{"id":61643,"date":"2021-09-28T19:56:51","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T19:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=61643"},"modified":"2022-02-01T21:19:33","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T21:19:33","slug":"ucf-faculty-member-holly-mcdonald-inspires-change-through-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=61643","title":{"rendered":"UCF Faculty Member Holly McDonald Inspires Change Through Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCF Faculty Member Holly McDonald Inspires Change Through Theatre<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

University of Central Florida News<\/a>
\nOrlando, Florida
\n2018-03-27<\/p>\n

Ashley Garrett<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Holly McDonald<\/a> can pinpoint the exact moment her love for the theatre began.<\/p>\n

When she was 16, she rode a bus from her small hometown of Keyser, WV<\/a>, to The Kennedy Center<\/a> in Washington, D.C.<\/a>, to watch a production of the musical 42nd Street<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never seen a stage show of that magnitude,\u201d McDonald says. \u201cIt was an enormous adventure for me. I saw the performance on stage and waited outside for the actors to come out, and I just fell in love.\u201d<\/p>\n

While studying theatre performance as an undergraduate then graduate student, her love grew when she discovered and explored how theatre can be used for social good. She found herself drawn to performance art that could convey a deeper message and teach a lesson…<\/p>\n

…A Journey to Self-Discovery<\/strong><\/p>\n

McDonald credits her parents for instilling a sense of social justice within her from early childhood by \u201ctaking an active role in their community and stressing the importance of engagement with others.\u201d It was her mother, in particular, who pushed her to help others whenever given the chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother is a huge inspiration. She is someone who would frequently call and give me encouragement,\u201d McDonald says. \u201cShe always said to me, \u2018Follow your heart and do the right thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother\u2019s guidance led McDonald to take professional leave about five years ago to write her play, Proclamation of a Multiracial Woman<\/em><\/a>. The semi-autobiographical play, which tells the story of an adopted biracial woman who searches for self-identity, relies heavily on themes from McDonald\u2019s own life. She credits the play for providing her with an opportunity for self-reflection. Like her fictional counterpart, she searched for answers as a mixed-race woman, ultimately finding peace from within…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holly McDonald can pinpoint the exact moment her love for the theatre began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,1245,8,20],"tags":[31990,31989,31988,31991,31992],"class_list":["post-61643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-biography","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-ashley-garrett","tag-holly-e-mcdonald","tag-holly-mcdonald","tag-university-of-central-florida","tag-university-of-central-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61643"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61646,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61643\/revisions\/61646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}