A Stage Without Curtains
Since 1981, Stained Glass Playhouse has brought people together through live theatre in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
We are a nonprofit community theatre creating affordable, professional-quality productions in a small, intimate setting. Here, every story is a shared experience.
Community theatre in an intimate setting
Our home is the former sanctuary of Marvin United Methodist Church. Its intimate scale places performers and audiences close together, bringing the expressions, voices and moments of a performance into sharp focus.
It is a place to settle in, share a story and experience the immediacy of live theatre.
What does “A Stage Without Curtains” mean?
The phrase begins with the stage itself. Without curtains defining its size and shape, the performance space can change to serve each production. In SGP’s history, that freedom has inspired everything from a seaside and an Upper Room to a circus ring and theatre in the round.
It also speaks to life beyond the stage: the emotions and experiences we share when we gather for a story.
“We laugh, we cry, we live, and we learn about love, joy and peace, with no curtains to hide behind.”
From a former sanctuary to a community stage.
A small beginning. A lasting story.
The Playhouse grew out of a church youth group’s Easter and Christmas productions. Sets had to be built and removed on the same day—a limitation that inspired a more permanent home for performance in the old sanctuary.
In the early 1980s, six people began renovating the space, transforming the former sanctuary into a home for live theatre. Those founders built sets, ran lights, wrote, directed, sang and acted, establishing a tradition of creativity and shared effort.
Seasonal productions and concerts grew into a wider range of plays and musicals. SGP incorporated as a nonprofit in 1997, and the 1997–1998 season introduced a four-production rhythm. Today, new performers, volunteers and audiences continue the story.
Every production takes a team
A performance begins long before the audience arrives. Performers, directors, designers, technicians and volunteers bring the story to life. Patrons, supporters and audiences help make that work possible.
Take a role onstage, lend your skills behind the scenes or help welcome an audience. There are many ways to contribute to the next production.
Stories that entertain, reflect and connect
SGP’s productions and theatrical events encompass moral messages, family values and community issues—stories that invite us to experience life from another perspective.
ENTERTAIN
Share the laughter, suspense and delight of a story brought to life.
REFLECT
Consider the choices, relationships and questions that shape our lives.
CONNECT
Experience a story together and discover something of ourselves in one another.
Be part of what comes next
Come see a show. Join a production. Help keep affordable community theatre thriving. However you take part, you help write the next chapter of Stained Glass Playhouse.