Gatesville High School

I am very excited to join the Gatesville family and bring new developments and experiences to this program with amazing potential. I’ve been involved in Theatre across Texas for more than 15 years and in my most recent position I led a middle school Theatre program to success within my first year there while concurrently directing Technical Theatre students at the high school level. In my past roles I’ve served as:

• HS Director of Theatre
• HS Technical/Assistant Director
• JH Director of Theatre
• JH UIL Coordinator
• Elementary Theatre Teacher
• Auditorium Supervisor
• Stage Manager
• Assistant Stage Manager
• Choreographer
• Designer
• Actor
• Backstage Technician
• Student Director

While I haven’t acted onstage in a while, I’ve continued to hone my skills as an acting coach while designing, constructing, and operating technical elements of performances including fight choreography and special effects choreography. My educational philosophy is centered around Cornell-questioning-based servant leadership, providing safe environments for student growth, and continuously holding high expectations and standards for students.

If you haven’t been in Theatre before or left in the past, I encourage you to audition, even if you’re involved in another extracurricular activity. We have a plethora of opportunities for you to make a difference in Hornet Theatre whether it’s onstage, backstage, or pre-production work; “everyone has a place in the theatre and everyone has a place in the theater.”

Mr. Jake Hood

Director of Theatre and Auditorium Technician

jhood@gatesvilleisd.org

Theatre Classroom: (254) 865-8281 x5826

Shop / Black Box: (254) 865-8281 x5825

Travel Phone: (254) 677-8484

Since Mr. Hood is only one person, there are multiple opportunities for helping with donations, formal borrowing agreements, processes, and procurements this season. Specific needs as of July 2025 are listed below; if you would like to make a donation or help with any items below, please contact Mr. Hood at jhood@gatesvilleisd.org to coordinate.

• If you would like to purchase an ad in our program this year, whether personal/congratulatory or professional (multiple size options including spread; advertise for one or all four season shows), please reach out to Mr. Hood at jhood@gatesvilleisd.org 
• If your place of business or a business you know of is willing to allow us to advertise indoors or in a weather-resistant display case for our season/shows with 11”x17” posters, please let us know so that we can add you to our distribution map. Poster distribution will begin in September 2025
• We have an entire laundry cart full of costumes that desperately need to be laundered/washed and dry cleaned, respectively
• We are in need of two rocking chairs (preferably unpainted; stained or unstained) for our performances this season
• We would greatly benefit from the donation of a grandfather clock in any condition
• A loom machine in any condition would help our costumers and prop artisans marginally this season in preparing both our costumes and cloth props
• Our end-of-year Banquet could always benefit from more helpers and/or a committee to plan and decorate for the event
• 3M Eye Protection Goggles, Cutting Gloves, and Denim Aprons are our biggest bulk needs that Mr. Hood knows of for this season
• Fabric, Thread, Shoes, and Simple Black Clothing remain a constant need for our department. We will rarely turn any of this away.
• If you have a working lamp, overhead light, or wall sconce that you no longer want, Hornet Theatre would love to take it off your hands
• We are in need of a hospital bed and a full-size or twin-size cot for our final show of the year. While these are abnormal donation items, we are more than willing to coordinate a formal borrowing agreement with you if you are able to help us use either or both of those items for the entirety of the Spring 2026 Semester

Mr. Hood is excited to recommend the following titles in no specific order for reading on students’ own time to expand their perspective, interact with higher-order performing arts conventions and language, and prepare for advanced academic conversations; most titles on this list will be discussed throughout the year, even if only briefly, and while we may not cover the stories in their entirety, students are encouraged to explore further to gain insight and context. Beginning in Mid-October, most titles on the list will be available for checkout from the Hornet Theatre Library.

Hornet Theatre Book Club will begin meeting in April 2026, when we will perform a different show’s “table read” at each meeting based on the final list of pieces being considered for the upcoming season. At the conclusion of the six-week intensive after-school workshop, students who participated will have the opportunity to vote on the 2026-27 Season, announced after the final club meeting of the year, at Hornet Theatre Banquet. Students having completed several of the Recommended Readings prior to May will be marginally more prepared for Book Club meetings.

*Please note that several pieces of art listed below involve mature themes, language, and subject matter and may be rated PG-13; as we discuss in class, students are expected to evolve past immature responses and begin to develop matured, objective, educational critiques with grace, dignity, and professionalism. In Theatre we learn how to “cut” / censor scripts appropriately to meet the needs of the community, and all scripts listed below are uncensored.*

Novels:

• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, based on Siobhan Dowd’s final idea
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
• Night by Elie Wiesel
• The Diary of Anne Frank

Plays:

• The Cagebirds by David Campton
• Second Best Bed by Tim Kelly
• Requiem by Jerome McDonough
• The Happy Scarecrow from Dramatic Publishing
• The One-Act Play that Goes Wrong by Lewis, Sayer and Shields
• This is a Test by Stephen Gregg
• La Dispute by Marivaux
• The Actor’s Nightmare by Christopher Durang
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Harris, Pickett, Thomas/ Poe
• The Comedy of Errors by Paine, Pickett, and Singleton/ Jeffries & Knight
• The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman
• She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Dale Wasserman
• The Sheep Thief, Dramatic Publishing
• Rest in Peace by Pat Cook, Dramatic Publishing
• The Rude Mechanicals, Ed Graczyk, Dramatic Publishing
• The Barber of Seville, I.E. Clark, Dramatic Publishing
• The Happy Scarecrow, I.E. Clark, Dramatic Publishing
• A Monster Calls by Dowd, Ness, Peck, and Cookson
• The School for Husbands, I.E. Clark, Dramatic Publishing
• Charity Case, Ford Ainsworth, Dramatic Publishing
• Sending Down the Sparrows by Laura Lundgren Smith
• Wings by Arthur Kopit
• The Man Who Killed Time, Aurthur Fauquez, Dramatic Publishing
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Concord Theatricals
• Dracula Spectacula, Concord Theatricals
• Triangle by Laurie Brooks, Dramatic Publishing
• She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurer’s Edition
• The Pinballs, Dramatic Publishing
• The Girl Who Was Asked To Turn Blue, Dramatic Publishing
• The Boy Who Stole The Stars by Julian Wiles, Dramatic Publishing
• Of Winners, Losers, and Games, Dramatic Publishing
• A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen, Dramatic Publishing
• The Frogs, I.E. Clark, Dramatic Publishing
• Androcles and the Lion, Aurand Harris, Dramatic Publishing
• 1984, Robert Owens, Dramatic Publishing
• Charlotte’s Web by Dramatic Publishing
• The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesco
• Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire

Musicals:

• Into the Woods by MTI
• Willy Wonka by MTI
• Frozen by MTI
• Oklahoma by Rodgers & Hammerstein
• The Wizard of Oz by Andrew Lloyd Weber
• The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Weber 
• A Christmas Carol by MTI
• Wicked by Winnie Holzman
• Cats by Andrew Lloyd Weber
• West Side Story by MTI
• Wonka Jr. by MTI
• Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
• Come From Away by MTI
• Legally Blonde by MTI
• Les Miserables by MTI (Victor Hugo)
• The Sound of Music by MTI
• Annie by MTI
• Shrek the Musical by MTI