Chanhassen Dinner Theatres Featured In New Carver County Historical Society Exhibit

For the next six months, Minnesota residents will have an opportunity to enjoy a new museum display entitled "Chanhassen Dinner Theatres: 42 Years of Magic," opening at the Carver County Historical Society on June 14, 2010.

Museum Curator Larry Hutchings has been working on the creation of the exhibit for many weeks now. The process began about a year ago when museum director Wendy Biorn met with Chanhassen Public Relations Director Kris Howland about the possibility of a semi-permanent display. Following, there were several "field trips" to the theatre to see what items might be available to the museum for use in the display.

Stated Howland, "We wanted to give Larry a large assortment of items to work with including props, costumes, archival photographs, posters, set models and things that the public would find engaging and interesting. We let him loose in our prop shop and he had a field-day." Howland continued, "It's a challenge to find older pieces that are in reasonably good condition. In this business, we're always creating items for one show and often taking that piece and recreating it for another. It's a way to make our budgets stretch. That makes it difficult to find pieces that are still in their original created state. For that reason, most exhibit pieces include memorable items from the past couple of decades."

A few highlights include specialty hand-painted "buildings" fashioned into wearable costumes for actors from the 2007 World Premiere of Easter Parade, the original set model made for the 1971 production of Fiddler on the Roof, a fabric horse head mask from the 1975 production of Man of La Mancha created with fiberglass, papier mache and burlap, and a dual-purpose lamb (in both carcass and fattened-state) on a rolling cart from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

One of the more fascinating and unique advantages of the display is that it's touchable. Guests will be invited to get up close and personal to the items and actually touch them. Theatre props are made by hand to replicate real items, often with a historical reference. Such is the case with a wedding cake on display from a production of Oklahoma! designed after an authentic turn-of the-century wedding cake. The cake is made from a foam material, so it is very light-weight - but looks fresh and good enough to eat every night of the performance. A prop is made to look real from a distance. Often it isn't until you're up very close to it that can you tell it's not the real thing.

Also included in the collection are a number of personal items collected by Britta Bloomberg, daughter of Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' founders, Herb and Carol Bloomberg. One of the distinctive items is a water-color of the city of Chanhassen before the theatre was built. Here you can see Bloomberg's vision taking form with the downtown Minneapolis skyline in the distance, just a stone's throw from suburban Chanhassen - a farmstead is standing where the theatre stands today.

One of the fascinating things about Chanhassen Dinner Theatres is that Chanhassen is a fully-professional, producing musical theatre. In layman's terms, that means Chanhassen is Minnesota's only year-round professional-status musical theatre, and produces all its own productions -- building and creating all sets, costumes and production elements in the theatres' on-site shops. Further, all productions are cast, created and directed by Chanhassen's creative team led by Resident Artistic Director and theatre owner, Michael Brindisi. This is different from most musical theatres who farm out production elements to others, rent from other production houses, or present shows on their stages produced in other cities that tour from city-to-city. This sets Chanhassen Dinner Theatres apart from most, establishes it as one of the crown jewels and largest commercial tourist attraction of Carver County. In addition, Chanhassen is a fully professional theatre governed by the professional actors' union, Actors' Equity, based in New York. That means guests are treated to the same acting professionals at Chanhassen they would see on Broadway stages. Chanhassen Dinner Theatres employs 300 workers, about half of which are residents of Carver County.

The Carver County Historical Society is located at 555 W. 1st Street in Waconia, Minnesota. The Chanhassen exhibit is one of many exhibits that can be viewed by visiting guests at no charge. The Chanhassen exhibit will enjoy a longer life beyond its time in at the Carver County Historical Society. When the exhibit closes in November, plans are to take the exhibit on tour around the state for an additional year. Guests visiting the exhibit in Waconia will have an opportunity to pick up an historical brochure on the theatre with a ticket discount coupon attached. In addition, the museum joins with the theatre to host a Family Day Adventure on Saturday afternoon August 28th. On that day, you may sign up to take part in a full-day event including: a backstage tour of the theatre, lunch and the production of All Shook Up, followed by an actor led ‘Question & Answer' session, and a trip to the Carver County Historical Society where families will tour the exhibit "Chanhassen Dinner Theatres: 42 Years of Magic." Admission is just $52 per person for the entire day of activities. Sign up is limited, so register today through Museum Director, Wendy Biorn at 952-442-4234.

To post a comment, you must register and login.