Theatre Stories & News

UNI student Hannah Smith

UNI student shares joy of theatre with Omaha youth

When senior Drama and  Theatre for Youth major Hannah Smith was selected for a summer internship at The Rose Theater in Omaha, the Waterloo native was thrilled to get the chance to live in a bigger city while pursuing her passion of teaching a new generation the joys of theater. 

The COVID-19 pandemic changed those plans but the internship for Smith, whose professor has dubbed her a theater-teaching “rock star,” went virtual. It wasn’t what Smith had planned, but the internship has been a  beneficial — and unique — experience, she said. 

Theatre UNI performs Cabaret.

Putting on a "Cabaret": Inside a Theatre UNI production

Abby Chagolla slouched over in a chair in UNI Assistant Professor Amy Osatinski’s office, doodling in her binder, trying to find the right question for the answer she was desperately seeking. The senior theatre performance and communications studies double major was struggling to figure out her role in the upcoming Theatre UNI production of “Cabaret.” She hoped her meeting with Osatinski, director of this production of “Cabaret,” would help her find clarity.