Night of food, music to fund Wyo Theater restoration
Laramie Main Street is spearheading efforts to revive the Wyo Theater. The event Friday will feature food from Devine Eats and music from Hazel Miller & The Collective.
Summer might be coming to an end in Laramie, but it’s not over yet. Devine Eats and the band Hazel Miller & The Collective will host a night of food, music and dancing Saturday at the Laramie Railroad Depot.
The goal of the night is to raise money for “Revive the Wyo” — an effort to revitalize a downtown theater on 5th Street that has sat vacant for years.
“100% of ticket sales will go towards restoration of the building,” said Trey Sherwood, director of the Laramie Main Street Alliance.
Hazel Miller & The Collective will perform with the room cleared for dancing. Traditional Cajun dishes will be served and Sweet Melissa’s will also provide a vegetarian meal option.
“The band is super high energy and even if you haven’t seen them live before, the music just gets you on your feet, gets you moving and we want people to have a great time as we raise money for the venue,” Sherwood said.
Devine Eats is donating all proceeds to the theater. Local attorney Linda Devine founded Devine Eats with the intention of raising money for nonprofit organizations and said she is excited to be part of the fundraising for the Wyo. She said the theater will provide a venue for people to express their talents.
Devine also said she likes sharing different meals with the town of Laramie during cultural events such as the Juneteenth celebration and commemoration and providing meals for the World Central Kitchen, which hosted Ukrainian refugees.
“In Laramie, it's easy to forget what goes on outside of the community,” Devine said.
She said Devine Eats is 100% volunteer-run. The event also celebrates Devine’s 61st birthday. She enjoys the energy of the Hazel Miller band and wanted to bring a local aspect to the event.
“I don’t need presents,” Devine said. “I want people to donate to different agencies.”
The Wyo Theater was one of two theaters located in Laramie’s downtown area, originally called the Crown. (The other theater, the Empress, is now the Big Hollow Food Co-Op.) The Crown was built in 1925, and operated under that name until 1950, when it became the Wyo.
In 2017, Laramie Main Street Alliance started negotiating with the owner of the Wyo, with intent to acquire the facility. In the summer of 2019, the building was donated to the Main Street Alliance, which agreed to be a steward for its revitalization.
Having been vacant for a number of years, the building needs some revamping before it can once again host community events.
The roof needed to be repaired and plans have started for the rehabilitation of the façade. Laramie Main Street Alliance hired an architect to draw out the interior of the building. That was when Main Street discovered that the building lacked a fire suppression system.
Additionally, all electrical and plumbing will have to be redone to make the building compliant with ADA standards. So far, all efforts and donations have been focused on the fire suppression system and updating the electrical and plumbing within the building.
“My goal is to solidify the cost estimate for the fire suppression system since that is the next big step — making sure we have a solid number on what that will cost,” Sherwood said. “We will also continue outreach for potential tenants. Anyone that is interested in coming into the space and leasing the space or being part of the operations, we are all ears and invite people to reach out to us.”
Main Street is asking not only for volunteers and donations, but for something more personal from the community.
“We are also looking for memories,” Sherwood said. “So, if people have historic pictures of the building or those memories of the Wyo being my first job or first date, we are collecting those as well. We want to provide space for storytelling and local artists. We’ll be working with the Laramie Public Art Coalition.”
“Based on community feedback, we want to make sure this is a mixed use facility for the community.” Sherwood said. ”So whether that is live music and a movie, or a guest lecture on campus that can come into the community and extend those services of UW. We have worked with bookers and promoters and folks that run entertainment-based businesses to really think about the potential of the space.”
Sherwood said the intention is for Main Street to be a steward of the building, rather than actively running the entertainment business. For Main Street, the focus is to maintain the building, while partnering with private businesses to run the theater and programming.
While Main Street has contacted the owners of The Lyric, The Lincoln and the WYO in Sheridan, Sherwood said, at the end of the day, Laramie is more than okay forging their own path and making the facility unique to the community. Main Street has also been in contact with The Gryphon Theatre to work in collaboration instead of competition.
“We are a nonprofit organization focused on the revitalization of downtown — that includes using historic preservation as an economic development tool, supporting local businesses, and hosting fun events like the farmer’s market.” Sherwood said.
The alliance started fundraising efforts at the end of 2018, but they were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This changed the efforts from being a two- or three-year process to running along an unknown timeline. While Main Street isn’t yet planning any events in the theater, there are plenty of fundraising activities that are in the works.
“While we continue to change out the marquee and do public art on the façade, to keep the community engaged with the exterior, know that most of the work is happening behind the scenes,” Sherwood said.
Sherwood and the team at the Main Street Alliance continue to ask for community support for the Wyo.
“Anything worth doing is worth doing right,” Sherwood said. “That takes time. I hope that the community will be patient with us as they were with the efforts surrounding Pilot Hill in understanding this is a multi-year process.”
Tickets for the Saturday event are available on the Main Street Alliance's website. The event runs from 5-9 p.m. at the Laramie Railroad Depot. Tickets are $35. A cash bar will provide wine and local beers.
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The most interesting disparity in Wyoming is perhaps the success of the Wyo Theater in Sheridan and the failure of the Wyo in Laramie. Sheridan is a -real- community. Laramie is a company town. Theater performances in Sheridan are on a quality level of Casper Symphony. Laramie can't manage 'local" stage productions in any theater in the city- and the BS "Laramie community" would not even support the dinner theater at the Wyoming Territorial Park! The (second-run films -only) deed restriction on the Wyo is probably illegal restraint of interstate commerce and doesn't matter (not worth challenging in court) because the world has changed since 2000. Streaming video now rules. First run film (in cinema) is a marginally profitable business at best. This year's release of blockbusters like TOP GUN has been followed in the third quarter by admission (by all major exhibitors like Regal) that the year will end up a bust- or flat at best- financially. There is no parking at the Wyo Laramie. On a year-over-year basis, no staffing continuity will pass on knowledge of how to turn the lights on...or any projectors...without causing damages. I think it will be lucky to reopen and be working at all. Revenue from -any-operations will never cover the cost of maintaining a 100 yo obsolete building. Look at the condition it is now- following superb restoration by the previous owner. It is a perpetual junk pile of a building, falling apart at the seams.
Unfortunately, what this article fails to mention (perhaps Laramie Main Street failed to give the writer this vital material information?) is that the Wyo Theater, years ago, was bound by a deed restriction that prevents it from showing "first run" movies - the only ones that are generally profitable. (The owner of the theater did this as part of a deal in which he also sold the Fox Theater, on 21st Street, to Trans-Lux, which in turn sold it to Regal.) Thus, at best, the Wyo can only be a "repertory" cinema... which, alas, is unlikely ever to turn a profit in the days of Netflix and other streaming services. For this reason, the Wyo Theater is virtually useless as a movie theater unless the deed restriction is lifted. Therefore, it might well be more cost-effective to demolish the building and use the land for a different purpose. It's a shame; I have many fond memories of shows at the Wyo. But unless there's a real need for an auditorium whose primary purpose isn't showing movies (perhaps a conference center?), it's a sad reality that the theater may not be worth renovating.