About
LaShondra Hood is an actress, director, artivist, and arts educator from Birmingham, AL and is excited to be back at the University of Louisville! LaShondra earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from Alabama State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Performance from the University of Louisville. She is currently a (term) Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Theatre Arts Department at University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.
With over a decade of experience in performance and theatre arts, LaShondra has performed in dramas, musicals, dance concerts, staged readings, choir concerts, new play premieres, and play workshops. Her performance credits include Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Ms. Sophia in Jamie Whatever (StageOne Family Theatre), Miss Sofia in The Color Purple the Musical, Rose in Fences (FaithWorksStudios), Harriet in The Stephen Foster Story (Stephan Foster Drama Association), Ensemble in Crowns, Miss Leah in Flyin’ West (Alabama State University), Camae in The Mountaintop, Captain Arthur Phillip in Our Country’s Good, Little Stone in Eurydice (University of Louisville), Wicked Witch in Dorothy in Oz, and Mrs. Claus in Mrs. Claus Saves the Day (Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati), among others. Some directing credits include Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly, Trickster Tales, Shrek the Musical Jr., Seven Stops to Freedom, L.O.L., BLM, Annie Jr., and Reframe.
In addition to performing and directing, LaShondra has worked as a teaching artist throughout the Jefferson County Public School System with StageOne Family Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Kidsview Inc. and Commonwealth Theatre Center. LaShondra is the recipient of several achievement awards for performance from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and the Southeastern Theatre Conference. Including the Irene Ryan Acting First Place Partner Award, the Kennedy Center Kingsley Colton Best Partner Award, the Denise Halbach Performance Scholarship, and the Jane Alexandar Acting Scholarship Award. She is a member of Alpha Psi Omega National Theatre Honor Society, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., and regularly participates in the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). LaShondra loves educating and empowering students to reach their maximum potential; she believes that a student’s matriculation through academia and the world is not only a new experience it is another scene in a much larger production.