Precipice

We are starting a new blogging initiative here at Savage Umbrella, headed up by our lovely and talented Amber Davis, who asked me to write the first entry of The New Blog this spring. Yes, spring, not winter. And though this spring has been tentative in beginning, the streets now festooned with Dogwood petals, the recent severe weather and the fact that I really, really need to mow, tell me that yes, the world is creeping toward that bright, verdant, and full time that is summer. It feels like the perfect time of year to think about new.

She wanted me to talk about the company, which still feels very new: why we added eight new members in November, why we want to add a board of directors, explain our plans to engage more with the community. I wondered how to begin this new blog, and then it hit me. I stood in my yard on Friday afternoon, next to the two new cherry trees we planted, garden gloves on, sweating over the pile of uprooted dandelions beside me, and I realized: it’s the same. Summer is preparing to explode, and Savage Umbrella is, too.

The answers to all the questions Amber wants me to address are similar. Making new plays, tackling important subject matter, working collaboratively with artists and the community - it’s all about expanding, reaching out, taking root. We added eight new company members because we wanted more artists to call Savage Umbrella home, to have a place to create art and space for art. We want to add a board of directors because we want to find more ways to engage with our community, to support them and have them support us. We are offering more and more education opportunities because we want to teach what we know and learn all that we can. We want to blog more not just to keep our fans and friends updated, but so that our Website is more dynamic and we can have a voice in the conversation about new plays, about our community, about art, about our world.

We hover on the precipice - between spring and summer, between infant company and a bright future - and we are ready to produce, ready to flower, ready to engage.

So, this is it. The New Blog. Check back here every Wednesday for photos, discussion and information about new plays, Twin Cities theatre and, of course, Savage Umbrella. This is how we are reaching out, inviting you into our process and prioritizing engagement with you. Because in our society, together is better than alone. Come under the umbrella.

-Laura