In 2000, Andrea Rhodes — along with her husband Michael Rhodes and third-partner Keith Teller — conceived Tangent Theatre Company in NYC, earning acclaim for their popular Subway Series and a 50th-anniversary production of Beckett’s Waiting For Godot. When the urge to “Move upstate, now!” beckoned in 2009, they relocated their theatrical aspirations to Tivoli. Tangent Theatre has become such a major player in the community that Tivoli’s mayor Joel Griffith said in a 2015 address, “It was when Tangent Theatre came to town that the identity (as an arts community), after years of wobbling, became fixed…. They do not stand alone and aloof, but (they) integrate and collaborate.”
At Tangent, Producing Director Andrea and Artistic Director Michael stage innovative, character-driven plays at The Carpenter Shop Theater, an intimate 50-seat venue. Offerings include NEWvember, a celebrated new plays festival, and free pub readings. To top it off, “We hire women directors, writers, designers, and production staff as often as we can,” Andrea Rhodes says.
As co-director of Tivoli Merchants + Artists; board member for Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce; a member of Red Hook Chamber of Commerce, Arts Mid-Hudson and Upstate Women in Film & Television; and head of her own boutique marketing company, Gig Marketing, Rhodes nurtures the arts throughout the Valley.
“You can get more stuff done up here,” Rhodes says. “There’s plenty of cooperation, great community support, and it’s less expensive. We seek and make art, we’re part of the fabric of Tivoli now.”
What professional advice do you wish you had received?
“Up until we moved to Tivoli, I always worked for someone else. We did a 180-degree turn when we moved here, to run and own our own theater company and my marketing and consulting business. I wish I knew that I could have done that even sooner.”
