About Us

 In 1971, Lamp-Lite Theatre began life in the rented parish hall of  Christ Episcopal Church. Drawing from the dense pool of local talent,  Sarah McMullan put together a troupe of actors who brought first rate  productions to the tiny stage at Christ Episcopal.

In 1976, the  Lamp-Liters joined with other artists in the area to form the City  Spirit Arts Center out of the old Phelan Warehouse. Mother Nature  brought torrential rains and floods during the seventies that resulted  in the warehouse theatre being declared a flood plain. For the next  year, the Lamp-Liters went on the road with dinner theater productions  at the University and at other restaurants. Meanwhile, the City of  Nacogdoches offered a land lease for the new theatre home, our present  location on Loop 224 and Old Tyler Road.

Actors and friends took  down the old warehouse theater, board-by-board and brick-by-brick, to  reassemble, add to and, finally, raise the current Lamp-Lite Theatre  building. The lights went on May 19, 1979, with The Last of the Red Hot  Lovers opening the new theater. Built almost entirely by volunteer labor  and a few generous professionals, the theater has steadily grown. New  wings were added: dressing rooms, storage space, etc. Grants from the  Meadows Foundation, Temple-Inland, Southland Pineywoods, and the Junior  Forum came just in time for sorely needed space. Lamp-Lite supporters  built the costume wing, the “largest closet” in East Texas.

In 1995, Lamp-Lite started a tradition of producing a big summer family musical with a wildly successful production of Oliver! An equally popular presentation of Annie followed the next year, only to be topped by The Wizard of Oz in 1997. Both Annie, Oz and Oliver! and The Sound of Music were brought back as perennial favorites, and Lamp-Lite introduced Bye-Bye Birdie, Anne of Green Gables, Snow Whiteand the Seven Dwarfs, Seussical the Musical, Annie Warbucks and Willy Wonka to East Texas audiences.

Each  season spotlights off Broadway and on Broadway musicals, comedies,  dramas and occasionally a premiere presentation of an original work by a  regional playwright, children’s classes and plays and Christmas plays.