Flight of the Albatross: The Savannah Shakespeare Festival

"Good friend, for Jesus sake forebear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones
And curst be he that moves my bones."
-- Inscription on the Tomb of William Shakespeare

I figure that Shakespeare has little to fear on the account of his grave being moved. After all, the thing weighs quite a bit. Indeed, the curse upon those who move his bones will most likely be severe hernia.

Which is not at all dissimilar to the aspirations of the Savannah Shakespeare Festival. To accomplish the vision set out by Festival Director, JinHi Rand, some heavy lifting is going to be required. It is the hope of The Savannah Dramaturgy that the theatre community, or tribe, if you like, will be equal to the task. Getting almost any festival off the ground is a daunting task, and combined with the challenge of doing justice, as opposed to violence, to the Bard just adds to the weight.

As I currently understand it, and I encourage anybody more involved than myself to disabuse me of this if it is fallacious, is that the Festival will be partnering with the various producing agencies in the city of Savannah to produce a showcase, essentially, of Shakespearean works on the topic of love and its various incarnations. To sew such disparate elements into a coherent whole will be a challenge akin to getting the Spruce Goose off the tarmac. While I applaud the concept of integrating the performance community, I also question if it is possible. Indeed, if one were to lock Savannah luminaries such as Ryan McCurdy, Karla Knudsen, and DJ Queenan into a room, the chances of getting a completely satisfactory pizza order from them may fall short.

Indeed, having spoken to some folks involved, the unified festival auditions, as they were performed, left each of the institutions unable to cast their sequence and in need of holding separate auditions. While not necessary problematic, each of these producing agencies have their own health and seasons to keep in mind, and many things to do. Indicative of this is that there has been little to no notice regarding these separate auditions, and the clock is ticking.

Given how close this program was to being axed entirely, which would have been an unwise move on the part of the City of Savannah, perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky that it still has legs at all. But current status seems that it has legs very similar to James Caan's in Misery and one must ask if a year on ice might not help in the long run.

Indeed, my proposal for future festivals, so that they could be properly be called festivals, is that the Savannah Shakespeare Festival approach each of the production companies in the city and work with them to integrate festival content into their season. The Festival would help foot the bill, and the production companies would have a way of coming together. The current situation, I fear, may be an example of too many chefs spoiling the stew.

An albatross, once aloft, if actually quite beautiful. But watching the takeoff procedures is similar to watching sausage being made in terms of general pleasantness. Here is hoping that my worries are unfounded, but they exist nonetheless.