Site Map for Stagecraft Production Service

Our History

Our company started in the very early 1970s as DEG and Associates, DEG was, of course, Douglas Greathouse, our founder, the associates were the many band roadies who helped "roughneck" the heavy lighting gear from the trucks and trailers and into the various nightclubs and other venues around the important Middletown, Ohio music scene. In those days, the company was strictly a lighting company and we had all the top local bands as our customers because we had lots of real stage lights and they were oh so powerful and intense. Those who were around then may fondly remember our bands including Adonis, McTavish, Terry Tucker Revue, Chalice, and Beowulf and we played every weekend for years. Those were very busy years for a one man operation.

In 1977, we were so busy it became necessary to start hiring staff and we became Stagecraft Production Service--the name simply stating what we did. By then, the company was providing stages and PA systems in addition to expanded lighting capabilities and we were running multiple venues every weekend, usually one gig involving lighting and sound along with several other lighting gigs working with bands including Shock and Heirborn. In the 1980s, the company moved away the night club scene and got into more commercial work staging shopping center events. Our staff numbered eight and we worked regularly at the former Salem Mall in Trotwood (now gone) and other similar venues.

From 1991 through 2013, the company morphed into a capital equipment leasing company (then known as SPS Leasing) and got away from operational events. During this period, our inventory was all out in long term fixed leases in several venues and our capital inventory continued to expand.

Then, in a stroke of pure dumb luck (there is no other explanation), Greathouse met Jim Verdin of Verdin Bell who had bought an old abandoned department store in downtown Middletown with the idea of creating an art facility, now known as the Pendleton Art Center (PAC). The massive second floor are was to become the Pendleton Event Center. Jim and Doug hammered out a deal over several months and SPS opened a secondary warehouse in the building to provide equipment and services for the brand new event center. The PAC became the anchor of the revitalizing downtown Middletown area and Stagecraft returned to operational events once again. Since our first event at the PAC in early 2014, we've stayed busy and SPS has continued to grow. In addition to our mainstay live event business, we've expanded into videography and film production as well. Stagecraft's future as a lighting company keeps looking 'brighter'.

Note: We provide bit.ly links for every page on our site for user convenience since our URLS tend to be rather long. If you wish to see the full URL for any bit.ly link, simply append a '+' at the end and submit in any browser. Bit.ly will promply return the full referenced URL which will always be identical to the URL in the browser's location box.