Dr. Daniel Boatright has been selected by the Wabeno Area Players as the first Playwright –In-Residence in the groups history. He will be the playwright for all of 2019. Dr. Boatright will engage with the Players and community through teaching. He will hold master classes, workshops and will write and develop a new play in collaboration with the Players for the 2020 Season. He will be focusing on two writer workshops this summer. The first workshop will be in June and is for students in grades 7-12. The second workshop will be for adults and will be held in August.
This program, made possible by the support of our patrons and Wabeno Area Players Members, recognizes playwrights whose work has had significant impact on the rural arts. Dr. Boatright has written numerous plays and readers’ theater selections for the Players in the past. He has also written exclusively for The Big Easel Bistro and Gallery in Wabeno as well as numerous groups in Oklahoma.
Jameson, Wabeno Area Players President and Director, states, “The creative collaboration between Boatright and the players is going to be the centerpiece of the Educational Workshops for 2019. I am incredibly proud of this initiative and of our ongoing work for the arts in our community.”
Boatright’s plays include The Letter, Showdown at the Séance, The Return of Kenny and Falcon Crust just to name a few. Dr. Daniel T. Boatright, Ph.D., FRSPH, retired from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in July, 2016. Prior to his retirement, he served as Senior Associate Dean and Presidential Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health in the College of Public Health. Dr. Boatright was Principle Investigator and Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded Southwest Center for Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center, and the Health Resources Services Administration funded Public Health Training Center. Dr. Boatright is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health in the United Kingdom, and a member of Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society. Along with teaching graduate courses in Environmental Health Systems Management and Risk Communication he directed the graduate program in Public Health Preparedness and Terrorism Response in the College of Public Health as well as teaching advanced courses in preparedness and response. During his tenure, he directed over 50 Master of Science students and 18 Ph.D. and DrPH candidates. During the more than quarter century he was with OUHSC, he was Principle or Co-Principle Investigator for research efforts funded in excess of $170 million. Dr. Boatright is a member of the Medical Reserve Corps and has lead teams and participated in many natural disasters as well as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Dr. Boatright has held Visiting Scientist credentials at Los Alamos National Laboratory for over 15 years. Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma in 1990, Dr. Boatright spent over 15 years in the private sector in the field of environmental health engineering working with a wide array of local, state and federal agencies. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Health, M.S. in Environmental Health Engineering, and Ph.D.in Environmental Systems Management.
Throughout his professional career, Daniel engaged the other side of his brain in developing creative writing skills and found time to author and direct plays, perform extensively in community theater, and participate in all facets of the performing and visual arts. In retirement, he divides his time between Norman, Oklahoma and Wabeno, Wisconsin. In both locales, he continues to write and direct plays, teach playwriting workshops, perform in community theater, sing in the bass section of Norman’s First Christian Church Choir, travel extensively with his wife Linda, make wine, cook, play the Ukulele, and struggle to complete the endless list of tasks enthusiastically provided by his lovely wife.
Linda Boatright, Daniel’s lovely wife, can be seen on stage with the players and an intrical part of the Children’s’ Theater Camp Staff as well as Fundraising.