Charlene Widener can now see herself on Amazon.com

Widener is the Director of the Theater Program as well as a speech teacher for the Language, Literature and communications Department here at Hutchinson Community College.

Widener recently had a book published by VDM Publishers, a publishing company out of Saarbrücken, Germany.

Widener said her book was based on her dissertation of her PhD she earned in the fall of 2006 from the University of Missouri at Columbia.

“I picked this topic because it deals with race relations in theater, and race relations was one of my minors.”

Widener’s other two minors included English and History.

After receiving a PhD, recipients are required to write a dissertation, and are often encouraged to have them published.

Although doing as encouraged and attempting to publish her dissertation, Widener half-heartedly believed it would actually happen.

“Sometimes when you’re in the middle of a big process like this, it’s easy to think ‘Does this even matter?’ But when you’re finished, you realize it actually was worth it,” Widener said.

It did happen however, and after giving birth to her new baby girl, Emerson (who is now six months old), VDM Publishers contacted Widener and requested the final revision be ready to go in three weeks.

Widener was excited as well as rushed, and said she wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of some special people.

“My mom and grandma helped me out so much,” she said.

“They took care of Emerson, while I went to work on the final revisions,” Widener said.

The book is about the producer/director Joseph Papp, and the first theater company to use a “color blind and uni-racial” cast, which means the individuals were cast without consideration of their race.

Widener’s book is titled “The Changing Face of American Theatre.”

“It’s exciting; I feel really pleased because I put a great deal of work into it, so it’s very rewarding,” the instructor said.