Blue Water Theatre Company has launched a $500,000 capital campaign to stabilize operations, repair its 109-year-old former church building on Rice Street, and preserve a youth-led arts community that serves families throughout the west metro.
Board Chair Janessa Prawer said the campaign, called Raise the Roof, is intended to give the organization enough runway to complete a financial turnaround already underway. “We have a rockstar board and a plan,” she said, “but what we need now is time and we may not have that.”
A Historic Building With Mounting Costs
Blue Water’s home is itself a piece of Wayzata history. The building originally served as the Wayzata Congregational Church, a congregation established in 1881 as one of the earliest anchors of community life on the north shore of Lake Minnetonka. The church’s 1911 structure—designed by noted Minneapolis architect Harry Wild Jones—stood on this site until a fire destroyed it in 1916. Remarkably, the congregation rebuilt the sanctuary the very same year, continuing its role as the cornerstone of religious life in early Wayzata. Today, the building is recognized as a Wayzata Historic Landmark, one of the few remaining examples of the town’s early civic and architectural heritage.
That legacy is one reason the theatre has remained committed to the space since purchasing it from the congregation, but caring for a century-old landmark comes with real challenges. Prawer noted that “this building costs us $6,000 a month just to operate and maintain,” citing water issues, deferred exterior work, and aging systems now undergoing review through a donor-funded facilities assessment.
A severe storm last summer caused water to bubble up through the basement floor, one of several spots in the building where moisture has become an ongoing concern. “When it rained, it bubbled up on the ground. I was like, oh God,” Prawer recalled. Insurance disputes left the nonprofit responsible for tens of thousands of dollars in interior repairs, and early assessments suggest the underlying issues extend outside the building as well — likely involving grading, drainage, and gutter work that must be addressed before the interior can be fully restored.
Alongside the physical concerns, Blue Water carries a mortgage, a federal EIDL loan taken during the pandemic, and a second mortgage used to survive a year without summer programming.
A Distinctive Youth-Led Model
Despite the challenges, artistic director Eddie Paul says the educational mission has never been stronger. Paul joined Blue Water with more than two decades of experience in professional theatre and youth-program development, backed by a B.A. in Acting & Directing from DePaul University and an M.A. in Education from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where he earned his K–12 theatre teaching license.
Paul’s background in both performance and classroom instruction has shaped an approach where students take on meaningful artistic and technical responsibilities. “We’re not looking for perfection,” he said, explaining that many students who feel overlooked in school theatre find opportunities at Blue Water “to grow and learn.”
Upcoming productions reflect that ethos in vivid, hands-on ways. For Water for Elephants, students aren’t just rehearsing lines—they’re building giant puppets from scratch, strapping on stilts, and learning the physical language of circus performers. Paul laughed as he described the transformation: “We’ve got some kids on stilts… we were walking in about an hour.”
Paul emphasized the collaborative spirit of the program. “It’s very much youth-led theater,” he said. “Everything they do it and they do it as a team.”
Prawer believes that sense of belonging is central to Blue Water’s value: “This place is a place where they can leave their school drama issues and whatever behind and come here and be in a place that’s fully accepting and welcoming everybody.”
A Rebuilt Board and a New Strategy
Prawer joined the board during a difficult period marked by rising liabilities, leadership turnover, and slowed donations. Her background in healthcare operations and process improvement led to immediate structural changes: ticket prices were adjusted, tuition and cast sizes recalibrated, new education pathways created, and staffing restructured to reduce overhead.
The board, now composed of professionals in finance, law, higher education, and performing arts, has shifted toward a more sustainable budgeting approach. Early numbers suggest improvement—but not fast enough without a capital cushion.
Why the Campaign Matters
The Raise the Roof campaign aims to pay down debt, tackle essential repairs, and give the theatre a full season of breathing room under its new operating model. And there’s promising momentum: a potential major donor has already expressed interest in contributing, pending the results of a full building audit, a step intended to confirm the long-term viability of the historic space.
Prawer says losing the building would undermine the entire program. “If we don’t have the building, then that communal space where they gather, I think we could fall apart,” she said. The unique, youth-led model relies heavily on consistent access to rehearsal rooms, workshops, storage, and the theatre’s intimate performance space.
“It’s unusual and special, and it’s worth saving,” she said.
How to Support the Campaign
Community members, alumni families, and local arts supporters can learn more or make contributions at:
As Wayzata continues to evolve, Blue Water’s leadership hopes Raise the Roof will preserve both a historic building and the creative community that has taken shape inside it.
