Case Study: Business Planning & Strategy
TimeLine Theatre Company — Strategic Assessment & Operating Model
Location: Chicago, IL
TimeLine engaged AMS to conduct a structured strategic assessment and operating model review, in a way that would give leadership and the Board a clear-eyed picture of gaps and a concrete path forward. AMS facilitated a two-phase engagement, moving from discovery and organizational alignment through financial modeling, utilization planning, and recommendations for change.
The Challenge
For more than two decades, TimeLine Theatre Company has built an acclaimed reputation in Chicago for history-driven storytelling and deep community engagement. With its lease on its longtime Lakeview home set to expire and construction for a new permanent venue on the horizon, TimeLine faced a pivotal question: how would the organization adapt and grow to sustain the operational, staffing, and financial demands of its next chapter? Leadership transitions, itinerancy-era capacity strains, and a financial model that had not kept pace with current construction and labor costs created real uncertainty at a critical moment.
Photos: Kendall McCaugherty
Our Approach
AMS structured the engagement in two phases, beginning with deep listening and building toward a set of actionable recommendations grounded in both quantitative analysis and stakeholder input.
Chicago Theater: Listening First
- Conducted 18 key stakeholder interviews in August 2023, engaging staff, company members, Board directors, major donors, individual artists, and community leaders
- Synthesized interview findings into six distinct organizational themes: communication, staffing, Board activation, transition process, transition space, and education
- Developed a working SWOT analysis to anchor the organization’s transition through itinerancy and into its new home in Uptown
Alignment & Visioning Workshops
- Facilitated a half-day in-person Assessment, Alignment, and Prioritization Workshop with TimeLine leadership to build shared understanding of organizational priorities
- Facilitated a second workshop focused on utilization modeling for TimeLine’s new home, achieving alignment across two working groups on programming and revenue-generating uses of four distinct venue spaces: the mainstage, lobby/bar, rehearsal room, and education/engagement room
Pro Forma Review & Gap Analysis
- Reviewed three iterations of TimeLine’s financial pro forma model (2020 through 2022), including the original model and subsequent internal updates
- Identified structural gaps across three domains: pro forma assumptions and modeling flexibility, organizational structure, and the evolution of staff roles and responsibilities
- Recommended a full refresh of production-related labor and materials cost assumptions, introduction of production typologies for season planning scenario testing, and an expense contingency to allow for +/- model tolerances
- Proposed a new Hospitality line of business to capture rental revenue, food and beverage income, and event activation opportunities unlocked by the new home
- Co-developed a dynamic financial model for the TimeLine team to use going forward, with extensive program and personnel detail, enabling season and institutional planning throughout the transition process to the new home
The team at AMS was exceptional. They not only understood our vision, but helped us operationalize it during the most pivotal moment in the organization’s history.”
Mica Cole
Executive Director
The Solution
The engagement concluded with a Gap Analysis and Recommendations for Change memo, a practical roadmap for TimeLine as it moved into its new home. The organization came away with a sharper understanding of the financial and staffing investments required to activate its new venue, a clearer model for cross-functional work across Education, Community Engagement, and Hospitality, and the analytical tools to test and iterate its operating assumptions in real time.
AMS helps arts and cultural organizations navigate complex institutional transitions with clarity and confidence.
Contact us to learn how strategic assessment can strengthen your organization’s foundation for what comes next.
Arts, culture and entertainment is our business.
© Copyright 2025 by AMS Planning & Research
