worker bee

The past couple of days have been especially demanding at work. This has been a positive phenomenon, for the most part, even though my stamina flags about an hour before the workday is "officially" over.

My theatre is planning like planning was going out of style. We're planning the big festival that happens in the spring. We're planning next season's roster of plays. We're planning a new performance series, and a new ticket pricing structure to support it. We're planning our Web strategy for the next three years. You got something? We're planning it. We are a planning machine.

Being in the middle of all the planning conversations gives me a chance to exert more influence than I have historically had. This bodes well for my ongoing happiness in my job. And, I'm trying to keep my head in the midst of it, and recognize opportunities to move towards my goals for this theatre.

So far most of those moves have seemed to go well. Keeping particular plays in consideration for production next season. Taking initiative to refresh a connection with a NY-based director that had been allowed to languish by some bad communication. Bringing an award-winning local director on board for an upcoming opportunity -- and for whatever reason, the usually hypermicromanaging big boss was inclined simply to let me make it happen, rather than take it out of my hands. Delivering and delivering and delivering on what everybody in the theatre company wants and expects of me.

This is an intense period. I don't know how long this phase will last, but I'm hoping that whenever it ends, I'll look around and realize that all this hard work has moved me yet further up the mountain at my theatre company, and that I have stockpiled even more "political capital" than I had before.