Hood Becomes Yale Rep/School of Drama Press Director

Yale Repertory Theatre and Yale School of Drama have announced the appointment of Susan R. Hood to the position of Press Director. 

Hood brings to Yale over two decades of experience in public relations that spans the fields of theatre, dance, music, and the visual arts.  She assumed the role of Press Director for both Yale's Tony Award-winning professional theatre and the internationally-renowned School of Drama effective Monday, March 5.

Hood's background as a communications specialist includes work with some of America's top performing arts institutions.  As sole proprietor of Ear to the Ground Media Marketing firm, she secured national and regional media coverage for Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and School in Becket, Mass.  Her work contributed to box office records being broken and the retirement of the deficit of America's oldest dance festival.  With Original Ballets Foundation (now known as Ballet Tech Foundation), she promoted and marketed choreographer Eliot Feld and the tours of Felds Ballet/NY, as well as the New Ballet School (now Ballet Tech).  As a member of Ellen Jacobs and Associates, she served the press needs of Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones, Pilobolus, among others preeminent dance companies. 
 
Also while at Ellen Jacobs & Associates, Hood provided press representation for Mabou Mines, one of America's foremost avant-garde theatre companies.  Mabou Mines presented their production Doll House at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2006.  Prior to her work with EJ&A, she was the Senior Press Representative for Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).  Her work at BAM included publicizing commissions and premieres of work by Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, among others. 
 
Most recently, she has served for nine years as the Media Relations Manager for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT.  Her work has brought national and international media attention to the oldest public art museum in the United States.  In 2004, she co-curated and co-authored Ballet Russes to Balanchine: Dance at the Wadsworth Atheneum.