Exit, Stage Left

Esteemed Readers:

As many of you most likely know by now, your editor has wandered off from the confines of Savannah to accept a job teaching in North Carolina. As such, I fear I wont be much service to The Savannah Dramaturgy. I will not be taking this blog down, and if there is a brave soul in the Savannah community who is interested in taking it over, I'd love to hear from you.

For those of you who are specifically interested in my writing particularly, I will be continuing my blogging at the Friendly Neighborhood Dramaturg. There's not much to show at the moment, as I am just getting it set up, but eventually it will be running with the same steam as the Dramaturgy.

To indulge myself, allow me a few goodbye notes. Savannah is a great town, and it was an excellent, frustrating experience living there. As a fairly large city with a small town mentality, there is the potential for a sustainable community of working artists... if only it can be harnessed. There is one major force standing in the way, and that is fragmentation.

One perfect example of this is the splintering of the Savannah orchestra. Before the split, it was capable of paying a decent, part-time wage to its musicians. Now, there are two entities dipping out of the same pot and both are forced to scrabble. I'm not saying there need to be fewer production companies, but there needs to be some cooperation. The market simply isn't big enough for a complete dog-eat-dog showdown in sustainability. Jim Morekis, over at the Connect touched on an example of this when he pointed out that there were long dearths of activity punctuated by sudden bursts where there was far too much to do. If the theatre community could work together, cooperate... or at least talk to one another as opposed to crouching in their enclaves... and then reach out to the wider community, you might stand a chance of creating the rising tide the lifts all ships.

It was an honour to serve as your self-appointed voice and gadfly for the past couple of years. Living in Savannah is similar to living in a novel by Joyce, though it pained me to leave... I had to follow the work. I hope to hear from you over at the Friendly Neighborhood Dramaturg. Good luck, bless you all.

Eric S. Kildow, Editor
The Savannah Dramaturgy (2008-2010)