"Quickies" is the annual event that lets new student playwrights get their feet wet in a fun, easy way. This week, justArts spoke with the three main coordinators of this year's Quickies: director and co-producer Herbie Rosen '12, co-producer Abby Armstrong '13, and stage manager Kelsey Strouse ‘13. Rosen has been involved with the event for the past three years, his sophomore year acting in one of the pieces while at the same time co-producing. This year, Rosen, in addition to producing again, has written and directed one of the acts himself. Armstrong is new to "Quickies" this year but will also be directing a piece in addition to producing. Strouse stage managed the show for the first time last year. All three organizers are involved in Brandeis Ensemble Theater and other theater groups on campus.

JustArts: How is ‘Quickies' created each year?

Herbie Rosen: Basically, this is put on by Brandeis Ensemble Theater, which is dedicated to ensemble and experiential works, so we have students submit one-acts that they have written and we put out the call at the beginning of the semester. We get them submitted around mid-November and the two producers ... on the Ensemble Theater board sit down, go over the one-acts, and select them.

This year we have eight, the most we've ever had in an actual festival. Then the writers get to choose if they want to direct their own, and then we invite students who have emailed us over the semester interested in directing, place the directors, and then we have a casting call for anybody available. We then cast them … and tell them, okay, three to five hours [of rehearsal] maximum before the show, just get it done, quick.

JA: Have you participated in "Quickies" in the past?

Kelsey Strouse: I got to stage manage it last year, and it was a blast.

JA: How is the show this year different from last year's?

Abby Armstrong: This year we have been embarking on a new method of preparing for "Quickies," in that we started the year off by pursuing play-writing workshops, to not only publicize "Quickies" as an event but also get playwrights from all over Brandeis' campus, not just usual [Undergraduate Theater Collective] theater people to come and write Quickies.

JA: What was the response like to that?

AA: We had two workshopping sessions with the Brandeis professor who teaches a play writing course. There were 12 people enrolled in the workshop and it was a really great response, especially because they were really encouraged to bring back their work for critiques and to workshop it. I think it has really increased the quality of the Quickies that have been submitted this year and that is why we have so many this year.

JA: Are there any Quickies that are particularly notable this year and that are different than acts that have been selected in the past?

HR: We've got one that's going to be kind of emotional, which should be fun. Honestly, we're just excited because there are eight of them, we've never done eight. They're all going to fit in nice with the show. They're all very different, some very funny. We've got kind of a nice range of emotions. And its not just knock-knock jokes in terms of the humor; it's creative approaches. There will be turkeys, cops, robbers … cats, cancer patients, and some Jewish humor.

KS: Lots of Jewish humor.

JA: What is it like putting on a show in such a short amount of time?

KS: For me, it's a blast because everyone is just really, really dedicated and we've all put in work in different times and different places so its just exciting when everyone comes together and we can create one final project ... everyone can see the work that everyone else has put into it.

JA: How is being an actor or director different from being a producer?

HR: [As a producer,] I don't have to worry about the pressure of lines, but it's just fun to be able to share this work with the students and focus more on the logistics and making this happen, and realizing really how last- minute this thing is. This entire thing, I don't think we've come into this prepared at all and that's exactly the way it's supposed to be.

JA: What has been your favorite part of this experience?

KS: The best is yet to come.