After having its doors closed for a brief time, the historic Columbia Theatre is ready to reopen with a bang this week with a performance by Jacob Bryant.

The business is newly managed by Texas-based Meta MoJo, under the guidance of CEO Mandy “MJ” Brickey-Godfrey, a Scioto County native and Shawnee State University alum who manages major musical performances.

Christine Scott continues to own the company that keeps ownership of The Columbia Theatre building at 837 Gallia Street. In previous years, Christine Scott’s husband, Lee managed the building and events.

“We plan to bring quality entertainment to Portsmouth, Scioto County, and the surrounding area, including live music, comedy, films, family events, and things like ‘Ohio State nights,’ where we project the game on a large screen and do a game night fair and fun,” Brickey-Godfrey said. “Also, ‘Townie Tuesday’ will be local acoustic sets geared at sharing with other locals, tourists, and college students.”

Brickey-Godfrey says, despite being Texas-based, the group is working hard to keep their finger on the pulse of Portsmouth development, politics, plans, and more.

“We will follow currently established public planning to aid in the transition of downtown Portsmouth into an arts and entertainment district and go to great lengths to support this mission, including lending our solid national network of organizations, people, and entities with whom we have worked with on various projects in the past to advise where needed,” Brickey-Godfrey explained. “We want to work with area commerce, enrichment, and improvement organizations to strategically plan our events to complement other areas’ businesses, initiatives, orgs, and efforts. We want Portsmouth businesses to thrive along with us and reap the tax-dollar benefits. Working with each other and not against them will benefit area businesses and those spending their hard-earned dollars in Portsmouth and at Scioto County establishments. There is already a Portsmouth Arts Council that is more geared towards children and, by all accounts, is doing an excellent job serving the people here, but we hope to unify a solid commerce-based arts council as well.”

In addition to that, Meta MoJo is looking at safety while looking at new entertainment opportunities in the building.

“Safety is our top priority, and we will enlist Portsmouth Police for a while,” Brickey-Godfrey said. “At the same time, we will work to build a well-vetted security team and hopefully spark a downtown and area security council that works together collaboratively, as you see in towns and cities that see robust gains from tourism dollars.”

They’ve also assessed their status in balancing entertainment and alcohol.

“We are an entertainment venue that serves alcohol,” Brickey-Godfrey said. “Not a bar that may or may not have entertainment.”

Jacob Bryant, opening the building under new life, is an award-winning Nashville artist. This will be a stop on his “Bar Stool Preacher” tour featuring Johnathon Cox on February 10.

Seating will begin at 5:30 p.m. and Greenup’s Jonathan Cox will open the show at 7. Jacob Bryant will open his performance at 8 p.m.

Bryant recently made his Opry debut and wrote the hit “Out There” with Luke Combs. Bryant’s most popular song, “Poor Whiskey On My Grave,” had 12 million plays on Spotify alone and topped rocking country charts nationwide.

Brickey-Godfrey said so much heart has gone into the reopening of The Columbia.

“A downtown should represent what a city and surrounding area treasurers most,” Brickey-Godfrey said. “To name a few things — culture, commerce, education, entertainment, and the future. We need safe venues and cityscapes for not only the people of Portsmouth but the students that bring revenue to the area. Shawnee State University has hundreds of residential students from outside of Scioto County who live on campus and near downtown who would welcome a new entertainment venue.”

You can learn more about Meta MoJo and Brickey-Godfrey by visiting metamojopro.com or mjbrickey.com.

Reach Joseph Pratt at (740) 353-3101, by email at [email protected], © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved