Creating Comedy

Cheryl Reitan

Jan 17, 2018

From musicals to radio comedy, actor Serena Brook is charming the nation.

Serena Brook '09 sat alone in her apartment's walk-in closet with the microphone running, half reading, half reciting her lines. One after the next, she created characters, each with a unique speech pattern, as she made her way through the stack of scripts. Then she started in with her signature "silly voices."

The tape made in the closet was Serena's first audition for the live, weekly radio variety show created by Garrison Keillor, as The Prairie Home Companion. That led to a second audition. "It was an out of body experience," she says. It only lasted an hour and to Serena the in-person table read with host Chris Thile went so fast, it seemed like a dream. Actors Fred Newman and Tim Russell, who is also the sound-effects guru, joined her to read through "a ton of scripts," Serena says. "They were so much fun."

Serena Brook performs with Tim Russell and Fred Newman.

After a long two-month, breath-holding wait, Serena was hired for two shows in 2016 and was later hired for the 13-episode season. She's now a regular on the series, which has been renamed Live from Here with Chris Thile. "I love what the show brings to the audience," she says. "Each moment is honest; people connect to it."

Her week is predicable and intense. Her performance has to be fresh so Serena and the cast don't see the script until Friday night, just before the first rehearsal. "On Saturday, we rehearse once more and then we go live."

Serena credits UMD with her launch into show business. Although she was an actor and singer in high school, she "learned so much from my professors at UMD," she says. She even traveled with fellow students to Turkey to perform with Professor Ann Bergeron and to Finland with Professor Kate Ufema.

"They made me stretch. They gave me gender-bending roles." From Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, to the musicals Seussical and Urinetown, Serena excelled at UMD.

"My mentors at UMD have followed my career and kept in touch with me," Serena says. That career took Serena to a part in an off-Broadway musical Dear Edwina and two tours as Mama Who in the national tour of the musical How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

When 2013 rolled around, Brook accepted the role as Tzeitel in Chanhassen’s Fiddler on the Roof at Chanhassen, and she moved back to Minnesota. "It was the right time." Her marriage to Nick White was part of the decision. Serena met Nick in New York City. He is French horn and guitar player originally from Florida. The Midwest is working for the couple. "We both enjoy the Minneapolis scene," Serena says.

In addition to The Show, Serena is a regular at Chanhassen and acted in a production of Jonah and the Whale at the Guthrie. She's also does a bit of voice-over work.

Now known for her signature voices, Serena is reveling in the Minneapolis scene, "I do what I love in the city where I live."

Gourdgeous Gourds Skit with Serena Brook | Selected Serena Brook Skits

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