Heartland Theatre Company is putting on its 11th annual 10-Minute Play Festival now through July 1. Playwrights from across the country submitted their plays to Heartland’s National Play Writing Competition. Out of 366 10-minute plays that were submitted this year, eight winning playwrights are having their plays brought to life.

Several of the festival’s actors and directors are ISU students. Alyssa Ratkovich and Kent Nusbaum, both ISU theatre majors, performed Marj O’ Neill-Butler’s Missed Connections — the story of a man and a woman searching for a stranger they met at Whole Foods on the missed connections section of Craigslist.

Missed Connections, based on a true story, was written by Author O’ Neill-Butler who viewed the show twice during its opening weekend. 

“She seemed proud and happy with it,” Ratkovich said. 

Ron Emmons, director of Missed Connections, is a member of the initial play reading committee and knew almost immediately that he wanted to direct this play.

“I’ll be honest, I wanted to do this play the second I read it. I just hoped it would make it through. When it made it through to the final eight, I simply said I want that play. I really want that play,” Emmons said.

Ratkovich, Nusbaum, and Emmons met twice a week for an hour to rehearse. Even now the play is still being developed.

“We have a new opening tonight. We are still tweaking.  You figure out what works and what doesn’t work in front of an audience,” Emmons said.

“When you are put in front of an audience you really see what you’ve got,” Nusbaum added.

When asked if they are similar to their characters both Nusbaum and Ratkovich chuckled. Nusbaum admits that he is a nice guy like his character Bob.

Ratkovich explained, “ I feel like Rosie is one of the easier characters I have done because she really wasn’t developed at all in the script. She had no job. There wasn’t anything that stood out about her. I threw my quirky self into it, and it’s worked so far.”

Both Ratkovich and Nusbaum agree that it’s nice to be able to do what they love during the summer.

 “Its been great having a place to act during the summer. I really love acting and to do it even if it’s only for 10 minutes, to act in some capacity has been really nice,” Nusbaum said. 

Tickets are $5 for students, $12 for senior citizens, and $15 for general admission. For more information on showtimes and upcoming events visit heartlandtheatre.org.