Brianna Pena happily embraces her standing as one of the youngest ticketing executives working in the live events space. Let’s get it out of the way right up front. She’s 23! And she is the Director of Ticketing for the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix.
“Yes, I’m 23,” she says. “And I do get asked a lot, especially by women older than me, ‘How did you get here?!’ I have to give credit to the universe. Thank you so much! It wasn’t just me. It was something else that said I needed to be where I am. But advice-wise, you need to be bold and you need to be confident in yourself and in your abilities. If you’re not confident in yourself, then why should anyone else be? Why should they trust you to do the job that they’re hiring for or that you have the opportunity to take? Believe in yourself first so you can show other people you’re capable.”
Brianna Pena
As it turns out, it also helps to have an awesome mother. “My mom is for the lack of a better term, a bad-ass b*tch!” Pena exclaims. “She is my idol in my life. If I could be like anyone, I would be like her. What she told me when I was younger, before she found out I wanted to do theater with my life was ‘You have to think and act like a white, straight, middle-aged man and you will get anything you want in life. Anything! Use your words like they do. You don’t think about what other people think of you, because they definitely don’t.’ So, I’ve really used that … and not in a rude or disrespectful way. But it’s allowed me to be candid. It’s allowed me to be honest. It’s allowed me to stand up for myself.”
She continues, “I hear those silly words of hers all of the time, and it’s funny that she’s the one who said them because she’s this short, little Mexican woman! I don’t know if she knows how impactful that advice was and has been.”
The arts began having an impact on Pena at an early age. She traces her love of live performance back to 2016 when she first began performing and directing in high school. Not long after graduation, she became a theatre management intern for the Vista Center for the Arts in Surprise, Arizona. She served that venue for two years and eight months and eventually earned her first paid, professional job as Box Office Manager at Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix in May 2023. “I was able to get a full-time position working 40 hours a week doing what I loved with people who I loved … [chuckling] for minimum wage!”
Her current position opened up this past May, and she has been Director of Ticketing for the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix ever since. She says, “I get to manage all facets of the box office including ticketing strategies, pricing, reports, customer service and so forth. A lot of times, it’s my job to collaborate with the promoters in order to make sure things are being executed with excellence and that everyone is happy. It often takes a lot of time getting to know the promoter, knowing what to expect and what is going to work for us, as well.”
Pena continues, “Additionally, I oversee analytics. And when I say ‘oversee,’ [laughing] I’m the one who does them. If there is a discrepancy in the accounting, I pull some Etix reports, which is the ticketing system we use, and try to figure it out. So far, we have been able to figure things out. I also manage a couple of employees in our box office.”
The Celebrity Theatre is regarded as one of Phoenix’s most unique historic landmarks, dating back to 1963. The round building was originally designed as a multi-purpose conference center that could be transformed into a concert venue during the winter months. The theatre opened on January 13, 1964, with the musical “South Pacific” starring Betsy Palmer. In 1978, the venue gained national notoriety when comedian George Carlin recorded his HBO stand-up special “George Carlin: Again!” in the round at Celebrity Theatre.
In the years since, the Celebrity has hosted a number of the world’s most accomplished musicians — everyone from Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and the late Whitney Houston to Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar and Smashing Pumpkins — and funniest comedians. In addition to Carlin, Chris Rock, Nate Bargatze and the late Don Rickles have performed there.
Pena marvels at the talent that has played at the Celebrity since she came onboard. But it’s the audience that she keeps top of mind. “I absolutely love being a part of some of the best nights of people’s lives,” she states, “which they have said with their actual words to me. It’s wonderful being in a job where you are seeing other people happy. I also love knowing my employees are making us invisible. Because at the end of the day, we shouldn’t be notable. Attendees’ focus should always be on the concert or the event or the comedian or whoever/whatever they’re seeing. We should be invisible. They shouldn’t even notice us unless we step in and need to do something extra.”
The job is not without its challenges, though. She says, “In this industry, finding a work-life balance is extremely difficult. This is especially true for women. I feel like, as a woman, there is more expected of us. I feel like it is seen differently if we take a break as opposed to another human being. It’s seen in a different light, and that’s unfortunate. I will give my 100%, but not 100% of the time. Because that’s just not sustainable. I am happy to be THE hardest worker. I just can’t do it all of the time. There are a LOT of challenges in finding a work-life balance in that way.”
Pena concludes, “On a lighter note, someone once told me, ‘No one notices when things go right. But they notice when something goes wrong.’ I feel like in ticketing, that’s very true. No news is good news. If I don’t hear anything during an on-sale from the promoter or the artist’s team or anyone else, then we did OK. We did our job!”
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