We're also embarking on a really ambitious year of theatre, producing what I'm going to term a really "bad-ass" slate of shows, including plays by Anne Washburn, Martin Crimp, and someone I don't have license to name yet, as well as an original, company-created work (our speciality) and our first big musical. Yes, that's right, a musical. More on that as we go.

What's most amazing to me at this moment is that we're already planning 2010. We're a company who, in the past, has struggled to successfully plan much more than 3 months ahead of time, and now we're planning shows for 18 months from now. I'd always thought about how great that would be in terms of infrastructure and marketing, to be able to lay out everything you need ahead of time, and announce a season all at once. What didn't occur to me is the way this long-term planning enables us to dream big. We've started two adaptation projects, one that we'll be workshopping a couple of times this year so we can debut it in early 2010. That wouldn't have been possible with our old, scrappy model. Not because we didn't dream big, but because I was always too way-layed by the immediate demands of the next couple months to think ahead that far.

(I guess that's not entirely true. We've produced a couple of shows that I spent 18 months working on, but those were projects I worked on alone, in my own time. The difference here is the planned collaboration, which is really liberating.)

The other project is one I'm alway too excited to mention. So, I won't, I'll just hint. It's an adaptation of my favorite literary work of the past year. I'll say this too, it's a book with a lot of beautiful pictures. If you dig really, really deep, you can figure out what it is. More on that soon. Suffice to say, it's a project I wouldn't be attempting if I didn't have faith the in long-term support of our Board, our members, and our growing audience, and the knowledge that I can spend the many months on it that it deserves. Heck, I wouldn't even have been brave enough to ask the writer for permission if the company wasn't moving along so swimmingly.

So, that's my tip for today. Long-term planning is nice. It's a burden, it's hard-work, but it's worth it, both for your business and your art. At least, I'm enjoying it.