<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><item href="/issues/2017-fall/professor-takes-different-stage.html" dsn="news"><item_date>09/15/2017 12:00:00 AM</item_date><category_header/><title>Professor Takes a Different Stage</title><subheader/><description/><author/><photographer> </photographer><image><img src="" width="555" height="400" alt=""/></image><taxonomy-story-type>Culture</taxonomy-story-type><taxonomy-cultural-story-category/><taxonomy-news-sections/><taxonomy-college-department>Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism</taxonomy-college-department><taxonomy-tags>Journalism, Dance and Theatre</taxonomy-tags><type>story</type><categories/><relationships/><main-content>
	
	Mark Donald (Photo by Junebug Clark)
 

Mark Donald, lecturer in UNT's Mayborn School of Journalism, has written mostly long-form narrative nonfiction during his career.
But he was so compelled by the story of his father -- a British soldier who hunted Nazis during World War II -- that he wrote the play Magnum's Opus.
The show was presented at a staged reading at the Dallas Holocaust Center in August.
He says the play allowed him to explore the subject more deeply on an emotional level than a nonfiction narrative would have allowed.
"Writers toil away at their computers, and it's a fairly solo act. But the staged reading of a play is a collaborative process," he says.
"The characters don't just come alive on the printed page, but actors breathe life into your words -- your characters, thoughts and feelings take human form. The transformation is as awesome as it is humbling."</main-content></item>