A greeting.

Welcome, 2010.  Have a seat. Glad to have you here.  I know you’ve only just arrived today and barely had time to find out where the bathrooms are, much less get down to work – no worries.  Time enough for that in the coming days.

I invited you in because I thought we’d have a little chat, have a chance to introduce ourselves and get to know a little more about each other personally and the expectations we have for you in our organization. I’m well familiar with your resume of course, and I know you’re going to work out just great.  Just so you know, your predecessor was quite the go-getter, and I think you have some mighty fine shoes to fill.  But we all believe you’ll be perfect.

I understand that 2009 left everything set up in order for you to begin.  Anything else you need…just let me know.  I want to assure you that although 2009’s tenure has completed and we had to let him go, we parted entirely on amicable terms. Indeed, we think he did a fine job for our group, and of course we knew he wouldn’t stick around forever.

That’s not to say he didn’t have his share of challenges. During his stay we began some pretty serious projects around here, making some major improvements around the office – and the show had to go on as well.  2009 knew he would never really get to see the full fruits of these labors anyway.  No, it was 2009’s purview to lay out the groundwork for what you must now continue – the assured growth of our company and its ability to bring ever more amazing, challenging theater work to Houston audiences.

During 2009’s stay the Theatre mounted three full productions; two were original works (The Tamarie Cooper Show: Journey To the Center of My Brain – in 3D! and Life is Happy and Sad) and one a hit telling of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s comedy Hunter Gatherers. Only our second season, and we were already gaining some serious accolades for our work. We would have perhaps liked to have had another production or two this year as well, but – let’s face it, there was a lot going on behind the scenes – instituting our new “Pay What You Can” admission price initiative, working out the details of our new office space and performance venues, bringing in new help, rebuilding our online presence, laying the groundwork for new directions and policies – a heck of a lot of responsibility for just one year.  Luckily everyone pitched in, full speed ahead, and we managed to get those shows running AND kick start all these new tools into shape. Suffice it to say, now we’re excited to take it even further.

And that’s where you come in, 2010.  It’s up to you to be our time in which we can take those toys, those ideas, those creative forces and continue to crank them forward stronger and faster.  Do take a week to really get your bearings – no one expects you to start full force come Monday or anything – but know that we have a limited amount of time before we are underway and there’s no stopping it. You are the year in which we intend to bring an amazing new Season Three: full of new works and some classic but little-seen pieces – perhaps a favorite remount or two for those who might have missed them the first time around – and the culmination of what may prove to be our biggest, most ambitious project to date, late in your stay with us.  In addition to that, we have the Gala to look forward to in the spring, our new Monday night open performance program in the works, and a couple of other surprises along the way.

We feel you’re up to it, 2010.  Do us proud.  We promise that we will work as hard as you do – and at the end of your work here, we’ll be able to sit back and be proud of what we have done together, and a lot of happy theater-goers will have seen what we’re capable of.  Great!  So good luck – and now, get out there and start swinging.

-=Tim