In October 2009, Ensemble Stage presented our first production, “War of the Worlds,” to a sold-out crowd in our original home, the Blowing Rock School Auditorium. The performance was broadcast on the radio by WASU, the first such broadcast of a live radio play in the High-Country. In December, Ensemble Stage officially incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit corporation and produced our first Holiday Musical Variety Show, Christmas in Blowing Rock. These types of productions continue today as annual traditions of our season.

2010 proved to be a formative year in the history of Ensemble Stage. In January, we produced 3 offerings during Blowing Rock’s Winterfest: Echo Park in Concert and 2 interactive, live Game Shows. In April, we partnered with Crippen’s Restaurant to present a sold-out, late night Murder Mystery during The Blue Ridge Wine & Food Festival. In May, we launched our first fundraising campaign, The Founder’s Century Club. May also brought a one-night-only performance of “Senator Sam,” an evening with North Carolina’s legendary Senator Sam Ervin, portrayed by Founding Artistic Director, Gary Lee Smith. In June, we held our first children's summer theatre camp, “Theatre as Part of the Community.” Our campers, ages 9-13, met with community leaders and wrote a wonderful, short play that promoted the value of volunteerism in their community, a central theme of the camp. Later that year, we presented two fully produced plays (including God’s Man in Texas) in addition to our 2 traditional holiday productions.

In 2011, Ensemble Stage increased the Summer Season's productions to four plays and began cultivating a base of subscribers, many of whom still subscribe each year. We began our annual fundraising campaign, doubled theatre camp offerings, began our Summer Children’s Productions, and revamped our holiday productions. In 2012, we continued to establish ourselves as the High-Country’s home for great performances, with the highlight being our production of “Moon Over the Brewery.”

By 2013, Ensemble Stage had grown beyond the limitations of the Blowing Rock School Auditorium. The Board of Directors began a search for a new, permanent home that would ensure long-term financial sustainability and provide space for us to grow. Meanwhile, we continued to produce excellent theatre, including 2013’s “Mind Game” and 2015’s “The Love List,” which starred audience-favorites Laura Hodos and Mark Allen Woodard. 2016 was our final year at the Blowing Rock School, as Ensemble Stage prepared for a new era….

In December of 2016, The Town of Banner Elk made an offer to Ensemble Stage that would enable continued growth and sustainability: to anchor the new Cultural Arts Center in the Historic Banner Elk School. The relocation would position Ensemble Stage as a leader in the artistic and economic development of Banner Elk and create what has since been called the Theatre District of the High-Country, alongside Lees-McRae Summer Theatre.

February 2017 marked the official relocation of Ensemble Stage to our new home in the Cultural Art Center at the Historic Banner Elk School, located in the heart of Banner Elk. Conversion of the former school building began with great enthusiasm and support from the Banner Elk Community, the Banner Elk Chamber of Commerce, and the Banner Elk Tourism Development Authority, which continues today. Four classrooms transformed into our rehearsal room, scene shop, box office, and green room. The gymnasium was retrofitted into a fully functional proscenium venue for our performances. Artistic Director Gary Smith designed the space to fit the needs of our theatre while ensuring the preservation of the building’s important historical features. He led a small team of actors and technicians to assemble the risers and the stage just a few weeks before our first production in the facility. June 16th, 2017, marked the Grand Opening of Ensemble Stage in our fabulous new venue. Each year, we work to improve the space further for our audiences, so they may enjoy their experience even more.

In 2019, we held our most successful season thus far, including one of our most celebrated productions, “The Redeemer,” the set of which featured a live garden onstage. Revenue, attendance, and enthusiasm were higher than ever before, so much so that we began planning a spectacular next season that included world premieres, new seats, equipment, and much more. We anticipated a world-shifting year in 2020 for Ensemble Stage; we underestimated just how much the world would change….

After our most successful season to that point in 2019, Ensemble Stage was forced to close until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The closure cost us many memories and friends of the theatre, whose loss we still mourn. Through generous support from the Town of Banner Elk and the Banner Elk Tourism Development Authority, we were able to hold limited outdoor performances and stay afloat. In 2021, we reopened with 3 productions and a later start to our season than usual. We took many precautions to protect our audiences and staff but were excited to see our patrons, who never stopped supporting us even in the worst days. That year, Ensemble Stage received a Shuttered Venue Operators Grant from the US Small Business Administration, which provided enough funding to soften the blow dealt by Covid and plan a season full of premieres for 2022.

2022’s Mainstage Season was made up of plays that had never been produced in our region, country, and the world. The final production of that season was Richard Vetere’s “Zaglada,” a world premiere that had been in the works since 2019. It was supported through a Spark the Arts grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, the first of its kind for Ensemble Stage. We are grateful for this support, which affirmed our mission to keep professional theatre alive in the High-Country. In 2023, the momentum continued: we broke our own record for active subscribers and first-time visitors as a result of an enhanced marketing and outreach campaign, with each show receiving rave reviews. We also received an Organization Support grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, which helped us endure still-higher-than-usual production expenses.