History of South Bend Civic Theatre

South Bend Civic Theatre is the oldest continuously-operating community theatre company in the South Bend/Mishawaka area.

Founded in 1957, it staged most of its productions after 1968 at The Firehouse, a local historic landmark located at 701 Portage Ave., in the city’s historic Park Avenue neighborhood. Beginning in the year 2000, SBCT began staging selected productions each year at Century Center’s Bendix Theatre, at the Morris Performing Arts Center, and for the first time in 2005, at the DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Notre Dame.

In January 2007, the beginning of SBCT’s 50th Anniversary year, Civic celebrated the opening of its new theatre home at 403 N. Main St. in downtown South Bend, in what was formerly the Scottish Rite Building. Through generous individual support as well as community and corporate underwriting, SBCT was able to complete construction on a new 3,500 square foot scene shop, renovation of a 209 seat Mainstage Auditorium and a 90 seat versatile “black-box” Studio Theatre in a span of time of little more that a year.

Our Growth

South Bend Civic Theatre has grown dramatically in the past decade:

Programming has increased from 6 to 15 full-length productions each year.

The audience has grown from 3,500 to just under 25,000.

Membership has increased from 150 to over 1,150.

Opportunities for area actors and backstage volunteers have increased from 100 to 500 plus annually.

Contributions to our Annual fund have risen from $3,000 in 1995 to more than $220,000 in 2008.

Since 1996, more than 4,000 area youth have benefited from SBCT classes and camps or participated in SBCT productions, compared to just a handful in years prior.