The show must go on
Since high school, Jim Reynolds, the new managing director of Lyric Theatre, was determined to earn his living in the theater.
Jim Reynolds, new managing director of Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, likes to joke that he secured his first matching fine arts grant as a junior in high school. His school in Columbia, South Carolina, lacked a performance budget, so Reynolds — who wanted to stage a play outside of just his drama class — convinced his principal to find $300 to match the $300 that Reynolds was willing to contribute from his own savings account.
In the years since, Reynolds has been just as determined to earn his living in theater.“People discouraged me from going into it, but I was stubborn,” he said. “I have friends who started out as directors and actors, and have since circled out of the industry. That’s why I chose to go the administrative route.”Reynolds, 56, has worked as a marketing director, sales manager, house manager and more for theaters in Atlanta, Dallas and most recently, Austin, Texas.
He worked 25 years with Austin’s ZACH Theater, before succeeding retiring director Paula Stover at Lyric six weeks ago.Reynolds will manage a staff of 22, along with 16 permanent parttime employees, 230 seasonal employees, and 24 directors and designers who work to stage some nine shows annually at Lyric’s Plaza and Civic Center locations. From the Lyric offices at 1727 NW 16, Reynolds sat down with The Oklahoman on Monday to talk about his life and career.
This is an edited transcript:
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: Columbia, South Carolina, where my sisters — one younger and two older — and countless nieces and nephews still live. I had an older brother, but we only lived in the same house about two years before he went off to the Vietnam War. He and both of my parents are deceased. There’s a 14-year gap between the three oldest kids, which were from my mom’s previous marriage, and me. She was 40 when she had me. My mother was the family homemaker, and my dad was a certified electrician and home appliance technician.
Q: Was drama your thing in school?
A: It was. I was bit early on by the theater bug. I remember seeing, and loving, a production by Wofford College of “The 13 Clocks” by James Thurber. I also did a little bit of long-distance running with my friends and on my junior high track team.
On my 12th birthday, I was hit by a car and broke my leg riding my bike to buy candy at the convenience store. I wore a cast for four months. And after it came off, I took up running to build back muscle. That, incidentally, was the second time I was hit by a car. In the first grade, I was hit walking with friends across the street. But then I just rolled up on the hood, versus flying a half block over my bike’s handle bars.
Q: You left college before completing your degree. Why?
A: I had an opportunity to follow friends and earn $100 a week as an apprentice at Alliance Theatre, a Tony Award-winning theater in Atlanta.
My college adviser told me to take the job and come back to finish my degree. That was in the recession of the ‘80s when jobs were scarce. And I was 12 credit hours shy of graduating but was coming to the end of my funding. I’d lived at home the first three years of college, had federal grants to cover my tuition, worked at a McDonald’s on campus and my last two years as a work/study student assistant to the theater department head. Then, at Alliance, my career took off, and I never went back to school. I started at Alliance as house manager, getting the audience in and seated and overseeing concessions.
Nine months later, I was promoted to production business manager, overseeing the budgets of costumes, sets, props and sound.
Q: What are the highlights of your career so far?
A: Immediately after I joined ZACH Theater in Austin in 1990 as public relations and marketing director, I helped them build a second, smaller, in-the-round stage. Then, 15 years later, I — during a recession — helped them raise $22 million to build a third, 420-seat proscenium stage. To help grow into the space, we increased single-ticket and subscriber membership by 35 percent over three years.
During my tenure, our budget grew from $500,000 to $8.1 million. Prior to Austin, at Dallas Theater Center, I joined as house manager, with the goal of moving into the marketing department. After two people left abruptly, a friend was promoted to the marketing department and asked me to team up with her. After she moved on to San Francisco, I served six years as sales director.
Q: Raised by a Lutheran mother, you decided to convert to Catholicism in the mid-80s. Why?
A: I’d been going for a few years to Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas with two close friends; just really to be social. Then, one of those friends passed away from AIDS.
His partner was devastated. I asked the church if I could host a memorial service there and one of the nuns said, “Absolutely.” I was moved by how loving and caring she was. It was early in the AIDS epidemic, and there was a lot of fear and not knowing. After his service, I decided to join the church; my late friend’s partner was my sponsor.
The year of weekly classes we attended together was an opportunity for us both to heal. For me, attending mass is a time to stop and reflect on my life, work, relationships and goals.
Q: How’d you come to join Lyric, and what are your initial impressions?
A: Dave Stakely, the artistic director at ZACH Theater in Austin, guestdirected Lyric’s production of “Fully Committed” last fall and suggested I apply for an open marketing position here, which I did.
But retiring managing director Paula Stover pushed me as her successor, and Beth Adele, a longtime performer with Lyric Theatre, accepted the marketing job late last year. We’re off to a super start, with “Assassins” overshooting its attendance goal by 143 percent. Over 1,500 people attended, in addition to attendees among our some 4,700 seasonticket subscribers.
Next up the end of March is “I Am My Own Wife,” which is based on a true story about an East German transvestite who, during the Nazi regime, survives as a woman who runs an antique business and a gay bar in her basement. Oklahoma City is fortunate to have such a vibrant, regional theater where artists and audiences can engage in dynamic theatrical experiences throughout the year. As managing director, I look forward to building on the solid foundation Paula Stover and Artistic Director Michael Baron have created as we grow and innovate into the future.