Perry Payne

Executive Director

Email: Perry@operaonthejames.org

Phone: (434) 528-3397

An experienced arts administrator, Perry Payne Millner led the Virginia Theatre Association as Executive Director and Charlottesville's Paramount Theater as Creative Director. Most recently, she served Virginia Department of Health on its COVID-19 mitigation team where she has worked since 2020, the beginning of the pandemic in central Virginia.

In New York City, she was a Senior Vice President in the Lincoln Center office of Douglas Elliman, one of the two largest real estate firms in the city. She led a team of seven real estate agents, all of whom had worked in entertainment and the arts in New York. Additionally, she served from 2006-2010 as Senior Warden of St.

Michael’s Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side, with its 87-acre, historic Cemetery in Astoria, Queens. She chaired St. Michael’s Buildings Committee, and served for seven years as president of her Washington Heights co-op.

A free-lance writer, editor, and visual artist, Perry has worked extensively in musical theatre and cabaret as creator, performer and producer. She was an original investor in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical, “In the Heights.”

 A graduate of EC Glass High School and Lynchburg College (now University of Lynchburg), Perry has served on local boards including the Academy Center of the Arts, Lynchburg Historical Foundation, and Endstation Theatre Company. She lives in Lynchburg with her husband Victor Millner and a springer spaniel named Pearl.