History
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. Under the leadership of an incredible Board of Directors and then-Executive Director Jim Coppens, SBCT began exploring solutions for the need for more space. 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. We have 2 venues in the building: a 209 seat Mainstage Auditorium and a 90 seat black-box Studio Theatre.
Specialties
South Bend Civic Theatre (SBCT) is the oldest, continuously-operating community theatre in the South Bend/Mishawaka, IN area, embracing the core values of education, quality, inclusivity, diversity and community. SBCT is one of the leading community theatres in the country with more than 20,000 attendees a year coming from as far as 75 miles to attend quality theatre and to bring their children and students to classes and performances.