Downtown Winston-Salem's main performance venue is the Roger L. Stevens Center, owned and operated by the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Named for theatre producer and real estate magnate Roger L. Stevens, the building you face opened on April 22, 1983 and now serves major UNCSA productions, the Winston-Salem Symphony, Piedmont Opera and many other touring and local productions. Remarkably, this theatre is in use for rehearsal or performance all but 70 days of the year.
Its life here began earlier as the Carolina Theater, a movie theatre donated in 1980 to the School of the Arts by the Winston-Salem Journal. The school renovated it using $9.6 million in state bond money and reopened with a star-studded gala: the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Bernstein conducting, Isaac Stern as soloist, and Gregory Peck as master of ceremonies. Guests included Agnes de Mille, Cliff Robertson, Governor James Hunt, President and Mrs. Gerald Ford and Lady Bird Johnson.
Picture Leonard Bernstein conducting, Isaac Stern as soloist, and Gregory Peck presiding over that star-studded reopening gala.