Theatre UNI will present virtual 10-minute plays from Tuesday, Nov. 17 through Sunday, Nov. 22. Amy Osatinski, a theatre professor at UNI, teaches a directing class each semester that presents these plays, which are student-led. Students take charge of directing and casting.

“I’m really excited to see what the students do,” Osatinski said. “I think they’ve all picked really great plays, and I always love the 10-minute plays.”

She describes these plays as the final project for the directing class and a culmination of everything they’ve learned from the theatre curriculum.

Students have had to be flexible due to peers being in and out of quarantine due to COVID-19. In-person rehearsals have had to switch to online mediums like Zoom to ensure all cast members can participate. Students have also had to be mindful of social distancing procedures when staging their plays. They’ve had to be creative with actor placement to ensure they’re a safe distance away from one another.

Presenting the plays virtually has been a unique challenge. Video rights have to be available for plays and paid for so they can be streamed. If rights were unavailable for a certain play, students had to choose new plays.

“It’s been an interesting and different experience trying to navigate all of that,” Osatinski said.

Video rights for plays only allow them to be available for a certain amount of days. They also put a limit on how many tickets can be sold. In this regard, Osatinsky said the online formatting isn’t so different from seeing plays in-person. Live plays also have caps on tickets and can only be presented for so long. The online presentation of the 10-minute plays is similarly as exclusive of an experience as it would be in-person.

Many of the plays are comedies, and Osatinsky encourages anyone interested in viewing to request their tickets as soon as possible before they’re gone.

“It’s just a grand old time,” Osatinski said. “And right now, we’re all sort of stuck inside doing nothing, so you might as well grab a ticket to the play and grab your roommates and enjoy an evening of funny, student-directed work.”

About 100 tickets are available and can be requested by emailing Osatinksi. Tickets will be sent out on Tuesday, Nov 17, with a link to an unlisted Youtube video.