BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — Members of the Downtown LaFayette Martin Theater Committee and invited guests were given a tour of the old Martin Theater on Alabama Avenue East last week. Chambers Academy Board of Directors member Sid Mickle, who serves as a liaison between the school which owns the theater and the committee, provided an update on the progress of the renovation efforts.
Mickle began by giving a brief overview of the purpose behind the tour.
“Our committee, we are always looking to gather information about people who can help us with either fundraising or just details on a process of rebuilding or renovating a theater,” Mickle said. “Ms. Benedict had talked to this guy Dan, he had been through several renovations. He really wanted to come down and see the theater and just give us any insights that he might have.”
During Dan’s visit, he was shown the main body of the theater, the balcony, the projection room and the lobby.
“We just basically did that [tour] and had small talk and conversations about other theaters as we went place to place in the theater,” Mickle said.
Mickle talked about the top priority going forward for the project.
“What I believe we will do coming out of that meeting is really focus on grant writing because I think grant writing is probably our only opportunity,” he said. “I just don’t see us finding a deep pockets donor that just says ‘Oh, let me take care of your financial needs.’ We have a couple of people that we have identified [that we want to] talk to. We are looking to get at least two people in for a theater committee meeting just to give us more ideas. It’s not just a simple grant writing person, it has to be specific and a specialist. Someone who can help us as a nonprofit find grants that are hopefully not grants that [require] matching. If we get a $50,000 matching grant that doesn’t help us. We don’t have $50,000. We can’t match it.”
Mickle said there is a sense of urgency shared by the stakeholders who are working together to push the renovation project forward.
“We have got to get some sort of financial base,” Mickle said. “We are hoping to bring in grant writers that can really clarify that. We certainly want to employ one if we can find the right person who can give us a discounted rate or give us some free hours or at least be reasonable enough that we can pay them. We want that to get started.”
