LOGAN – As part of the Lyric Repertory Company’s ongoing weeklong Page-to-Stage events, Artistic Director Richie Call took advantage of an opportunity to show off the Caine Lyric Theatre’s new stage house and other improvements an audience of summer citizens on June 4.
With finishing touches on the more than $5 million restoration project still underway around them, Call proudly led the audience through the downtown theatre’s winding backstage areas.
While leaving the theatre’s seating area untouched, the Caine Lyric’s entire structure from its proscenium arch to its back wall was demolished, then restored to full functionality during the past year.
That work included shoring up the foundations and structure of the stage house, raising its roof, installing new theatrical fly systems and rebuilding portions of the stage.
The ceiling of the theatre’s stage house now soars some 125 feet about the level of its stage and is fully equipped with a modern fly system to support both lights and scenery, according Bruce Duerden, the Lyric’s lighting and sound manager.
To support that additional weight, construction crews had to reinforce the foundation of the stage house by drilling micro-pilings some 85-feet into the bedrock beneath the theatre.
Call explained to the summer citizens that the theatre company hadn’t been able to use the previous fly system for more than 20 years.
Other improvements brought about by the renovation project included a gallery to display student artworks on the theatre’s west side, adding a new apron to the stage and the addition of an orchestra pit under the stage.
The theatre company’s Page-to-Stage events were slated from June 1 to 5, climaxing with a launch party for the Lyric’s 60th anniversary season at the Logan County Club on June 6.
The troupe’s 2026 season will officially kick off on June 12 with the opening of the audience favorite Forever Plaid.
Forever Plaid is a tribute to the clean-cut, close-harmony guy groups that dominated America’s radio airwaves prior to the game-changing British Invasion of the 1960s. Originally performed off-Broadway, the show resurrects four ghostly high-school chums who return from the afterlife for the farewell concert they never got the chance to perform.
The premiers of the musicals Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Come From Away and Guttenberg! as well as the comedic farce The Outsider will follow at one-week intervals through June and early July.
The Caine Lyric Theatre is located at 28 West Center Street in downtown Logan.