The showboat, owned by the university but attached to a Mississippi River dock and walkway that is the property of the city of St. Paul, has become too expensive to maintain. Problems arose in summer 2014 following high water on Harris Island. The 2014 season in the 225-seat floating theatre was cut short, and the 2015 season canceled.
What will happen to the showboat remains unclear, although the final production will be Under the Gaslight, which was also the University of Minnesota's first staging there in 1958.
The decision to end the university's association with the showboat was not taken lightly. Marcus Dilliard, who is the head of the theatre arts and dance department at the university, told the AP, “We had some hard conversations.”
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