Minnesota Centennial Showboat

Minnesota Centennial Showboat is a traditional riverboat theatre docked at Harriet Island Regional Park on the banks of the Mississippi River in Downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. The showboat contains an intimate jewelbox theatre that seats 225. The interior is decorated to keep in time with the Victorian Era style that is expected of most showboats. The Minnesota Centennial Showboat is ran through a partnership with the University of Minnesota Theatre Department and the Padelford Boat Company. The showboat has been a long time tradition with the University beginning in 1958. The University Theatre utilizes the showboat as a learning opportunity for its students to experience professional theatre.

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The Showboat Players

The Showboat Players are a troupe of performers that are cast exclusively from students at the University of Minnesota. They perform a wide range of melodramas and comedies, plays most commonly viewed by 19th century audiences. The Showboat Players are most known for their whimsical olios. Many well-known performers today received their first taste of professional theatre as a Showboat Player; Loni Anderson, Linda Kelsey, Peter MacNicol, Peter Michael Goetz, and Jon Cranney to name a few.

Olios

Olios are musical entertainment pieces performed either between scenes or as an afterpiece to relieve the tension created by the melodrama and its serious storyline. University of Minnesota Professor Robert Darrell Moulton, who created many of the olios performed, found it important to have the olios be in contrast to the play, but be in tune with its stylistically and thematically. The olios mainly depend on the performers' strengths; they may also use a clever "gimmick" or surprise. It is essential in an olio to present romance, nostalgia, color, extravagance, and affectionate fun. Olios have been a favorite among the Showboat audiences, and this is mainly due in part to Bob Moulton drawing upon his talents as a dancer, costumer, choreographer, and director.

Shows performed on the showboat

History of the Minnesota Centennial Showboat

The University Theatre had been thinking of purchasing a showboat for sometime, but the cost and unavailability of suitable boats prevented it from continuing the Mississippi tradition of entertainment on the river. In 1956, with the 100th Anniversary of Minnesota statehood fast approaching,University Theatre Director Frank M. Whiting judged a Miss Minnesota pageant with Tom Swain, Executive Director of the Minnesota Statehood Centennial Commission. The two discussed the idea, and both agreed a showboat would be a fitting addition to the Centennial festivities.

References

Minnesota Centennial Showboat Web site

C. Lance Brockman. The New Minnesota Centennial Showboat: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Red, White and Blue. Vol. 38 No. 4 (Fall 2002): 38

University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. Minnesota Centennial Showboat 2002 Commemorative Program.

Rachel Smoka. Minnesota Centennial Showboat: A Historical Journey.