Donna Woodard Ziegenhorn is a playwright, lyricist and journalist. Prior to writing the book and lyrics for After Persephone, her first musical, she focused on non-traditional plays inspired by true stories collected in interviews. These plays bring forth life-shaping experiences of diverse individuals to dramatic form.

 

The Hindu and the Cowboy — which has been recognized by Harvard’s Pluralism Project for its unique contribution to building an inclusive community —grew from stories shared by people of numerous cultural and faith traditions across metropolitan Kansas City. Bringing forward universal themes through specific human experiences, the one-act play was hailed as “an enduring gift to our community” (The Kansas City Star).

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Donna and The Hindu and the Cowboy have received awards from the Crescent Peace Society, the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, Missouri Association for Social Work and Dialogue Institute Southwest. The play, produced by Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, has been seen by thousands of Kansas Citians in venues that range from public libraries to university stages, corporate training auditoriums to high school gymnasiums and interfaith conferences to stages beyond Kansas City.

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Bingo on the Boulevard premiered in the 2016 Kansas City Fringe Festival where

it won Best of Fringe for highest attendance of any show that year. The play, also

a one-act, is inspired by stories that came from individuals who live on both

sides of the Troost Corridor, known for decades as Kansas City’s racial dividing

line.

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Her additional produced works include Beyond the Arrows, written for the

International Millennium Conference of the not-for-profit Institute of Cultural

Affairs; Singed Wings &; Other Nearly True Tales, performed with jazz vocalist

Geneva Price; and Remnants from the Chili Supper and Variety Show. She also

assisted launching story-based theater projects in Colorado and Florida with Community Performance Inc. (now known as Story Bridge).

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Donna earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas and master of liberal arts from the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she studied playwriting with Frank Higgins.