City council members Suetta Scarbrough and Ernest Bobbitt intently listened as Elizabeth Branham instructed her volunteers Monday night.

These are the volunteers who will be taking tickets, working backstage and helping people at Thursday’s Old Crow Medicine Show concert, which will be held at the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.

Scarbrough left the meeting impressed and feeling good about the theater’s future under Branham’s leadership.

“I feel like life is being breathed into this theater,” Scarbrough said. “I feel like she has the capabilities to make this a go.”

Bobbitt feels the same way. “I feel better about the theater situation,” probably the first time he has felt this way since everyone went into the project with high hopes only to see it fail. “Now, the general feeling I have is you’ll get it right this time.”

He was impressed with the volunteers who will work the show. “I think it speaks highly for good people to come in when the chips are down and people step up.”

Mary Moore worked at the theater when it first opened and she came to the meeting Monday because, “I want to see it succeed. I think it’s very important. The building is here. We need the people to come and try it out and enjoy it.”

Braxton Brown was disappointed at the theater’s initial failure. He enjoyed working the shows. “To see something, the entertainment, it was something very positive. To see it fall by the wayside would be very disappointing.”

Brown wants to help because it’s the right thing to do, he said. “I like when people roll up their sleeves. It gives me satisfaction to see something positive come back and something for the city of Roanoke Rapids.”

He believes this is what the naysayers and arm chair critics of the venue should be doing, too. “These people need to roll up their sleeves, you’ve got to have heart. If they would put their energy into getting involved they wouldn’t have time to complain.”

Rock Turner will help Old Crow unload equipment Thursday and he worked when the outdoor venue was open.

Like many people in Roanoke Rapids, he believes the theater will probably cause his taxes to increase. He says, however, “The taxes are going to have be paid,” and he believes it’s better to have it opened than not opened. “I think it can be profitable if the city would back off and stop saying they don’t want to be in the theater business. We are in it. Our property taxes may go up but at least we’ll have something to offer.”

Turner believes Branham is the correct choice to run the venue. “Who else do we have who is better qualified?”

Scott Simms, who will be helping Turner, agrees. “I just think it will work in the hands of the right people, I don’t see how it couldn’t.”