The median amount of time that the American worker has been with their current employer is 4.1 years, according to a report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in January. All the more remarkable that Leland Stein, director of programming at Arlington’s Regent Theatre, is still reporting to work at 7 Medford St. after 25 years of service.

At the theatre, Stein, an amiable presence with spectacles, a silver mop top and an unparalleled grasp on the local arts scene, has cultivated an inclusive, community-focused schedule of diverse entertainment, guided by a simple mantra – in his words, “Our niche is that we have no niche.”

On Friday, friends, fans and music lovers will celebrate the quarter-century milestone with a concert by another local stalwart, the Dennis Brennan Band. Leland Stein will be there, like he always is, welcoming guests to his home away from home.

The Indie sat down with Leland Stein for a wide-ranging interview to talk about his time at the Regent Theatre: how it all started, the changing face of Arlington and what have been the most meaningful experiences that keep him coming back for more.

In the beginning…

When did you arrive at the Regent? Did you picture this as a place you were going to spend 25 years?

I had no idea, really. I was in the music business for years, managed a record store, I worked for Rounder Records doing marketing and then directing international sales. The music business started to go downhill and the Internet boom and dotcom crash was happening in the late ‘90s.

Late ’90s, okay.

In 2000 I left Rounder Records because there wasn’t really a great opportunity to advance there, and more money to be made elsewhere. I experienced two layoffs, as many people did with startups, and I found myself without work and a young family. I lived in Arlington – actually I’ve been living in Arlington now for 45 years.

I picked up the Arlington Advocate back when we had a printed newspaper. There was a big article about this gentleman, Gary Adelson, who just bought the Regent Theatre in Arlington. And I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s my hometown theater. I wonder what that’s all about?’ I sent a letter. I still have the letter that I sent pitching myself.

Gary took a chance that I could help the team that was forming, [which included] Rick Stavros, my co-owner here for a while. He had been here since like 1993 and had begun the process of turning it from a film house into a performing arts center. Gary, myself, Todd Windmill – the original sound guy and tech director – none of us really had experience doing this. Except for Rick. We kind of felt our way through it for a few years, and it was tough. Your tendency is to book or program what you like. That doesn’t mean people will come.

Early forays in programming

What was here before? Were you starting from scratch?

The Regent was never out of use. It was a second-run theater for a while, showing second-run films. There was a while where I believe The Brattle was closed and they were programming films at the Regent. And Rick had started to bring in some theater groups and do some concerts, but nothing on a regular basis. 

Right around that time, there was an emerging South Asian community in this part of metro Boston and a lot of programming of Bollywood films. The Indian restaurant Punjab, which is up Massachusetts Avenue, had its first location in the Regent building. So for a while it was kind of known as the Bombay Cinema, which was interesting.

When Gary bought the building in 2001, there was a jump blues revival, and his original idea [was booking those types of acts like] Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. 

Kind of like swing bands?

Yeah, and there was a scene where they would have pop-ups, renting out church basements and stuff. Gary heard that the basement space of the Regent was available. Then the previous owner said to him, “You want the whole building? It’s for sale.” 

So there wasn’t a “pass the baton” thing. It was more like restarting something that had never totally gone away, and the seeds were there for what came afterward.

What were your priorities as you settled into programming?

There wasn’t really a master plan. We all had kind of connections and relationships, in the music world in particular and with the Arlington Children’s Theatre, and kind of started there. As soon as we got established and people knew there was a venue here that was open to ideas, open to different programming, open to partnerships and was flexible in the kind of deals that were made, the word spread…

We started to get approached by people. We were independent. We had this venue. We didn’t really have restrictions. 

On Family Fun Saturdays, changing demographics, serving the Arlington community

Early on we used to do a series called Family Fun Saturdays. We built it as an alternative to TV and Saturday morning cartoons, to get kids out of the house and see what a live music performance is like.

We connected with a street performer who was in touch with a network of those people.

We built a series of live performances for kids and young parents or grandparents. The Coolidge was doing something at the time, so it wasn’t like it was unique – sometimes you look at what other venues are doing and, oh, if that’s working there, maybe we can try something here. It was a low ticket price and it was a great thing for the community, and parents really liked it because it was often the kids’ first exposure to live performance. We did that for many years.

It’s often difficult for parents to find places to bring their kids.

This was an occasion where there was a certain tolerance level that young kids will run around a little. 

My kids grew up in Arlington, and to some extent grew up [at the Regent]. My son Charles, who was 3 or 4 at the time when the Family Fun series was going, would come and hang out. Dan Foley, who was in a juggling duo called the Airborne Comedians and helped us program the series, was [waiting in the wings while I was] doing my welcome from the stage one day, and I said, “Here’s the man without whom none of this would happen” – and Charles, on cue, walked up the steps of the stage. Everybody was laughing…

Family Fun Saturdays lasted for a few years. Not much of a moneymaker, but It was successful as a community event and a really feel-good thing to do. Then the demographics changed and there were fewer families with young kids in Arlington – or, I don’t know, the audiences started shrinking.

