Play festival pushes limits

The University of Northern Iowa Student Theatre Association will push the limits as it explores pregnancy, toilet meditations and everything in between at its Third Annual 10 Minute Play Festival on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

The festival features eight short plays written by UNI students, including three dramas and five comedies.

"It's an opportunity for young playwrights to have their work performed and directed by current students of the university," said UNISTA president Ronnie Wells.

While the festival usually showcases around 12 shows a year, Wells said that this time around UNISTA wanted to focus more on the quality of the plays as opposed to the quantity.     "The idea is that we would really focus on the directing and acting portions and keep the technical elements very simple," he said.

Some of the plays include Tom Hoy's potty-mouthed "Toilet Meditations" and Laura Neil's "Calling it Quits," where two smokers who are each unaware that the other smokes, humorously attempt to give up smoking for each other.

One of the five comedy entries featured is Charles Hayes' "Unlimited," in which as the title so frankly suggests, nothing is off-limits. The show is directed by Billy Hahn, and details the life of Roger, a waiter who is in love with a famous phone sex operator named Jason Bowman. Hilarity ensues as Roger encounters Bowman on the street and the play erupts into an over-the-top plot involving sex, murder and a clown.

Standing in stark contrast is one of the three dramatic pieces, Kelsey Waugaman's "Memento," directed by Ronnie Wells. In the show, the protagonist comes to terms with her inner demons as she deals with her pregnancy.

"Basically, it's a story about a woman and her thoughts and memories that are affecting her current situation," Wells said.

The play explores her struggles with her unsympathetic mother, the understanding fiancé that she cheated on and the man whose child she now bears.

"She's sort of trying to put aside these thoughts of the experience while moving on with the fact that she's going to be giving birth to his child," Wells said.

Wells chose the piece because he knew that he wanted to direct a dramatic show.

"I believe it's a lot easier to connect with a dramatic piece than a comic piece," he said. "This script has several opportunities for the actors and myself to develop characters and ideas."

UNISTA's Third Annual 10 Minute Play Festival will take place in the Strayer-Wood Theater April 19, 20 and 21 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5, and the event is free and open to the public.