By BOB KIRLIN, guest columnist

Here’s an update on the historic Brown County Playhouse. This year has been one for the books. Presently we are involved in two major projects: 1) a major strategic planning process that has been funded by the Brown County Community Foundation and the Howard Hughes Endowment, and 2) celebrating our 70th birthday.

The planning project includes the redevelopment of a new, more focused mission around offering community theater in Brown County. With the Brown County Music Center offering music opportunities, we can focus more on plays with a revitalized community theater, the best music shows for our size of venue, clean and well-known comedians, movies both new and old, and a rental venue for local entities. We’d like to be your local gathering spot in the heart of Nashville.

Part of the planning project was a Playhouse constituency survey for which we received an incredible 900 responses. We are thrilled with this level of response. Thanks to all our interested fans.

There will be a 70th birthday party on Nov. 9. There will be more information on this in the coming weeks.

However, as you know, we also suddenly lost our executive director who was the lifeblood of the Playhouse. We actually had created a backup plan in 2018, but it did not pan out in the way we had expected. So, yes, we were caught flat-footed.

We have had to find a way to manage the Playhouse, scramble for different programming and deploy other stop-gap methods. However, those efforts have proven very expensive and not necessarily that effective.

We are happy to report that we have found a new Playhouse director. Our new, young director, Hannah Estabrook, is very committed to the success of the Playhouse and is rapidly coming up to speed on the multiple demands of the position.

All of this is to say that we are currently in a very difficult financial situation. At its best and busiest, the Playhouse, like all theaters, will need to raise money to stay open. This year has been particularly challenging. We need your help.

Donations can be sent to BCPH, P.O. Box 2011, Nashville, IN or can be made online at browncountyplayhouse.org.

This is the beginning of a push to keep our doors open. The board is committed to the vitality of the Playhouse. We hope to see you at the Playhouse soon.

Bob Kirlin is president of Brown County Playhouse Management Inc.