Plus, as a small theater operation doing live shows on a Friday night, who wants to come in and wake up and do a live show on Saturday morning? It put some stress on the staffing, but looking at the history of the past 25 years, that was a very important component in the early years.

And it’s something we’ve lost. Twenty years after, could you bring something like that back? It’s a very interesting question.

Adventures in programming Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra

One example of how our programming developed unexpectedly early on was the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra. It was right when Gary restarted things, and he wanted to try things and figure out how to bring business to the theater. Alan [Ware] and Sal [Clemente] came to see a “Seven Samurai” 50th anniversary screening and said they had a rock band and just sort of casually asked, “Hey, are you looking for anyone? We have this idea for a rock orchestra. Is that something you might consider?” And we said yeah.

That established a partnership. Like many things, it took a long time to build it to where there was an audience that would come, but once they got established and people realized how special they were, and that this rock repertory company was doing stuff on a regular basis at The Regent, their audience started to expand. They became our house band, a rock orchestra, for 20-plus years.

Adventures in programming: The Amazing Acro Cats

What is the craziest act or show that you can recall? Does anything beat the Amazing Acro Cats?

The Cat Circus. Yeah, that’s a great one. Part of my issue now is I’ve been here for so long that I forget some of the shows, but obviously I haven’t forgotten the Amazing Acrocats. We weren’t doing the Family Fun series anymore, but it was a great thing for families. 

There’s crazy stories with that, because the first time they were here they packed up for the night and there was a cat left. And they said, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it tomorrow. They’ll be fine.” And of course motion detectors meant that it wasn’t fine. So the security alarm went off.

But they did recover the cat?

Oh, yeah, the cat was fine.

Adventures in programming, Tom Petty Night

What other shows returned over the years, and what has the experience of building up those audiences been like?

If you program something successful, it makes sense to bring it back on a regular basis, typically annually for like a one-off show or a film festival. It’s like, “Wow, people really love this. We have a good relationship with the band or the promoter or whomever. Let’s do it again, right?”

When you build it in a consistent basis, people will spread the word and say, “Hey, just went to this. It’s great. Make sure you get tickets for next year.”

Tom Petty Night is top of mind because we’re doing it again this year. The way that happened is I went to see Tom Petty. It was his last tour – at the Garden in 2017, I believe. I’m at the West Medford train station, on my way. And I bumped into someone I know who’s a musician, this guy Dino. And I said, “I have this extra ticket.” He’s like, “I know someone who’ll grab that ticket. He’s a Tom Petty freak. He went last night, but he’ll go again.”

He called up this guy, Greg Klima, who was on his way to a gig. Greg found someone else to do his gig so he could go to the Tom Petty show – that’s how much he loved Tom Petty. 

(My older brother, Jeff, who was a filmmaker, produced, created and directed videos during the heyday of MTV. He did a Tom Petty video, “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” and a concert film called “Pack Up the Plantation.” Greg was excited about that too.)

A couple months after that, Tom Petty died. I was at the Menotomy Grill. Greg was there. We kind of looked at each other and at the same time said we have to do a show – right then and there. He was, like, “I’m going to get the best musicians. You have the venue. Let’s do a Tom Petty night.”

I think it was that next February that we did the first one, and we decided to do it annually around the time of Tom Petty’s birthday. Next year will be the 10th. Tom Petty’s a popular music figure and resonates with a lot of people. Once people realized the level of musicianship – it’s a real tribute show, it’s not like anyone’s trying to impersonate Petty – that one got established. 

On tribute acts

The Regent presents original artists and tribute acts. Does the audience tend to prefer one? Or maybe there’s not one Regent audience?

There certainly isn’t one Regent Theatre audience. Over time we figured out that renting out the theater is a better business plan in general than booking your own talent and guaranteeing an artist. You’re at less risk of losing money when you’re renting the theater.

That doesn’t mean we don’t program. We do a mix of rentals, we buy shows, we do co-promotions. We became known as a good, affordable space to bring a show, and some of those people who were presenting would bring an audience with them. There’s a lot of Russian-language touring groups and a huge Russian-American population, just as one example. 

The core tribute shows we’ve done have always kind of focused on classic rock. It’s a nostalgia thing. Generally speaking, the person who likes the Eagles will like Tom Petty and may like Billy Joel. And the group we just talked about, our house band, the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra, their focus was also on classic rock of the ’60s and ’70s.

