Arts and Entertainment

Associate dean's play headed to Missouri Playwrights Workshop

University Park, Pa.- "Sticks and Stones ... Words Hurt," a play by William Doan, associate dean for administration, research and graduate studies in the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture, has been accepted to the Mizzou New Play Series as part of the Spring 2010 Missouri Playwrights Workshop at the University of Missouri. In conjunction with the workshop production of the play, Doan will serve a residency during which he will conduct a series of discussions on developing a new work.

Sticks and Stones ... Words Hurt is a semi-autobiographical look at growing up in Southwest Ohio. Bud, the central character, relives a number of the key experiences that are central to how he understands the world. He is accompanied on stage by a Narrator, who feels the need to look up all of Bud's key words in his dictionary and share those definitions with the audience. Eventually, the Narrator is pulled into Bud's stories, helping him relive some of the most difficult moments.

Doan also is the author, director and producer of Southwest Ohio Society of Badasses, which premiered at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival in June 2008, and co-author of a stage adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, which is currently under revision. Doan holds a doctorate in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University, masters of fine art from Virginia Commonwealth University (emphasis in directing/acting), and a bachelor of art degree in humanities from Gannon University.

Last Updated January 9, 2015

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