In 2002, an old movie theater was struggling in downtown Kent. Despite offering $1 movies, the 1927 theater, owned by the University Plaza Theatre company, wasn’t exactly packing in frugal filmgoers.

Meanwhile, the city’s folk-music-loving community director of development was itching to get more folks downtown, and the Kent State Folk Festival, under the aegis of the nonprofit Western Reserve Folk Arts Association, wanted to branch out from the Kent State University campus.

The city's and the school’s dovetailing desires all came together in the form of Tom Simpson.

The Canton- and Massillon-bred Kent State graduate had booked shows as a student and then learned at the feet of music-industry legends Jules and Mike Belkin. Simpson was called in, and with the help of “a couple of other guys,” changed the movie house into the Kent Stage in a month’s time.

“It was pretty damn busy,” Simpson, 65, said from his office at the venue, where he is the director and primary booker along with his wife, Richele Charlton, assistant director and empress of ticketing, and a small staff buoyed by volunteers.

“The theater had a wall between and was divided into two. So we had to take down that wall, and the wall went all the way across the stage. [There was] heating and cooling stuff on the stage and no one had even been backstage forever and a day, and it was unbelievable how funky it was there,” he said.

“Back in the day, way before you and I were around, they used to have carbon arcs [heated carbon rods that produce a bright illumination] for the lights, so the lights would produce smoke backstage and the floors were black. But underneath all that, they were originally red.”

Simpson and the crew worked 18-hour days throughout the month, and despite not having an in-house sound system and everyone in the cleanup crew also having “real jobs,” they managed to get the Kent Stage and its 642 seats ready in time for the first show. That debut evening featured former Kent Poet Laureate Merle Mollenkopf reading a poem by Robert Burns, some tunes by Kent singer/songwriter Hal Walker, and Folk Festival veteran singer/songwriter Lucy Kaplansky.

Simpson admits they had no idea if the show would work, but “it went great. We had a few hundred people here and everything went smooth.”

He noted that Kent staple Woodsy’s Music helped out with the sound and tech, but he can’t remember what they used for lighting.

“It was very, very primitive and very folksy, primitive to what we have today,” he said.

Busy schedule

Celebrating its 17th anniversary this month, the Kent Stage now has a full slate of about 150 shows a year by national, international and local acts, as well as a stellar reputation as one of the great independent small venues in the country, earning praise from concertgoers and artists.

Across the years, the Kent Stage (as it was imaginatively dubbed by Simpson) has played host to scores of lesser-known, well-known and legendary artists from nearly all genres. The lengthy list includes 12 artists who performed at Woodstock and jazz greats Bill Frisell, Al Di Meola, Esperanza Spalding and Pat Metheny. There have been classic rockers from all eras. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash have played there, though no Neil Young yet (“I’m not holding my breath on that one,” Simpson said).

Also gracing the stage have been Monkees Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz, L.A. punk legends X, Northeast Ohio favorite Todd Rundgren, bluesman John Mayall, British cult hero Robyn Hitchcock, late bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, singer/songwriter Richard Thompson, “Factory of Sadness” comedian Mike Polk and, of course, plenty of folk artists: Joan Baez, Rhiannon Giddens and two former Eagles, Timothy B. Schmit and Don Felder. That’s just in the last four years.

Early on, opening a live music venue in a then-unrevitalized downtown didn’t seem like the best business plan, and Simpson said for many years they wondered what they’d gotten themselves into.

“Kent was a lot different back in 2002," he said. "The other thing is, how stupid is it to open a nonprofit venue shortly after 9/11. The economy is in the tank and there are no grants, everything dried up and it was slowed down. But it was like 'Yeah, what the hell. We’re in this deep, might as well keep going.' And I'm a very stubborn and bullheaded and focused person, and I’m not a quitter and I don’t take no for an answer too well. So we just kept pushing and pushing and pushing.”

In 2004, Simpson, Charlton, Western Reserve Folk Arts Association and a silent partner purchased the building and a few adjacent storefronts, and the Kent Stage kept chugging.

The ideal show

For Simpson, a successful show is when both the artist and the (ideally sold out) audience all leave happy and looking forward to returning. But he’s acutely aware of the vagaries of the live music business and knows it can be a wild ride.

“There were some runs that kicked ass and some runs where we got our asses kicked, but the last few years have been exceptional for us. For [the business] is better because we now have a reputation in the business. I used to call everybody and most people call me, even though we hardly use the phone anymore. Everything is email now,” he chuckled.

A few years ago, Simpson booked a young band from Nashville who told him “everybody knows about you” and the group was honored to play there.

“It’s pretty good. It makes you feel good for a minute,” Simpson said of the praise the venue receives.

Simpson and Charlton still work some very long days, but he maintains a healthy perspective on his chosen path.

“It could be a lot of pressure, but this is all self-inflicted wounds. I pressure myself because I book almost everything that comes in here and if it doesn’t work, it’s my fault. It’s never the band's fault. I still work 12-hour days on a normal basis, if you want to call it work,” he said.

“I tell bands that all the time. I say, 'Look, you guys, we could all have real jobs. We’re very lucky to do what we do.' Because they need to be reminded of that sometimes. We all do, man. Sometimes it’s 'Aw, this sucks' and then it’s, 'Wait a second, I could be out there in the cold, building some building next to Lake Erie, in January up on the lakefront 20 stories up on raw steel, you know.' That’s probably the most sucky thing I can think of at the moment. So we are very fortunate,” Simpson said.

Next up for the Kent Stage are more upgrades, designed to maintain the theater's intimate feel and atmosphere. The lighting, sound and green room have already been renovated, plus the venue will soon be entering a partnership with Kent State University that will include improving and adding restrooms, upgrading the facade and the lobby, and new seats. Ideally, those improvements will all come to fruition “before the 18th anniversary and then I’ll quit,” he said with a hearty laugh.

He's joking, of course. Simpson and Charlton won't be getting a "real job" anytime soon.

Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Like him on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1lNgxml, and follow him on Twitter @malcolmabramABJ.