The driving force that governs our lives, and therefore our stories, is time. The linearity of time provides structure to our lives, as does its perpetual motion. One of the few forces that can seemingly counteract the passage of time is space. Space exists outside of time and allows us to inhabit the same spaces as those who lived hundreds of years before us, as well as those who will follow us. Space creates shared experiences between disparate lifetimes. One of the ways that we connect space and time is through storytelling. This dissonance across space and time creates a state of liminality at their intersection. Starting with the myth of the crossroads, this paper explores liminality in the city squares of Savannah, Georgia. As with many old American cities, ghost stories are exceedingly popular, furthering the connection of time through space. After a discussion of a few of the particular stories of Savannah, this paper investigates ways to occupy and activate the space of the crossroads through the lens of theater design. Theaters curate a narrative experience for those that move through them. The stage itself sits at the convergence of two major pathways, that of the actors and that of the patrons. The productions that happen on the stage inhabit the false reality of suspended disbelief. Like the crossroads, the stage is a place where dissonance is allowed and the rules of the natural world bend. A theater, therefore, provides the space necessary to break from our linear timelines through storytelling. The culmination of this document (and subsequent project) is the design of a new community based theater for Savannah, Georgia. The design of this theater aims to provide a platform at the crossroads where the people of Savannah can come together to tell their own stories.
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