After graduating from college, Hannah Estabrook accepted her first job as the assistant executive director of the Brown County Playhouse where she took on the responsibility of managing a 72-year-old theater and booking acts for the 425-seat venue.
“I feel so, so thankful and grateful that I’ve been able to work here and live here. I love it when I meet new people and they ask me what I do for a living and I tell them. They’re like ‘Wait, you do what?’” Estabrook said.
“As challenging as it was I grew up a lot. I had to learn how to really stand my ground and not be bossy, but be a boss.”
Estabrook has been managing the Playhouse for two years. She was first hired as an assistant executive director when late Executive Director Suzannah Levett Zody was ill. She was promoted to executive director in February 2020, nearly a month before the COVID-19 pandemic hit home in Indiana, and after Zody passed away.
But now it is time for Estabrook to move on to the next phase of her career. She plans to leave the Playhouse at the end of this year.
“The decision I have made to move on isn’t coming from a place of negativity at all. It’s all just based in the fact that it’s kind of time for me personally to move on,” she said.
This is also a good time for the Playhouse to transition to new leadership as the theater comes out of a hectic year responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re stable and I feel like that’s a good time for the torch to be passed, for somebody to take over that would really take care and be a good fit,” Estabrook said.
She said taking over as executive director was an “all immersive experience.”
At times it was challenging trying to figure out what to prioritize for the Playhouse and keeping it in line with the theater’s resources.
“I had to say no to a lot of people and I hate that because I hate saying no,” she said.
“There have definitely been some opportunities that have come up that I wish we could have jumped on.”
The Playhouse board of directors and Estabrook are currently working on establishing a foundation where the Playhouse could have programming without thinking if they can afford it or not.
“One of the biggest challenges is having to vet through ‘What can we do? What makes most sense? What will our audience like the most?’” she said.
That challenge was further complicated by the pandemic and finding the Playhouse’s spot in the changing live entertainment industry here with the creation of the 2,000 seat Brown County Music Center nearby.
“It’s always changing, but I feel like that’s what makes it most exciting. The Playhouse has been around 72 years now and I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere,” she said.
“I am happy to say I think we’ve kept up with the times really well and will continue to do so.”
Estabrook said she plans to be involved in the search for her replacement and plans to help with the transition.
“It is a position that is made into whatever the person who is handling it is comfortable with and I want to make sure that person is set up for ultimate success because I want to see the Playhouse succeed,” she said.
<strong>Lessons learned</strong>
From dealing with feet of snow the day an HVAC unit was set to be installed to waking up in the middle of the night wondering if she had locked the back door, Estabrook has learned to manage stress and unexpected problems.
“I hear ‘Oh, the toilet in the women’s bathroom broke again’ in the middle of a show. A year ago if someone were to come up to me and say that I would be ‘Oh my god. What do I do?’ silently in my head, like ‘What is happening?’ But now it’s like ‘Oh yeah, we’ll drive down to Menards. Get the part and fix it tomorrow,’” she said.
“There are certain methods to madness that I feel like will stick with me.”
Or the time she walked into the Playhouse after a weekend away and water was coming down through the ceiling because an HVAC unit had failed.
“It was just one of those moments where I was like ‘OK. You’ve accepted the responsibility of taking care of a 70 year building and these things happen. It will be OK,’” Estabrook said.
As executive director, Estabrook wears many different hats. She is responsible for programming, marketing, productions and general theater management.
“I get to converse and talk to everybody, but sometimes it’s like ‘There’s water coming down through the ceilings right now. I don’t have time to talk to anybody.’ But I have to. I have to smile through it, nod my head and politely say ‘OK I’ve got to go take care of something real quick,’” Estabrook said.
“If you ever see comedy and tragedy masks, sometimes you have to do that. I wish had one of those in my back pocket where I could just be flipping on my happy face or my ‘I have to be the executive director and tell you what to do face.’”
<a href="http://www.bcdemocrat.com/photo-6089/"><img class="size-full wp-image-1713790" src="http://www.bcdemocrat.com/wp-content/files/sites/3/2021/05/af9f7e41ac16dd004f7595d63f4f0a9a.jpg" alt="After working as the assistant executive director and then executive director of the Brown County Playhouse for the last two years, Hannah Estabrook has decided to leave the Playhouse at the end of this year to pursue other career opportunities. Estabrook hopes to be involved in the search for her replacement and wants to stay on until the end of the year to ensure the remaining scheduled programming is a success. Submitted" width="1200" height="774" /></a> After working as the assistant executive director and then executive director of the Brown County Playhouse for the last two years, Hannah Estabrook has decided to leave the Playhouse at the end of this year to pursue other career opportunities. SubmittedBeing young woman who is small in stature can also present some obstacles when in a leadership role.
