Photos by Angelica Ramos
Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
BLACKSBURG- The Lyric Theatre is known for being Montgomery County’s classic movie theater and its deep roots in Blacksburg, but with Executive Director Seth Davis and his team, it has become an integral part of its community.
The Lyric Theatre, in its current location, was built in 1930 as Blacksburg’s first classic movie theater. It was the third classic movie theater in the state of Virginia. Executive Director Seth Davis explains there were actually four renditions of The Lyric Theatre, with the first three original locations being only for silent films. The current Lyric Theatre was built for what were called “talkies” at the time, or what we know as classic spoken movies. The Lyric Theatre wasn’t just the first classic movie theater in Montgomery County, but Davis explained, it was the first air-conditioned building in Blacksburg as well. It used to be able to hold over 850 people with its balcony and main floor section. The Lyric now seats 477 people. It has also previously acted as a classroom for Virginia Tech.
“The Lyric,” Davis said, “has always played an important part here in the Blacksburg community for decades. It’s really been a community gathering place, not just for films, but for concerts, for lectures, fundraisers, community informational events. We have all kinds of things that have been going on for decades. It has played a vital role in the community and just the fact that it’s still in existence today and still a place where people can come to gather for a whole wide variety of things, it’s just pretty incredible.”
The Lyric, for over 90 years now, has been a melting pot place for everyone in the community to gather. The Lyric is a huge support of the community that supports it. They do this by working with other non-profit organizations in the area by offering their facilities and equipment at lower cost to help to host events these organizations otherwise would be unable to host. The Lyric also helps these organizations ticket their events, host concessions and anything else they might be able to help achieve with the facilities and resources they have.
The theatre also hosts concerts and lectures. This summer, they hosted a Footloose showing where after the movie, there was dancing in the street with an 80’s cover band. The Lyric also offers children’s education programming like their monthly story time and their acting and theater classes for ages four all the way up to 14 in the fall. The Lyric Theatre is passionate about supporting reading, learning and literacy in the community. Programming like these continues The Lyric’s legacy of not just being a place to watch movies, but a place to gather as well.
The Lyric’s upcoming events include a concert by Anya Hinkle, who grew up in the New River Valley, and John Doyle on Sept. 12, 2024. Their Late Night Horror Fest begins the first Thursday of October with Texas Chainsaw Massacre.