Actress goes with the flow of 'Johnstown Flood'

Chicago actor Janet Ulrich Brooks has arrived.

She currently appears in Goodman Theatre's "A True History of the Johnstown Flood" and has garnered praise for her work. But she has paid her dues and earned her moment in the sun.

"I moved to Chicago in 1988," Brooks says, "and I started by working with a children's theater company, the Child's Play Touring Theater. Children's theater is a great, great place to be as a character actor. I have played everything."

Even broccoli.

More recently, Brooks has performed with Timeline where she is an ensemble member.

But "A True History of the Johnstown Flood" is her first gig at an A-list Equity house. "It is absolutely a thrill," Brooks says. "We are having a terrific time. (Director Robert) Falls put together a wonderful ensemble, a really tight group."

Brooks loves the fact that she is working on a new play. The Goodman production is the world premiere of Rebecca Gilman's play.

The play concerns a series of events and issues raised by the notorious 1889 Johnstown Flood - a flood that, like the 2005 flooding of New Orleans, many believed could have been avoided.

As one of her roles, Brooks plays a member of a small theater company caught in the midst of this disaster.

"There actually was an acting company trapped on one of the trains in the flood," she says. "Rebecca (Gilman) loved that there were these theater people who managed to survive this flood."

How the actors react to the flood - and are changed by it - is one of the plot strands in the play. "Art and life and society all come together," Brooks says, "and everyone is going through the same thing at the same time."

It is fitting that she is both performing as part of a tight-knit ensemble and playing a member of an ensemble in the play, because Brooks has spent her life in ensembles, going back to her early days as a young actor, right out of college, playing characters from the old west at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo.

In directing "A True History of the Johnstown Flood," Falls emphasized ensemble work.

"We were all there all the time at the rehearsals," Brooks says. "He wanted to get richer and deeper with the text and the actors. It was a very complete experience for the actors."

For that reason, Brooks feels the actors bonded more tightly. She also liked having the playwright in the theater.

"It is like having the answers in the back of the math book." Brooks says. "And Gilman was very specific about what she wanted. Sometimes she changed a word. Sometimes it was a whole page. Things did morph and change over the rehearsals, but it was a real nice collaboration. She was very open to the energies that the ensemble was bringing to the table.

"I wish I could do new stuff all the time," Brooks says. "It is very exciting."

• "A True History of the Johnstown Flood" runs through Sunday, April 18, at the Goodman's Albert Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, Chicago. For tickets, call (312) 443-3800 or visit goodmantheatre.org.