“Sometimes people that walk into the Playhouse that have never met me before other than on the phone or in email, they will walk right in and walk right past me then just go to the backstage,” she said.
“I kind of have to stick my hand out and just say ‘Hi, I am here for everything you need today.’ I’ve had a few who brush me off and they ‘Oh yeah, yeah. Whatever,’ then they will need something and they will need to put out a small fire then be like ‘Where’s Hannah?’ I’m like ‘Yup. You need me now.’”
Estabrook said though there have been few moments like that in her time at the Playhouse and that she has enjoyed working with everyone at the Playhouse from the board of directors to the volunteers.
“I think they all do the absolute best they can to lift up others in their community. I have not worked with a single selfish person,” she said.
“It’s definitely challenging when you have a young person that you never met before that comes in and takes over your organization. I can totally see why that would be a little bit scary, but I think we got a long really well for what we needed to accomplish and we’ve accomplished a lot together.”
When the Playhouse reopened its doors after closing due to the pandemic all of the staff and volunteers returned ready to work, which was a humbling experience for Estabrook.
“They definitely didn’t have to stay. That was a really cool thing. They are great people to work with and they make my job easy,” she said.
Staying on until the end of the year will allow Estabrook to remain the main point of contact for events planned later this year, like “Believe: The Magic of Christmas” and the “2020: COVID — The Musical.”
“After a year of uncertainty, I want to be able to be there for groups that are coming into our venue and continue to work with them because I love working with them,” she said.
Estabrook is not sure where her career path will take her next and expects to move from the area. But she hopes to not be a stranger around the Playhouse.
“I will be able to, hopefully, come back and visit, come to shows and be able to enjoy them from the audience perspective, which I don’t get to do very often, so I will really enjoy that,” she said.
“I think I will always go to concerts and kind of look at them with an eye like ‘What kind of soundboard are they using?’”
<strong>Memories made</strong>
Many fun memories will be with Estabrook when she leaves, too.
Like when musician John McEuen performed at the Playhouse last year and brought her a signed photograph of himself, Steve Martin and Jerry Garcia.
The two had spoken over the phone leading up to his performance and were able to get to know each other well. Estabrook had told him The Grateful Dead was one of her favorite bands.
“He mentioned ‘I have this picture and I have to bring it for you.’ That is all he said,” Estabrook said.
A few weeks later he presented the photo to her in the green room.
“I called my dad right after and I was like ‘Oh my God. You will never guess what happened,’” she remembers.
“I worked with a few divas, but I worked with more really, really down to Earth, wholesome, good hearted people, so I am happy to say that the Playhouse has a good vetting process for people like that.”
Another memory that sticks out in her mind is in June 2019, which was about a month after she started working at the Playhouse.
The Sunset Stomp Jazz Band was set to perform on a June evening when the tornado sirens went off, meaning Estabrook had to direct around 120 attendees to the Playhouse basement.
“I go ‘OK. Please remain calm, we’re going to have to all stand up then very calmly and single file follow the volunteers and I to the basement.’ All of these people have lived in Indiana their whole lives. They are not fazed. They are like ‘No. We’re not going to get up.’ Then I go ‘OK this is the time when everybody stands up,’” she said.
The audience was cooperative and patient as Estabrook and the volunteers guided them to the basement.
“Then the band comes down and they start playing their concert in the basement for everybody while there’s a tornado warning going on upstairs,” she said.
Popcorn was served in the basement and the band was ready to do a full concert once it was safe to do so a half hour later.
Since deciding to leave the Playhouse, Estabrook said she sometimes finds herself standing in the middle of the theater stage at the end of a work day, looking out and thinking about her time here.
“I am still so nostalgic and it doesn’t even feel real, but it will be turning a page pretty soon. I’ll be sad,” she said.
Before moving to Brown County, Estabrook never had the chance to have nice neighbors and she finally was able to have that here. She wants to thank the community and the Playhouse for accepting her.
“I feel like Brown County is the place I will kind of always gravitate towards,” she said.
“I’ll be back at some point. I’ll be around.”
