Suzannah Zody’ s Journey to the Playhouse
~ Story and photos by Paige Langenderfer
Suzannah Zody’ s love of performing arts has taken her around the globe. Her latest adventure, however, is back in her hometown of Nashville, as executive director of the Brown County Playhouse.
Suzannah graduated from Brown County High School in 1979 and left for Purdue to study theater. After three years, she went to the University of Illinois in Chicago to study communications.
“ I never graduated. I got bored,” she said.“ Instead, I just walked in the doors of the Goodman Theater, one of the biggest, most award-winning theaters, and said‘ Can I have a job?’”
She got a job, a terrible job in her words, answering phones and doing ticket sales, but it was a start. Over the next several years she worked her way up at the Goodman, eventually becoming director of season tickets. She even got to interact with a few of today’ s biggest stars.
“ There were huge stars in the shows there. Celebrities can be in their own world, but that’ s just part of the business,” she said.“ I met James Earl Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Kline and many more. Kevin Kline even has a connection to the( Brown County) Playhouse. As a student at IU, he performed here.”
After four years as director of season tickets at the Goodman, Suzannah accepted a job as assistant marketing director at Northlight Theatre in Evanston. At the same time, she also worked as an independent consultant, helping new theater companies produce shows in various spaces around Chicago.
“ There is never a dull moment in theater. It’ s stressful but also very exciting. That’ s why I have always loved working in performing arts,” she said.
In the midst of getting her career going, Suzannah met her husband and the two decided to move to London.
“ I landed there with no job and no contacts. I was starting from scratch,” she said.“ But, luckily, I fell into a position at Galathea Systems. That’ s when things got really exciting.”
48 Our Brown County • March / April 2018