colonial Theatre - to nurture community by celebrating the power of film and the performing arts to entertain, inform, and reveal meaning - is more important now than ever,” she emphasized. “I look forward to engaging with the vibrant Phoenixville community, restoring the historic 1903 auditorium, and seeking out ways to ensure its future as a premier multi-arts center.”