Footlight Players Adds New Executive Director, Board Chairman
April 8, 2015
CHARLESTON, SC – Jane Broadwater has taken the helm of The Footlight Players, serving as the theater’s executive director.
Born in Charleston and raised in Summerville, Broadwater graduated from Winthrop University with a degree in elementary education. Broadwater taught in 10 states and worked in the Department of Defense Dependents Schools system for eight years. Working with people is her life and so her career has been mostly heading military family support groups, being a tour guide for Newport Preservation Society, employed by Houghton Mifflin and now executive director of The Footlight Players after serving on its board for five years.
She has moved 27 times and made her home in 14 states and lived in Europe for another 14 years. Broadwater has had the opportunity to sit on 20 boards and been in the advisory position for 15 organizations. Her awards include: The State of Texas: Yellow Rose Award; State of Oklahoma Governor’s Commendation, Department of the Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal and Secretary of the Army Public Service Award.
She is married to Colby Broadwater, president of the American College of the Building Arts. They have one son, Colby Marshall Broadwater IV, an Army Green Beret, and a daughter-in-law, Sarah.
“I became involved with Footlight simply because I lived next door but then I met the wonderful selfless people who work in the theatre and are on stage, then was hooked,” Broadwater said. “Putting ‘community’ back in theater is something all of us at Footlight want to do. We soon will begin our 84th season will the same excitement as those who came before.”
Jim Gooden (pictured) has taken over as chairman of The Footlight Players board of directors. Gooden is a SAG/AFTRA actor with numerous film and television screen credits including the long-running TV series “Army Wives” and the movie “Radio.”
His current on-camera work includes acting and voice work for corporations such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Bon Secours, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Wake Med, Wells Fargo and First Citizens Bank in television commercials and corporate productions.
Gooden is also on the boards of the Carolina Film Alliance and Notre Dame Alumni Association of Charleston. He also volunteers as the venue director for the Charleston International Film Festival. He is a past director of the North Charleston Rotary Club and past national board chairman of the American Lung Association. An avid tennis player in local USTA leagues, Gooden is the owner and president of ACE Communications.Net, a website design and communication firm.
About The Footlight Players
The Footlight Players launched in 1931 with a series of one-act plays directed by Lt. Commander Charles Russell Price at the Charleston Navy yard. The series was such a success and drew such a following that The Footlight Players formally organized and incorporated in the fall of 1932. To this day, The Footlight Players continues to provide professional quality, affordable community theater for the Lowcountry at the historic Footlight Players Theatre, 20 Queen St. in Charleston. For more information, visit footlightplayers.net or call 843-722-4487.
