Doug Brook, baritone, makes his company debut with Opera San José as Lazar Wolf in Fiddler on the Roof. It’s his sixth production of Fiddler on the Roof; he previously performed as Tevye (x2), Lazar Wolf, and Mendel, and directed the musical as well as the play which inspired it, Tevya and His Daughters.
Locally, Mr. Brook recently appeared as Vice Principal Panch in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Officer Lockstock in Urinetown, Tito Merelli in A Comedy of Tenors, Mr. Price in Kinky Boots, and performed the one-man play Shylock. Other notable local performances include Noises Off, Driving Miss Daisy, Bat Boy, Frost/Nixon, Tomfoolery, Private Lives, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and Tuesdays With Morrie.
Past Executive Director of Silicon Valley Shakespeare and Artistic Director of Theatre Chevruta, Mr. Brook’s recent Bay Area directing credits include Once Upon a Mattress, Brigadoon, The Toxic Avenger, Big River, [title of show], City of Angels, Curtains, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Finian’s Rainbow, The Three Musketeers, Lend Me a Tenor, Merrily We Roll Along, and many others.
Also a playwright, he has enjoyed performances nationwide of his works including The Hood of Sherwood, Retrograde, Lot in Life, Finding God, The Case of the Cereal Killer, Original Synergy, What Ever Happened to Hanu Claus?, and others. By day, his technical writing career currently finds him in upper management at a major semiconductor company.
Mr. Brook is a longtime instructor in the Jewish community of Silicon Valley including past roles at Congregation Beth David and the APJCC, and is currently in his eighteenth year at Congregation Sinai. A regular Torah chanter, services leader, and occasional guest sermonizer, Mr. Brook is the longtime humor columnist for Southern Jewish Life magazine which has spawned two book collections and a podcast under the title Rear Pew Mirror.
An Alabama native, past Vice President of the Alliance for Jewish Theatre, and member of the Dramatists Guild, he studied writing, music, and theatre at Carnegie Mellon University and holds graduate degrees from CMU and the Jewish Theological Seminary. http://brookwrite.com/