Shipping Dock Theatre is no more, at least in title. In April, board members announced the suspension of the remainder of the theater's 2007-08 season. Last week, director and founder Barbara Biddy gave the word that the groundbreaking theater group has officially shut down, citing too much work being done by too few people.

"I would rather close the Shipping Dock than continue it with lesser values," Biddy said. "What we did was too important for it to not live up to our own reputation."

Biddy co-founded Shipping Dock 28 years ago with her late husband, Fran. Originally the company staged plays in the loading dock of the Strasenburgh Planetarium. Since then it has been based at St. John Fisher, the former Downstairs Cabaret Theater at Andrews and St. Paul streets, and finally at its current home at Visual Studies Workshop, where it has been since 2003.

The group was known for its avant-garde play selections, tackling challenging works such as Larry Kramer's AIDS drama "The Normal Heart," and more recently, Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" Biddy said the theater was also the first to open with an original play by a local author, the first to have a festival of new plays, and the first to offer pay-what-you-can nights in order to open up live theater to the broader community.

"I've seen the effect that Shipping Dock has had on other theaters regarding their play selection," Biddy said. We made a dent, albeit it little."

"Now I'm seeing lots of people starting their own theaters - TYKES, Rochester Children's Theatre, Black Sheep...," she said of the theater's legacy. "I didn't think of it that way. I was just bored."

Biddy said her choices were to either stay in Rochester and start her own theater or move back to New York City.

While the name Shipping Dock has been retired, the corporation behind it will continue. Shipping Dock board member P. Gibson Ralph told City Newspaper that the company has not dissolved and will continue operating as an umbrella for the Shipping Dock's improv comedy group, Unleashed. The group is in talks with other venues now that Shipping Dock's lease at VSW is up. While there will be no 2008-09 mainstage season, something may emerge from the group in the future, just under a different name. (A name change has been happened before. Shipping Dock was called Loading Dock early in the group's history.)

But from Biddy's perspective, Shipping Dock is finished.

"It's sad for me, it's sad for the board," she said. "I assume it's also sad for subscribers."

Biddy plans to continue teaching and developing the next generation of local stage talent.

"It doesn't mean we may not pop up and do something when life gets too ridiculous and you think, ‘I have to talk about this,'" she said.