Next month that vision will take a quantum leap forward when the designs to transform the Grand and create a new home for Opera North are submitted as part of a funding bid to the Arts Council.
And ambitious plans they are – not only the refurbishment of facilities within the theatre but the
creation of a new, purpose-built home for Opera North that will
contain rehearsal rooms, a new wardrobe department, musical library and archive as well as space for technicians and improved accommodation for the company's administration department.
The Grade II* listed Assembly Rooms, which has become a boarded-up embarrassment, will be restored and transformed into a 350-seater venue, also housing Opera North's education department.
"This is something we have been working on, talking and thinking about for 10 years now," said Mr Smith.
"But what's important is the delivery of the idea. We can talk and talk about it, but now we need to deliver."
Richard Mantle is equally passionate for the project to transform the theatre and for the success of the bid, which will create a home for the company of which he is at the helm.
"The way this has been conceived means it will turn out to be a project like no other in the country," said Mr Mantle.
But there is a lot of work to be done. The theatre, although Grand in name, lacks many of the facilities modern-day audiences have come to expect and staff are the first to admit a visit can be an uninviting prospect. Backstage it is a similar story.
So priorities will include comfortable re-tiered seating, improved sight lines to the stage, new facilities for disabled people, improved acoustics and front-of-house changes to reduce congestion in the foyers.
Backstage, improvements will allow for more storage and capacity to handle heavier scenery. Dressing rooms and offices will also get a facelift.
The foundations for the project were laid last year but the story of the dream goes back much further.
"For around 10 years we have wanted to refurbish and restore some of the more worn-out parts of the theatre," said Mr Smith, of the grand old lady of Leeds theatre, which celebrated its 125th birthday last year.
Mr Mantle added: "We (Opera North) decided that we wanted to establish a permanent home for ourselves. After being set up in 1978 we have spent 25 years camping in the various parts of the theatre.
"This has caused us a huge amount of limitations – we use parts of the building which should be used for something else, using dressing rooms which should be used for that purpose and not, for example, our storage."
Opera North was set up as a touring arm in the North for English National Opera. Although many were sceptical about the establishment of such a company it has gone on to be a great success story and something of which Yorkshire is rightly proud.
The company, however, has grown with its success and now with a full-time staff of 165 has outgrown its home at the Leeds theatre.
About six years ago it became clear that it needed a permanent home to accommodate its aspirations and growing audiences.
These aspirations happily coincided with the advent of the Arts Council, which began to provide sizeable grants for arts organisations.
Mr Mantle and Mr Smith saw an opportunity and both the theatre and the opera company began to speak about how, together with the supportive Leeds City Council, they could submit a bid for a grant that could fulfil the dreams they both had for the future of the organisations which they ran.
"Opera North has a fantastic synergy with the theatre and although places like Manchester have asked what it would take to get the company to move there and although we looked at all the options, we are very happy to stay with the Grand as our home," Mr Mantle added.
Ten years in the making, with a possible completion date now less than two years away, optimism for the reality of the dream is running high around the Grand.
nick.ahad@ypn.co.uk