Published in The Post-Star (D1)
8/31/06
Even on what she calls a "flat" day, Andrea Lyons is like a hummingbird, flitting around the Charles R. Wood Theater in a flutter of animated conversation, colored by frequent giggles.
In terms of job performance, though, she compares herself to a different creature.
"I'm the start-up person, the gorilla," she said, waving her arms over her head like an ape. "I don't let anything get in my way of getting things off the ground ... Now, it's time for someone to come in with a more long-term vision."
After getting the Charles R. Wood Theater off to an impressive start in her 4 years as executive director of the fledgling performing arts venue, Lyons is poised for a new challenge.
Starting Sept. 11, she's taking over as director of administration and operations at the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, where she had her first theater internship as a Hartwick College student in the early 1990s.
"I'm very fortunate to have been a part of this, and now to be able to go somewhere really cool, where I already know people. I can use what I've learned here -- and probably learn a lot more," she said.
Glimmerglass, a renowned opera company that brings the sparkle of top-notch professional talent to the quiet rural landscape of Cooperstown each summer, is entering a time of transition as several longtime staff members take their final bows.
Lyons will report to the newly appointed general and artistic director, Michael MacLeod, and said she's looking forward to getting to know him and the rest of the staff, which swells from 24 to almost 200 members during the summer season.
But she's also reluctant to leave Glens Falls, a community she has nestled into with ease in the last few years.
After graduating from Drexel University in Philadephia, Pa. with a master's degree in arts administration in 2002, she applied to work with what would eventually become the Wood Theater. She was intrigued by what she saw as a "prime example of community cultural development" and wanted to be closer to her parents and her hometown of Greenwich.
"Honestly, I never expected to get the job ... I was psyched just to get a tour of the building," she said. "I was very blessed that the board gave me a chance to do this. I was only 28 -- I didn't expect to be in a role like this until much later in my career!"
She cleared the first major hurdle -- construction of a permanent theater within the former Woolworth's building on Glen Street -- by 2004, earning the nickname "Bulldog" from the project manager almost immediately.
"I think he may have meant it as an insult, but I was all over it!" she joked.
Although the theater is still in the midst of a $500,000 capital campaign to pay off construction debt, Lyons said she thinks the board made the right move when it decided to break ground before the funds were raised.
"That was the thing my board has done that has made me the proudest," she said. "If we'd waited, well, construction costs have skyrocketed."
At first, the theater contained only a stage, lighting and sound equipment -- not even chairs or table to conduct a staff meeting. Lyons scavenged, begged and borrowed to find the rest.
"I'm pretty shameless," she said, beaming. "I'm proud of the resources we've been able to accumulate."
She is proud, too, of the city itself.
"I'm going to miss all of it," she said. "People, mostly. And I'll miss what I call 'the moment,' which is about 10 minutes to curtain ... watching everyone walk in from all directions ... it's like Glen Street starts to vibrate a little with the energy of the people. It's the community coming together to embrace this cultural event."
She sounded close to tears for a minute, then broke into another wide grin as noise from the Glen Street construction project invaded the hush of the mostly-dark theater.
"Hear that?" she said. "That's the sound of progress."
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