The public premiere was held at The Americas Families in Business Conference in 201 2, where the firm also sponsored the performance of “The Outsider.” The play was created and performed by Shaking the Tree, which is a not-for-profit organization with a unique theatre-based approach to transforming conversations about wealth — the Living Case Study, which combined interactive theater and expert facilitation of audience discussion. The new work joins its repertoire. In “The Outsider” the case study depicts the challenges in today’s world of a trusted advisor and a family as they deal with the founder’s plan that was established generations ago. They must learn to collaborate to renew the family’s business and philanthropic mission, but ghosts from the past appear from an unexpected direction. The trusted advisor struggles to fulfill his commitment to the ‘plan’ that embodies the founder’s intentions. Despite past fractures and missed opportunities the founder’s legacy has endured into the third generation, but now the family must apply its abundant energy and talents to the central question: will it become a family of affinity or a family of outsiders?
9/2012
