Internationally proclaimed playwright, Elizabeth Wong, will visit Eastern to share her experience as an award-winning writer and theater director at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Lecture Hall of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Wong’s work is best known for its satirical undertones and commentary on social diversity.

Kevin Doolen, a theater professor and chair, said his basis for hiring Wong was rooted in previous encounters. Doolen had invited Wong to speak as a guest at three separate universities in the past.

“Each time, she was an inspiration to the students and got them writing and creating in a way other artists couldn’t,” Doolen said.

Despite having been mentioned on Oxford’s “Who’s Who of American Women Writers,” as well writing titles such as “Letters to a Student Revolutionary,” “China Doll” and “Kimchee & Chitlins,” Doolen said she maintains a humbled disposition.

“She has a connection to students and young artists,” he said. “If she takes you under her wing at a workshop, she will be in your network for life.”

Doolen can recall certain students enthusiastically keeping in contact with Wong, and even sending her some of their own seeking constructive criticism from the professional.

Although Wong said she doubts her own humor in person, she appreciates the feedback she receives from students.

“I’m a comedy writer, but I’m only funny on paper or in the classroom, which is why I adore students,” she said.

She added that the workshop experience often offers her insight on her own writing.

“Seriously, students ask insightful questions that challenge me to prove I knew what I was doing when I wrote ‘China Doll’ or ‘Dating & Mating in Modern Times’ or ‘Kimchee & Chitlins,’” she said. “Everything in my plays has a reason for being; students help me appreciate my own writing and often I learn something about my characters and my process thanks to their questions.”

Doolen said students should expect to meet a charming, vivacious, L.A. girl Thursday.

One of his fondest memories of Wong is the time he hired her at the University of Albany/State of New York City, to direct her own play, “Letters to a Student Revolutionary,” which he noted was inspired by a true story.

The play is a political and social commentary about both the events leading up to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and the public’s understanding of those events.

In order to create a true-to-life cast, Wong reached out to the university’s Asian-student population for open auditions.

“If you reach out to different communities they respond positively,” Doolen said. “Real diversity is about inclusion.”

Diversity is a topic Wong understands. Doolen said that as a Chinese-American woman, Wong tends to speak to diversity and different cultures through her writing.

He added that Wong’s writing differs from that of a screenwriter or novelist, because becoming a playwright requires a different medium as well as a different aesthetic.

“You can go deeper into the psychology of characters in theater,” Doolen said. “She loves the tapestry of humanity and she writes about it.”

Katie Smith can be reached at kesmith2@eiu.edu or 581-2812.