The Kent Stage is a 642-seat theater that was built in 1927 in Kent, Ohio

Kent, Ohio

Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeastern Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 27,906 at the 2000 United States Census and 28,904 in the 2010 Census...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Since 2002, it has been used as a performance venue for live music, theater, and film.

History

In 1927, it opened as the Flannigan and Steele Theater, a movie theater

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

, and has been a place for entertainment in Kent for 83 years. The Western Reserve Folk Arts Association, a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

, opened the Kent Stage in 2002, primarily holding various musical performances by nationally known performers at the venue.

Many well-known artists have performed at the Kent Stage, including such names as Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley

Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...

, Joan Baez

Joan Baez

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, Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills

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, Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson

Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...

, Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...

, Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton

Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...

, Richie Havens

Richie Havens

Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...

, Janis Ian

Janis Ian

Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...

, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice

Tony Rice

Tony Rice is an American acoustic guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitar players in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz.Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New...

, Melanie

Melanie Safka

Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk is an American singer-songwriter. Known professionally as simply Melanie, she is best known for her hits "Brand New Key", "Ruby Tuesday" and "Lay Down ".-Early career:...

, Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright III

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, The Kingston Trio

The Kingston Trio

The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...

, Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...

, John Gorka

John Gorka

John Gorka is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."-Biography:...

, Leon Redbone

Leon Redbone

Leon Redbone is a singer and guitarist specializing in interpretations of early 20th-century music, including jazz and blues standards and Tin Pan Alley classics....

, Al Stewart

Al Stewart

Al Stewart is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician.Stewart came to stardom as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s, and developed his own unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history.He is...

, Pete Best

Pete Best

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, Ralph Stanley

Ralph Stanley

Ralph Stanley , also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley, is an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing.-Biography:...

 and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Sam Bush

Sam Bush

Sam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...

, John Cowan

John Cowan

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, Vassar Clements

Vassar Clements

Vassar Clements was a Grammy Award- winning American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical...

, Rosanne Cash

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of the late country music singer Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin....

, The Wailers, Little Feat

Little Feat

Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles....

, Nickel Creek

Nickel Creek

Nickel Creek was an American progressive acoustic music trio consisting of Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins . The band was founded in 1989 and released 6 albums between 1993 and 2006...

, India Aire, Machine Gun Kelly

Machine Gun Kelly (rapper)

Richard Colson Baker , best known by his stage name Machine Gun Kelly or MGK, is an American rapper from Cleveland, Ohio. His stage name was given for his rapid-fire lyrical flow. He is known for his two mixtapes, 100 Words and Running and Lace Up. He also has been featured in XXL. In mid 2011 MGK...

, and many others. The venue has also hosted the Children's Musical Theater of Kent, the Kent Blues Festival, Up From The River Music Festival, and since 2002 the Kent State Folk Festival.