Rate My Professor Amy Osatinski

Dr. Amy Osatinski (She/Her) is an Associate Professor of Theatre History and Head of the BA in Theatre Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the School of Theatre at Oklahoma City University. She holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Denver, an MA in Education from the University of Colorado Denver, and a PhD in Theatre from the University of Colorado Boulder. Osatinski has taught theatre since 2005, with prior roles including four years as Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Northern Iowa, instructional designer for CUOnline at the University of Colorado Denver, Education Programs Director for Inspire Creative in Parker, Colorado—where she created a theatre education program for students ages 5 to adult in partnership with the Town of Parker and Parker Arts and Cultural Center—and director of the drama program at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado from 2008 to 2013, which earned BroadwayWorld.com School in the Spotlight recognition.

Her research centers on contemporary theatre and musical theatre, with particular attention to their intersections with popular culture, digital media, and digital technologies. Osatinski authored Disney Theatrical Productions: Producing Broadway Musicals the Disney Way (Routledge), dissecting the production strategies of Disney's theatrical division within a multinational corporation. Her scholarship features in Theatre Topics, Studies in Musical Theatre, iBroadway: Musical Theatre in the Digital Age, and The Palgrave Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers, including chapters such as "Ghosts in the Machine: Digital Technology and Screen-to-Stage Musicals" and "Disney Theatrical Productions: Anything Can Happen if You Let It." She has a second monograph, 20 Seasons, Broadway Musicals of the 21st Century, under contract with Routledge, and contributed "Musical Theatre Training in the 21st Century: A Primer" to the Routledge Companion series. An associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, she has directed productions including the Denver regional premiere of Spring Awakening, Newsies, Cabaret, Hair, Oliver!, Legacy of Light, She Kills Monsters, and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Trained as an Intimacy Director by Theatrical Intimacy Education, Osatinski serves as an officer in the Music Theatre and Dance focus group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, on the Advisory Board for OCU's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning—where she received the 2023 CETL Award—and as Speech, Drama, and Debate advisor. She regularly presents at conferences and consults artistically for Forgelight Theatre Works.