FAST FIVE Lake City Playhouse's Brooke Wood: At home on the stage

Meet Brooke "Brookie" Wood, artistic director of Lake City Playhouse and theater co-director at Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities.

Brooke believes that theater is not only a vessel for entertainment, but also one that can hold a mirror to society. Brooke's passion is giving people a place to feel loved, needed and wanted, whether at Lake City Playhouse or in her home with her husband, Damon Wood. 

1) How excited are you that the Lake City Playhouse is back in action?

Beyond excited and thankful to my husband, Damon Wood, and awesome community members who worked so hard to see this dream come true. 

I’m mostly excited for future actors and people of all ages that may find their passion within the walls of the li'l theater on Garden Avenue.

2) What made you decide to go into performing arts and theater as a career?

I have always gravitated to the stage. It’s where I feel the most at home. I would love to have theater be my “career.” I would say it’s my passion. It’s never paid my bills per se, but it’s paid my soul. Most artists like myself volunteer their time and knowledge. My husband and I are Realtors by trade. 

3) What are a few of your favorite plays/performance pieces and why?

I loved directing and being a part of a lot of different shows. "A Chorus Line" and "Bonnie and Clyde" stand out as pieces I truly enjoyed bringing to the stage. I love that they entertained and made you think. "Oliver" stands out because my cast was full of all levels of performers and the cast was truly a joy to direct. My son and I created the costumes and set, not to mention it was the first show back on LCP stage. That really was an awesome thing to be a part of.

I love all my shows. I love the people involved more than anything. I love the humanness of performing arts, on and off the stage.

4) What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

Dyslexia is my superpower. It allows me to see things differently. Learning was really hard for me, and I had to adapt and persevere. It made me tenacious and taught me that being different is actually OK. Just don’t ask me to spell or sight read!

5) How do the performing arts benefit us as a society, and why should we invest our time in them?

Wow, now this is by far my favorite question. I could geek out on this one. 

Performing arts have entertained and educated for as long as time can reach. Performing arts give us the opportunity to feel what others have felt, to learn from stories before us. Performing arts heal hearts and give homes to people that don’t always march to the “normal” beat.

Music, dance and acting are timeless. They speak to where history was and where it is going. I say this all the time, but Thornton Wilder said it best: “I regard the theater as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”