Stevens Center (UNCSA / former Carolina Theatre)

The Carolina Theatre opened in 1929 as a vaudeville and motion picture house. By 1980, the Winston-Salem Journal had donated it to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. What followed was a $9.6 million state bond renovation that turned a movie house into a full-scale performing arts center — reopened on April 22, 1983, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra, Isaac Stern as soloist, and Gregory Peck serving as master of ceremonies. Agnes de Mille, Governor James Hunt, and President and Mrs. Gerald Ford were in the room. That is not a soft opening.

Named for theatre producer and real estate magnate Roger L. Stevens, the building seats 1,380 across two levels and runs ten stories. It is occupied for rehearsal or performance all but 70 days of the year. The Winston-Salem Symphony, Piedmont Opera, and the International Black Theatre Festival all call it home. For UNCSA, it functions as the primary learning laboratory — the stage where students trained to professional level work in professional conditions.

The road had rough stretches. The federal Economic Development Administration once demanded repayment of $3.12 million over a title transfer. Forsyth County pursued the building over taxes. A Broadway preview arrangement signed in 1990 eventually collapsed when the school was losing money on it. The building absorbed all of it and kept the calendar full.

Winston-Salem built itself around tobacco and textiles, then rebuilt itself around institutions. The Stevens Center sits squarely in that second chapter. It closed for its first comprehensive renovation in more than 40 years in late 2023. The neoclassical building is approaching its centennial. The renovation is building toward the next one — which is, in a city that has always understood culture and economy as the same conversation, exactly the point.