John Robert Hood - Editor

John Hood, publisher of 5-String Quarterly, grew up in Tennessee, where he attended Vanderbilt University.Before graduate study at Yale University, he worked at Nashville’s WSM-TV, Bradley Studios, and the Grand Ole Opry in the mid-50s.

After receiving an MFA from Yale University, he served as a planning consultant and then joined the faculty at the Yale School of Drama, where he chaired the Technical Design and Production Department. During his nineteen years on the Yale faculty, he served as production manager for the Yale Repertory Theatre and produced weekly bluegrass performances and radio shows; he also found time to manage and and occasionally play with local bluegrass bands.

As a founder and senior director of the international consulting firm Systems Design Associates, Inc., he has consulted on performance and media facilities, planning, and management, including projects such as MIT’s Advanced Media Facilities Laboratory and the US Naval Academy’s Eisenhower Hall.

He has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the International Society of Performin Arts Foundation, Troupe Texas, Capitol City Playhouse, Texas National Dance Theatre, the Institute forPerformance Innovation, and the Central Texas Bluegrass Association; he currently serves as president of The Performing Arts Foundation, and is past president of the ISPA Foundation and Capitol City Playhouse. Living in Austin, he listens to a lot of music, plays bass with a bluegrass band and with a folk-jazz group, edits the Central Texas Bluegrass Bulletin, publishes 5-String Quarterly, and advocates barbecue and sailing.

(written 1995)