Should New Canaan Act to Keep the Playhouse? Meeting on Wednesday

“What Should Happen to the Playhouse?” is the subject of a panel discussion between town officials and others at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the New Canaan Nature Center and broadcast live on local government access Channel 79.

Kate Hurlock of the League of Women Voters (which organized the event) will moderate a panel including First Selectman Robert Mallozzi III; New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Director Tucker Murphy; town Buildings Superintendent William Oestmann; George Maranis, a past New Canaan town administrator; and Jerry Miller, a partner with Hawthorne, Ackerly & Dorrance and a founding member of the Ridgefield Playhouse.

Doors open for a “meet and greet” at 7 p.m. at the Nature Center, located at 144 Oenoke Ridge Rd., and the discussion starts at 7:30 p.m.

The building, owned by the town, needs an estimated $2 million in renovations, New Canaan officials were told in recent months as they deliberated on the 2015-2016 town budget, according to a recent article in the New Canaan Advertiser.

The town bought the movie theater building in 2007 for $2.3 million and has spent another $700,000 on upgrades. New Canaan gets $110,000 a year in rent from it, the newspaper reported. Bow Tie Cinemas operates the Playhouse, the town’s only movie theater.

Mallozzi has said he’s examining whether or not to sell the building, but he would only sell to an owner who would promise to try to keep the theater open, according to the Advertiser.