An amphitheater at Trustees’ Garden could soon be the latest showpiece of Savannah’s entertainment scene.
An open-air entertainment venue is planned as an addition to the Charles H. Morris Center at the site of Savannah founder General James Oglethorpe’s experimental farm. The facility would include at least 1,200 fixed seats plus a lawn viewing area.
Trustees’ Garden, located on downtown’s northeastern edge, overlooks the east end of River Street, the Savannah Marriott Riverfront and the Savannah River Landing site.
Morris did not respond to interview requests regarding the project. He is the founder and head of Savannah-based Morris Multimedia, which operates 70 publications and 11 television stations in 10 states and the Caribbean.
Morris is the former publisher of the Savannah Morning News, and his brother, William S. Morris III, is the CEO of the newspaper’s parent company, Morris Communications.
Charles Morris has long envisioned an amphitheater as part of his special events center at Trustees’ Garden. The facility, which includes a 3,600-square-foot indoor event space and a covered outdoor area, opened in 2008.
Morris’ intention to move forward with the amphitheater project became public Tuesday during a Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission meeting. A Morris representative spoke in favor of the proposed hotel/retail complex and 500-space parking garage planned for the former Georgia Power region headquarters property located across Bay St. from Trustees’ Garden.
“We are developing a fairly important entertainment complex at Trustees’ Garden that I’ll be back to talk to you about very soon,” Morris’ representative, Brian Williams, told the MPC board. “We love the idea of a parking deck that will support what we are developing at Trustees’ Garden.”
An amphitheater is a missing piece in Savannah’s entertainment scene. The city boasts several indoor venues, including the Johnny Mercer Theater, the Lucas and Trustees Theater.
But the lone outdoor facility is the band shell at Forsyth Park. The park can accommodate huge crowds — the Charlie Daniels’ Band attracted an estimate 20,000 spectators in April — but does not have fixed seating and is city-owned and therefore not conducive to hosting ticketed or more intimate events.
The Savannah Music Festival would be among the events that would benefit from the creation of the amphitheater, and the festival’s executive and artistic director, Rob Gibson, finds the notion of an amphitheater on the site appealing.
“Charles' vision for Trustees Garden has been to develop a democratic park-like space where communities can come together and express their identities,” Gibson said. “So, the inclusion of a well-designed amphitheater would be a great marriage of an historically important urban site with the performing arts, thus creating another place for cultural vitality within our city.”
The size of the planned amphitheater could limit the caliber of the acts it attracts. At 1,200 fixed seats, it would have half the capacity of the Johnny Mercer Theatre. The facility could seat thousands more, however, depending on its design and how lawn viewing would be incorporated.
Trustees’ Garden has plenty of open space including a broad open hillside on its northeast corner.