RE:CONNECT
A one day retreat at the intersection of theatre, business and human connection.
- Where
- TimeLine Theatre Chicago
- When
- May 20, 2027
Commerce without connection isn't broken. It just never compounds.
You pay full price. Every time.
We got very good at reaching people, but we lost our ability to connect with them.
The Cost to Brands
5–25x
“Acquiring a new customer can cost 5–25 times as much as retaining an existing one.”
The Cost to Employers
50-200%
“Replacing an employee is estimated at 50% to 200% of annual salary and as much as 40% of turnover happens in the 1st year.”
TimeLine Theatre opened its new home in Uptown, Chicago, in May 2026. The theatre pairs state of the art technology with an intimate setting of 200 seats.
Most businesses know this and still struggle to build it.
Theatre does it every night. It takes a room full of strangers and makes them care about someone else’s life. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through thousands of deliberate choices made before the audience arrives.
Conflict is the engine of a play. It moves the story forward and holds the room, which creates connection. Business tends to sort conflict into good or bad and then sands it off: the messaging that offends no one, the meeting where everyone agrees, the idea tested until no one objects. Then it does the same thing next time.
The work that looks like everyone else’s. The customer with no reason to stay. The employee who leaves in the first year.
A story starts on a page. It comes to life when other people step into it, on a stage or in a brand.
In spring 2027, TimeLine Theatre stages Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, and the day is built around it. It follows a composer and his two closest friends in reverse, opening on the wreckage and ending on possibility. Franklin Shepard trades his creative vision and his friendships for commercial success, and never in one catastrophic choice. He makes a hundred small, reasonable ones.
RE:CONNECT is a day inside TimeLine’s working theatre, for anyone whose work shapes how an audience experiences something. Guided by directors, actors, storytellers, mediators and brand leaders, you’ll look at the circumstances we inherit, the obstacles we meet, and the choices we make in response. Through conversations, exercises and the play itself, you’ll examine how the way we navigate tension shapes our work, our relationships, and the worlds we build for our audiences. You’ll leave with a playbook of prompts and practices for Monday morning, and a record of how you saw connection at the start of the day and at the end. That evening, you’ll watch Merrily We Roll Along, staged for this gathering, with different eyes than you walked in with.
The Voice
The Beautiful Thinkers Project. A podcast, a university course, a field guide and custom experiences, built on 9 seasons of conversations with leaders, reaching 156 countries.
The Stage
TimeLine Theatre. Thirty years linking history to modern questions, now in a new $46 million theatre.
The Cohort
200 people. Leaders and the people who work beside them, across marketing, product, strategy, design, culture and communications.
PRICING
Every ticket includes a seat at that evening’s performance of Merrily We Roll Along, plus lunch and happy hour.
Individual tickets for anyone whose work shapes how an audience experiences something, with reduced rates for students.
Bringing your team? One person returns with an idea. A team returns with a shared language. Register together.
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Individual$595
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Early Bird (Limited to first 30 tickets)$495
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Student (Limited to 20 tickets)$195
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Team rate (3 or more colleagues)$525
A sponsor pays to be seen. A partner helps make the day.
Title Partner: one organization, which presents the day.
Program Partner: a selective number of companies, each part of the whole program.
Session Partner: one organization per session.
We’re talking with companies that believe connection is good for business and want to be part of the practice of building relationships. Details on a call.
Know a company that should be here? Send them this page, or send us a name.
Details available on a call.
Carolyn Hadlock: Founder / Host, Carolyn@thebeautifulthinkersproject.com
Gina Lang: Executive Producer, Gina@thebeautifulthinkersproject.com
This project grew out of Carolyn Hadlock's work as Executive Creative Director at Young & Laramore. It is a podcast with listeners in 156 countries, a course at Indiana University Bloomington's Media School, A Field Guide to Beautiful Thinking, and custom-designed experiences, including RE:CONNECT at TimeLine Theatre in May 2027.
Carolyn Hadlock
Founder, The Beautiful Thinkers Project
Carolyn began as an Art Director at Young & Laramore in 1992 and stayed three decades, becoming the agency's first Executive Creative Director. Her work for national consumer brands was recognized by The One Show, ADC, Cannes, Communication Arts, Graphis and The Effies. In 2014 she co-founded The Creative Leaders Retreat with The One Club, its longest running conference. She hosts the podcast, wrote A Field Guide to Beautiful Thinking, and teaches at Indiana University's Media School.
Gina Lang
Executive Producer
Gina spent years at Young & Laramore as a Senior Account Supervisor, where she and Carolyn built a partnership in which strategy and creative ran together. She later left agency life for health and wellness, founding Day One and earning her wellness coach certification through the Mayo Clinic. In 2023 she partnered with Carolyn on the project's first standalone activation at the Crested Butte Film Festival, including the closing-night event Under One Sky. She is known for taking large ideas and bringing them to life with precision, warmth, and an instinct for what makes people feel welcomed.
Louise Henderson
Partnerships and Programming Advisor
Louise is a nonprofit leader, programmer and producer. Her credits include A TOWN CALLED VICTORIA, DELIVERER, and the Academy Award-shortlisted short WINTERLIGHT. She was Executive Director of the Crested Butte Film Festival, Founding Executive Director of the Indianapolis Film Project, which powers the Kan-Kan Cinema, and led the Heartland Film Festival to its Oscar-qualifying designation. Programming is the work she has treasured most.
TimeLine Theatre received the 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions and now has a new $46 million theatre. It began in 1997, when six founders each pitched in $50, and has become one of Chicago's leading cultural institutions by making theatre that links past, present and future and explores today's social and political issues through the lens of the past. Through its first 29 seasons, TimeLine has presented 97 productions, including 16 world premieres and 44 Chicago premieres, and launched the Living History Education Program for Chicago Public Schools students. The Wall Street Journal named it Company of the Year, and it has been honored with 62 Jeff Awards.
Nick Bowling
Associate Artistic Director, TimeLine Theatre
Nick was TimeLine's founding Artistic Director in 1997 and directed its first show. He has won eight Jeff Awards for Outstanding Direction, including for THE HISTORY BOYS, THE NORMAL HEART and SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, and has directed FALSETTOS and OSLO at TimeLine. He calls TimeLine his second family.
PJ Powers
Artistic Director, TimeLine Theatre
PJ co-founded TimeLine in 1997 and has been Artistic Director since 1999, overseeing more than 80 productions. He helped establish TimeLine's home on Wellington Avenue, launched the TimePieces reading series and the First Draft Festival of new work, and led planning for the company's new home in Uptown. He has also appeared in 18 TimeLine productions.
