This week, justArts spoke with Emily Galloway ’18, Gabe Walker ’19 and Leah Sherin ’19, the producers of the annual Quckies, a series of 10-minute plays written by students.

justArts: What are the “Quickies”?

Emily Galloway: So, “Quickies” is a festival of ten-minute student-written plays. It’s been going on with Brandeis Ensemble Theater for a really long time, definitely back through the 2000s. People write these plays and they get submitted — they are student-directed, student-acted, student-produced.

JA: Are they connected in any way?

EG: Nope, they’re just a fun collection of student work.

JA: What are the typical themes you have in the “Quickies”?

Gabe Walker: There is no overall theme. The beauty of “Quickies” is the variety of different shows we get because our guidelines are so general. We try to keep them to ten minutes or under. I know this year, we have one that is based off a game show, and we have another that is about people going in and stealing a penguin from a [zoo] exhibit. We have another one about a couple who gets into a driving accident. So it is a very wide variety ranging from funnier ones to more serious ones. It’s really cool to see how the Brandeis theater community is able to come together and work on these different shows, which creates such a cool festival.

JA: Do you need any background to direct?

EG: Really anyone can direct — we try to make Quickies a really inclusive event. It’s similar to The 24-Hour [Musical]. In terms of directing, we really like to take people who have never directed before and give them an opportunity to try it out and showcase their work. This year we have a first-year who wrote a “Quickie” and now is directing it. In terms of actors, we pretty much accept everyone who auditions.

JA: How does casting work?

GW: We have a big audition date, and then all the directors sit in a room and we decide who gets whom.

JA: What are some of the challenges in putting this together?

Leah Sherin: I would say the biggest challenge is all the moving pieces. There are so many things going on. It’s not one cohesive show. There are a million different things they tell us. There are lots of different shows and different actors involved, so there is a lot happening at once, but that is also what makes it so exciting.

GW: Making sure all the directors are scheduling rehearsals and getting ready for the show. It’s pretty quick.

JA: What are you guys most excited about in the show?

LS: I feel like since we got submissions for plays in the fall, we’ve been getting to know the plays and getting really excited about them, so at this point I’m just excited for everyone else to see them. I haven’t especially worked on one, but the group of them I feel like I’ve known for a while, and now everyone else gets to see them, which is really exciting.

—Hannah Kressel