When Nicky Wood walks onto the stage at the CFE Arena to collect his degree on Friday, he may be one of the few 海角直播 graduates who won\u2019t be nervous.<\/p>\n
Wood, a 20-year-old theatre studies major, is more at home on stage than anywhere. And after commencement, he\u2019ll move straight into a busy professional life in theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m coming straight out of college and going into a professional theater as a choreographer, which is fantastic,\u201d Wood said. \u201cMy full-time job for the past 15 or 16 years has been school. As excited as I am to move on to the next step, I had that moment of realization that I\u2019m changing gears and moving on to the next part of life. It is bittersweet \u2013 I have loved it here.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Wood, it was clear that his path to professional theater included UCF. At a statewide thespian competition, he talked with college theater program representatives. He fell in love with UCF and didn\u2019t apply to any other university.<\/p>\n
But UCF needed a little convincing. Wood said he was told his SAT scores made him a poor candidate for admittance. So he reapplied until he was admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen somebody tells me I can\u2019t do something, I take that as a personal challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He excelled at UCF and is expected to graduate magna cum laude. Along the way, he has been involved with five Theatre UCF productions: The Music Man, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Arcadia, Nine and, most recently, as assistant director and choreographer of Hair.<\/p>\n
Outside UCF, he\u2019s performed with professional theater groups and in community theater, on board a Norwegian cruise ship, done some voiceover work and appeared on the television show Burn Notice.<\/p>\n
Wood has been hired by Starstruck Academy and Theatre in Stuart, where he\u2019ll be resident choreographer for the professional theatre group. He\u2019ll also serve as the interim director of dance in the children\u2019s academy, teaching students jazz and ballet.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Wood produces, directs and sometimes stars in his own shows. He has a Gershwin revue opening New Year\u2019s Day at the Barn Theatre in Stuart.<\/p>\n
At UCF, Wood minored in event management through the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, and wrote an Honors in the Major thesis through the Burnett Honors College. He has plenty of drive and perseverance, but credits UCF and his professor and mentor, Theatre UCF artistic director Earl Weaver, with helping him grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing I like about UCF\u2019s theatre program is the impactful relationships you can create, the mentorships you can develop between professors and students,\u201d Wood said. \u201cAs large as UCF is, the community is so tight and the support is so strong, 60,000 turns into 60.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Nicky Wood walks onto the stage at the CFE Arena to collect his degree on Friday, he may be one of the few 海角直播 graduates who won\u2019t be nervous. Wood, a 20-year-old theatre studies major, is more at home on stage than anywhere. And after commencement, he\u2019ll move straight into a busy professional life in theater.…","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":69923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3,5,27,28],"tags":[17023,9007,14919],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-69922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-colleges","category-student-life","category-theatre-ucf","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-department-of-theatre","tag-theatre-ucf"],"yoast_head":"\n