Stage Decoration and Supplies

By Brad Jones | FOX8 News

July 22, 2009

GREENSBORO, N.C. - When the curtain comes down in some of the most amazing halls in the world, it often comes from a small company on Associate Dr. with a reputation for making simply the best manufacturer of stage curtains.

Each week, the craftsmen at Stage Decoration and Supplies turn out about 4,500 yards of fabric: some plan, some finely detail, but all of it elegant. The company's curtains will make a statement no matter where they hang.

"As an owner of a company, I'd love to see rooster tails of fabric coming out of machines, but it has to be done right," says owner Bob Thurston. "And we take the steps to do that."

The soft but durable velour used to make Stage Decoration's curtains is also made in the U.S., just across the Carolina state line.

"It is not imported. It's from Greenville," says Thurston. "Some people say, 'Well, it's imported from South Carolina.' Well, no, we don't count that, OK?"

The company grew out of the theater department at UNCG, where its founder worked back in 1923. That's also where Thurston came from in the 1980s, and today he helps lead the company. Some of the company's 34 employees have been there as long as 20 years.

You'll see Stage Decoration's curtains in places around the world and right here in the Triad: at UNCG, War Memorial Auditorium, the O'Henry Hotel and Jesse Wharton Elementary in Greensboro. You'll even find its curtains at the new Dallas Cowboys billion-dollar stadium.

But Stage Decoration and Supplies does more than create the curtains that bring down the house. It also restores them, and one current project is a national treasure.

The curtains from the Kennedy Center Opera House, seen by presidents, kings and performers from around the world, now need some fixing up. And only one company is trusted to handle the job.

"It was valued at $140,000 in the early 70s, so you can just let your inflation calculator go," says Thurston. "(We're) flirting with about a million-dollar curtain at this point."

Some parts of the Kennedy Center curtain only need minor repair, but places with major damage need to have the weave itself reproduced, Thurston explains. The job has to be finished by late August.

But other jobs are coming through at the same time, and while other companies are hurting for business, the people at Stage Decoration and Supplies are routinely working overtime to keep up.

Perfection is always in demand.

"Occasionally I've heard, 'Well, this is for an elementary school. It doesn't matter.' Well, I assure you, it does," says Thurston. "People looking at this are ladies of the PTA ... who sew ... and they know what's good and what isn't."