Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 30, 1994                   TAG: 9408020023
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: CURRENT   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

LYRIC LOVERS UNITE TO GIVE THEATER A SECOND ACT

But when it comes to the effort to "Bring Back the Lyric," Bill Sterrett has perhaps the most direct personal stake.

"I paid for that marquee," Sterrett claimed Thursday, while milling about The Grove with dozens of Blacksburg business people, politicians, Virginia Tech officials and others of influence. They were called together by the committee that is mounting an effort to revitalize the 64-year-old theater that for three years has sat unused.

Sterrett, president of Mayflower Van Lines Agency in Blacksburg, ended up buying the theater a new marquee when one of his trucks backed into the old one a few years back.

So if anyone in Blacksburg is interested in seeing how the campaign turns out, it's Sterrett.

Raymond Smoot, Tech's treasurer and vice president for finance, jokingly portrayed Sterret as the local philanthropist who should fund the entire project. But it will take a townwide effort to get the job done, according to committee organizers.

The organizers hope Thursday's wine and hors d'oeuvres affair, where more than a hundred people turned out to socialize, reminisce and talk about what the Lyric could be, will transform into a hands-on, money-raising effort that will reintroduce the theater as a place to see foreign and art films, attend music and stage performances, and listen to lectures.

Lindsay West, one of the committee organizers, said more than $100 was placed in bowls set up on the porch of the mansion, a drop in the bucket of what will go toward publicizing the effort.

It could cost $500,000 or more to redo the theater, which is owned by Blacksburg Realty Partnership and managed by HCMF Corp. The committee will meet Aug. 18, West said, to begin forming a business plan, assigning interested parties to various subcommittees and generally getting down to the nitty-gritty of how to pay for what it wants.

Thursday's event was to get the word out.

"What we've got in mind is lighting a fantastic candle," said Jim Dymock, manager of Davidson's on Main Street, speaking to the crowd as it packed into the foyer of the home of Tech President Paul Torgersen and his wife, Dot. "We've got to tap the talent of good folks like yourself."

Quipped an optimistic West: "We hope that you will be calling before we call you."