A note on nomenclature: 48 or more dimmers is a Rack, either Installation if permanent or touring if it has wheels. 24 dimmers or less is a Pack, designed to sit on the ground without wheels. Tree mount/shoebox/truss mount could be called dimmer packs, but usually not. You could build a dimmer Rack out of ETC SmartPack Portable Packs, stacking them in a 19" rack.
I still think for your budget, even though we don't know what it is, but we do know it will be less than you want, Distributed Dimming (shoebox and dimmer sticks/lightbars) will give you the most bang for your buck. As an added bonus, you could always unplug the shoebox dimmer and even plug in a 120V MAC2000. Almost all moving lights can be run at 120V, as long as it's 20A of constant power with no dimmers inline. With the M2K, you have to change the fuses, as they obviously draw more current at 120V than at 208V. Of course I wouldn't use the MAC2000 at 10' height, more like the Mac250 or Mac300, or Studio Spot 250 or the brand new Martin SmartMAC. Or Technobeams would be killer, and inexpensive to rent. You'll already have DMX run, daisy chaining all the shoebox dimmers. And your lighting bars will be neater, and won't require two-fers/cubetaps. And nothing really wrong with standardizing on Edison connectors for everything, as long as you don't use orange or yellow extension cords and don't exceed their 15A rating. Do you know how hard it is to find black extension cords with molded Edison connectors? If all your dimmers are 600W or 1200W, you could use 14/3 or 16/3 SOOW cable, probably 5' & 10' lengths, from dimmer to fixtures. Incoming power to the dimmer should not be less than 12/3 SOOW, from conduit box to dimmer. Either 12 20A circuits feeding 6x 6x1200W shoeboxes or lightsticks (36 DMX dimmer channels), or 12 20A circuits feeding 12x 4x600W shoeboxes (48 DMX dimmer channels). Consider too some DMX switch packs to control foggers/hazers/MarsLights and other cheapo DJ-type effects. Even the AMDJ Dyno-FogII. Nevermind the disco effects, I just reread the intended use of the multi-purpose room is as a community theatre. Definitely need Altman 3.5Q-MT-5 ERS or SourceFour Jr.s, look for them used at gearsource.com and usedlighting.com. The 6" Fresnels are great, hope you have barndoors for them.
And what kind of sports can you play in a room with 10' ceilings, plus lights hanging down? I hate to suggest this, but it may be the best option: put Unistrut at appropriate places on the ceiling. It's the best option for maintaining flexibility yet keeping the fixtures as high as possible. Caution may need to employ the services of a structural engineer for this, we have no idea what the ceiling or the building is constructed of.
One more thing: 300W T-3 outdoor floodlights from your local home improvement center make great wash lights, sort of a poor man's single cell cyc light. I bet some smaller Chicagoland theatres still use the ones I built for them.
I'm rambling, you may call it brain storming, but I think it's babbling, and my ears are still ringing from the concert tonight, so I'll quit now, while I may be ahead.
Good luck.
