Wood will try to persuade you to go see "Briarpatch," which starts tonight at the Theatre in the Park and runs through Aug. 5. She will probably succeed.

Wood doesn't work for the theater. In fact, she doesn't work at all -- she's 83 and retired.

Wood is a resident of Outlook Pointe at Northridge, an assisted living facility in North Raleigh. Her connection to the play is simply that of a proud mama -- her son, Ira David Wood III, is the play's director.

"And the writer, too," Mrs. Wood explained to me. "He's everything!"

To be precise, Wood adapted the play from the classic tales of Joel Chandler Harris. The marketing material describes it as a "family-friendly ... heart-warming, fun musical" that tells the tale of B'rer Rabbit, who "triumphs with brains over physical might."

A talkative and outgoing woman, Wood got to me through my wife, Judy, a speech therapist who treats patients at Outlook Pointe.

"She talked about the play every time I saw her for two weeks," Judy told me, adding: "She has a way with words."

Wood will need a bus to get Outlook Pointe staff members to the play -- 10 are going.

Mrs. Wood never acted in the theater beyond high school. She was born and raised in Zebulon and, at that time, there were not a lot of opportunities in theater, she said. She became a nurse.

But she encouraged her children to be actors. "I had a bent toward theater," she said. Her late husband did, too, she said.

Wood has not only a theatrically talented son but a granddaughter who is a movie star as well -- Evan Rachel Wood.

Asked if she is proud of them, she said, "I really am. They're good -- both of them."

And they've got an excellent publicist.

For more about the play, visit www.theatreinthepark.com.