Like many good Southern girls, Brooke Hoover grew up in a tutu, taking dance class. While she loved dance class, she didn’t always quite “fit” in. But, loved to perform. Brooke parents recall one of their favorite dance recitals. They tell how she stayed onstage after the other dancers left. Brooke started doing her own crazy dance and waving to the audience. Everyone rolled with laughter.
Maybe that was the earliest spark of Brooke wanting to be an actor, to entertain people. But, she really attributed it to her first visit to New York. Her dad had work near NYC and her dad and Brooke had a quick weekend to see the town. They packed four Broadway shows into three and a half days. Brooke saw Jamie Farr (M.A.S.H.) who had just portrayed Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls exit the stage door. It was in a show merchandised umbrella (it was pouring rain) that it hit her.
Brooke wanted to pursue this not for stardom. Because, mind you, here’s an actor, leaving just like a normal person. Getting soaked like the rest of us) but for the love of the craft. She went home to school after that summer and worked her butt off. So, she could be part of the musical theater review at Hemingbough. A beautiful plantation-esque area that also served as a fundraiser for her school.
While Brooke wasn’t gifted in musical theater as a singer or dancer. Our drama club teacher and play director, the late Daniel Tiberghein (nicknamed “Mr T.”). He wrote in a role for Brooke as Helen and her best friend Gertie. They were basically these crazy old ladies who served as the emcees of the show. Brooke was 13 years old and she has never stopped. Mr. T. actually paved the way for a theme that still stays with Brooke to this day. If there is no work for you, no role for you…create your own.
indieactivity: How did you become an actor?
Brooke Hoover (BH): I knew then and there as I continued to do more school plays (Episcopal High School of Baton Rouge, Louisiana) which were more of excellent community theater, that I wanted to pursue acting as a living. I actively sought out smaller colleges with excellent theater programs, particularly colleges in the Northeast because I knew I wanted to end up in New York eventually.
It was our family friend Greg Pizzigno who suggested I look into C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University for acting. I remember I used a monologue from Neil Simon’s “Star Spangled Girl” and I definitely seemed a fish out of water, a wacky girl from South Louisiana at a serious theater school. The professor asked me to do the monologue (a comedy, of course) but this time again as a judge. It was the first time in my acting that I was actually using dramatic technique. I nailed it.
I was accepted into the school where we had rigorous training from Viewpoints and Suzuki technique (which works from tremendous physical energy to ground and center the actor) as well as the technique of Uta Hagen. I read and reread “Respect for Acting” freshman year.
Out of college, I was lucky enough to begin teaching children acting at The Actors Garage where many of our students have gone on to film, television and theater at a professional level. My boss, Ann Gray Graf encouraged me and paid for me to study at Upright Citizens Brigade where I studied Levels 101 – 301 improvisation.
I think improvisation is highly important for actors of all walks of life (meaning not just comedy but drama as well) because it takes you out of your head, something easy for many actors. It keeps things fresh even in your scripted scene work. To this day I still work with an improv troupe, Lunatic Fringe.
indieactivity: What acting technique do you use?
Brooke Hoover (BH): I pull a lot from the acting techniques in which I was trained. Sometimes without even knowing I am doing so because the training is so ingrained. Those techniques are as mentioned above, Uta Hagen’s technique, Viewpoints and Suzuki. I am big on using my given circumstances to create a character’s world and also using personal source to relate to a character when the given circumstances don’t seem to be enough for me to bring total truth to a scene and character. After all of that technique, I then, as an actor, have to let much of it go (as they say) so it doesn’t dictate a scene.
