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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Clinton Area Showboat Theatre

showboat theatre in Clinton, Iowa

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ5134059 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre is a summer stock professional theatre in Clinton, Iowa. Currently run by Executive Producer James Kyle Davis, the showboat has been drydocked on the Army Corps of Engineers Levee. With a 217-seat theater, the Clinton Showboat has produced musicals and comedies for 39 years.

History

Original construction

The original boat was built in 1936 by the Dravo Corporation near Pittsburgh and named Omar. She was created as a working boat, a coal-fired towboat for the Ohio River Company. Primarily steel, the boat is 207 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 37½ feet high. In the water, it displaces 581 gross tons.

The oaken paddlewheel, rebuilt in 1980, is approximately 32 feet in diameter. It was powered by two Marietta compound steam wheel engines that required 25 to 75 tons of coal a day. These engines produced 1,000 horsepower.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Clinton Area Showboat Theatre” as showboat theatre in Clinton, Iowa. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Clinton, Area and Showboat.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1936, 1980—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Clinton, Area and Showboat providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Clinton Area Showboat Theatre”, the useful work is to connect “showboat theatre in Clinton, Iowa” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5134059. Authority coordinates are 41.847, -90.184. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936 and 1980.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Clinton Area Showboat Theatre”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Clinton Area Showboat Theatre primary sources, Clinton Area Showboat Theatre archive and Clinton research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Clinton Area Showboat Theatre”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Clinton Area Showboat Theatre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.