This case study focuses on Ten Thousand Things Theater Company’s (TTT) preparation for its upcoming leadership transition. From TTT’s 1990 founding in Los Angeles, to its 1993 move to Minneapolis, to the present, founding artistic director Michelle Hensley’s visionary leadership had been the guiding force behind TTT’s development and success, permeating every aspect of TTT from its overarching philosophy down to its day-to-day management. Hensley had instilled TTT with a fluid, values-driven organizational system that often resisted the rigidity of a more formal business structure. Stephanie Thompson, TTT’s newly hired Managing Director, needs to decide if she should introduce a more well-defined organizational structure for the purpose of preparing TTT for Hensley’s departure in two seasons.
Publication Date: 2018-05-19Suggested Citation: Sylvia Xiaomeng Zhang, "Ten Thousand Things Theater Company (2016)," Yale Theater Management Knowledge Base Case 16-82, May 19, 2018
Keywords: Theater, Performing Arts, Leadership Transition, Succession, Minnesota, Arts Education
Teaching Notes: Yes (please contact yaletmknowledgebase@yale.edu)
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