In 1996, The Shakespeare Festival of Arkansas began renting the former costume shop located at 616 Center St. in downtown Little Rock. The cavernous, 4500 square foot warehouse was soon remodeled, and began functioning as a 49-seat blackbox theater. Sadly, The Shakespeare Festival of Arkansas was forced to shut its doors in 2001, but the space was not forsaken. The Public Theatre took charge of the space formerly known as "Centerstage," and for the past twenty three years has been proudly serving Little Rock as a performing arts venue available to be used by the entire community.