Does Chanhassen need an arts council and a community theater? If not, why? If so, why? Where would it be?

Are the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres important to the city? What efforts should be made to persuade the ownership that they should remain here?

How could an arts council partner with the dinner theatres?

Here are some thoughts to get a conversation started.

What if the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres could be rebuilt in Chanhassen in the approximate location where they are now, and construction of the first of two theaters, which would replace the four theaters, started in the location of the vacant Furniture Galleries space?

This way the current theatres could maintain their activities through construction, and then the main stage activities could be moved into the new building when it was complete. Presumably this would be done in time for 2010 when the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre company will be finished with its lease on the building, at which time construction of the second theater could begin in the place of the current theatres.

Would be cool for an arts council group to form and then along with its financial supporters work to secure a spot in one of the current dinner theaters, to preserve it, or help fund a new community theater, or rent space, in the new Chanhassen Dinner Theatres complex?