We’re a modest sized venue – 450 seats. There’s something to be said for the fact that the cost of seeing a premiere artist at an arena with the Ticketmasters and Live Nations of the world and the secondary ticket sellers becomes too costly for a lot of people. A tribute show is not necessarily the same as seeing the original artist, but if there are musicians performing the music that you want to hear live, people will come out to see it. 

It’s always a little bit of a predicament. You don’t want to be known as a place that does predominantly tribute shows, right? But that’s something that’s just naturally evolved and it works here. We’re still doing plenty of original music programming.

Adventures in programming: Duds

There’s a coach who said that at a certain point the pain of losing became more intense than the joy of winning. If you have a bunch of shows that do great, but then there’s one dud, does that stick with you and make programming less fun?

it’s kind of like a baseball season, right? We do so much here that if something doesn’t work, you have a chance in the next few days to have a winner.

There’s never been a lot of pressure that if something doesn’t work out someone’s in trouble. I don’t even think about those things.

Years ago there was a guy who did a Paul McCartney tribute. We didn’t really do the kind of vetting, I guess, that normally one would do. It was like, “He played with Paul McCartney’s guitar player,” so that’s good enough. And it was just an awful show. People were surprised because, you know, you have a certain quality of shows. People wonder, “How did that happen?”

On never taking the Regent Theatre nonprofit

There’s a trend toward a nonprofit model. The Regent never went in that direction. (Note: new ownership has established the theater as a for-profit “public benefit corporation.”) What’s intriguing or undesirable about that path?

That has been a constant discussion. 

When everything works well at a nonprofit and everyone on the board is in sync, it’s perfect and it makes a lot of sense – it’s easier to raise money and to fundraise for improvements or for special programming and so forth. But there’s something about losing independence. When you’re dependent on a board and everyone on the board has to agree to decide on something, it can hold things up. Or one person can end up being in the way. And consequently, you can’t make fast decisions or be totally independent.

We talked over the years about a hybrid: remain an independent business model, but with a “Friends of the Regent Theatre” nonprofit. We were going to populate that with a board based on the groups using the theater, nonprofits like the Legacy Dancers of the Dance Inn, who were our resident dance company for a while, Arlington Children’s Theater, people like that.

It never got to the point where it was like, “We have to do this.” We talked to experts and it could have easily happened at some point. It’s just one of those big-picture things that when you’re dealing with the day-to-day stuff, you never quite get there.

On not having a programming niche

One of the things I’ve always said is, “Our niche is that we have no niche.” We talked, half joking, about it being like the United Nations. We have a screening of a Nepali film, and Russian-language programming, the events the Tibetan community holds, and the Bulgarian community. You could put pins in the map around the world.

If what we do isn’t about community, we’re not really doing our job. We bring communities together to enjoy something. We also build a community through some of the programming.

On not viewing other venues as competition

I never view other venues as competition. For the most part, it’s really true. I don’t think we’re competing up against venues. We’re competing against people’s busy lives – working more than they should be working, and then they’re exhausted on their couch and thinking, “Oh, I’d love to go to that show, but I just don’t have the energy.”

The big takeaway

The concert coming up celebrates your 25 years at the theater. What’s your big takeaway from those years?

I never set out or never thought I would be the person who does the curtain speeches that welcomes the audience. It was one of those things like, ‘Well, no one else wants to do it, right?’ I’m basically an introvert. I don’t want to go up there. 

But after a time, well, this is like my home away from home. I’m comfortable here. People are here to have a good time or to have a good experience. There’s no reason to get stage fright or to be freaked about it. So that enabled me without trying to become that person. When people are leaving an event, I say thank you out in the lobby, and you get the one-on-one kind of feedback from people. 

What’s most rewarding is that you have an idea for a show or a program or acts that come year after year where people are going to love it and you know you’re going to recognize people. It makes it worthwhile.

Certainly with any kind of venue programming there are duds, shows you think will sell and they don’t, or things don’t go well. It can happen with any business. But if you look at the big picture and the kind of vibe that we have here that the audience is experiencing, really, the takeaway for me is that it’s rewarding and it’s gratifying that people have a great experience and feel good enough about it that they’ll tell you about it on their way out or on their way in. 

Part of that is doing something for an extended period of time and sticking with it, because it doesn’t always happen. This business has its ups and downs. 

Part of [what’s helped the Regent Theatre endure] is Gary Adelson being a friend and a great landlord to the theater. He didn’t set out for the building to become an art center, but over time it kind of did. You had the Regent Theatre, then the smaller space below became the Regent Underground Theatre, then you have a bookstore and rehearsal and studio space upstairs. It’s become the hub of a lot of activity, and that activity is focused on entertainment and the arts.