WESTBROOK – The Westbrook Performing Arts Center, part of the newly constructed Westbrook Middle School, was touted by its supporters as a classy, 1,000-seat venue for concerts, live performances and special events.

The center was an expensive sell to voters in May 2007, costing $4.1 million not covered by state reimbursement. The idea, proponents said at the time, was that it would eventually become self-sustaining, Westbrook’s answer to popular, medium-sized venues in the area, such as the State Theatre or Port City Music Hall in Portland, or the South Portland High School Auditorium.

It’s been more than a year since the center opened, and so far the flood of new acts to the Paper City has not happened. Richard Thompson, the British songwriter, guitarist and recording and performing musician, appears at the center Wednesday, Aug. 31 – the first notable act. Experts, performers, promoters and theater managers all agree that the center is a fine venue that could attract quite a repertoire of performers, but it will require a heavy marketing push first.

As of now, the center is active, but on a low-key basis. There have been some local events, such as beauty pageants, the Off Ramp music competition, and performances by the Portland Ballet Company. Even some school events have passed on the center, most notably the Westbrook High School graduation. Both the class of 2010 and 2011 voted to hold commencement ceremonies at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, citing tradition and a larger seating capacity.

Jamie Grant, the center’s manager, acknowledged this week that the Thompson concert is a big boost the center has not yet seen since it opened. But, he said, the venue is busy, between scheduled performances and in-house school-related productions and events.

“The calendar is actually pretty full,” he said. “The school uses a lot of time in September.”

From its opening until June 2011, Grant said, the center hosted about 97 events, seating 43,000 people, with ticket sales generating $85,000 in revenue.

“I think we’re moving at as fast a pace as we can,” he said.

Part of the problem is that Grant is the center’s only official staff member. It’s his job to market the center, but it’s also his job to make sure events run smoothly. For many of the 97 events he mentioned, Grant said, he had to open the center and essentially run the building during the event.

Grant acknowledged that he needs to spend more time selling the center than running events in it.

“Every minute that I’m in the theater doing a show is another minute that I’m not out of the theater getting someone else to do a show,” he said.

Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a concert tour industry magazine based in Fresno, Calif., agreed that a venue like the center needs someone to announce its presence to potential performers.

“You’ve got to have a point of contact for those people, especially when you’re brand new,” he said. “You’ve got to have somebody to wave their hand and say, ‘We’re here.’”

Aggressive marketing is even more important when trying to get acts – and their fans – to come to Westbrook. Michael Levine, production director at Acorn Productions, said his stage performers often have trouble getting people to leave Portland, even to one of its closest suburbs.

“The perception that people have is that Westbrook is ‘way out there,’” he said.

That’s a problem, he said, when one considers the center is competing with popular, established venues within the greater Portland area.

“There’s a lot of options that are more on people’s radar than Westbrook,” he said.

John York, auditorium manager at the South Portland Auditorium, agreed that Westbrook can seem like a longer distance away, compared to his own venue.

“We’re just over the bridge, kind of a stone’s throw from Portland,” he said.

York said it helps for a theater to point out more than just its existence. Some sort of unique feature will help sell the stage, and tickets.

“There almost has to be a ‘catch’ for your venue,” he said.

The cost to a performer to rent the space is an issue, too. York said his auditorium often underprices its rental rates, and if the center’s costs are too high, no amount of marketing is going to help.

“That’s the kind of thing that would scare me away if I were looking for a place,” he said.

On the center’s website, rents are free for school-related events. Beyond that, prices range from $1,000-$2,000, depending on whether the renter is a nonprofit group, and whether the renter is local.

Grant said that the highest price, $2,000, is for a nonresident, for-profit performer, and includes lighting and sound equipment. Grant said he prices the center to be competitive, and noted that, by comparison, Merrill Auditorium would charge $4,000 rent to a similar organization, with no extra equipment.

“You just get a theater,” Grant said.

According to the South Portland Auditorium’s website, rates are $800 for for-profit performers, with additional fees specified for sound equipment.

Grant, describing the center’s marketing needs, said, “That’s the part that’s the challenge right now.”

To that end, the City Council in May authorized spending $20,000 to assist Grant with marketing. Grant said ideally that money should be spent on hiring a technician to run events, freeing him up to do the marketing the center needs.

At the moment, Grant said, the center is still in the process of hiring someone. Meanwhile, the booking of Richard Thompson is a sign, he said, of things beginning to pick up.

Dave McLaughlin is with Heptunes, a booking group that helps arrange performances for national acts throughout northern New England, including Richard Thompson. McLaughlin said he came across the center by chance: one of his production members is part of a stagehands union in Portland, and told him about the venue.

McLaughlin called the Westbrook Performing Arts Center “a first-rate venue,” and referred to it as being in the Portland area, not as an out-of-the-way locale.

“Portland has always appreciated music, and the performing arts center has a very comfortable capacity,” he said.

McLaughlin said if the Thompson concert goes well there, he expects to send more acts to the center, which he praised as a sign of a community that supports artists and culture.

“When there’s a nice theater coming available, we try to make use of it,” he said.

Pollstar editor Bongiovanni said Portland is often overlooked by national acts who only expect to appear in Boston if they’re appearing in New England at all. But, he said, the performing arts center is a “very viable tour venue” if it gets a reputation for being able to fill the hall.

“If you can sell 1,000 seats, there’ll be a lot of acts looking to add a date to their tour,” he said.

Jamie Grant, the manager at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center at the middle school, is responsible for all aspects of the facility, from rigging the lights to booking the acts. (Photo by Rich Obrey)