The St. Edward’s University theater department has yet another production currently in the works. The Ten Minute Play Festival is a free-admission collection of short plays showing at the Mary Moody Northen Theater Dec. 6-7.

All of the 10-minute plays are student-acted as well as student-directed. Instead of having a faculty member as the director like a typical MMNT production, the plays are headed by undergraduate theater majors in the directing class offered by the St. Edward’s theatre department.

The directing class is comprised mostly of seniors, and the plays they direct are part of the Ten Minute Play Festival and serve as a kind of final project for the class. This annual event allows students to apply everything they have learned in class and exhibit their own work and directorial style.

Unlike the New Works Festival put on by Transit Theatre Troupe in October, the Ten Minute Play Festival consists of student directors working with short plays that are already published and that do not necessarily share a common theme. Also, the Ten Minute Play Festival is performed on the St. Edward’s main stage — in the round at the Mary Moody Northen Theater.

Jake McVicker has a role in one of the ten-minute plays. He auditioned for the directing class and was cast in senior Benjamin Myers’ comedic play.

“It’s called ‘The Mouse Incident with Taylor and Kirk;’ a gay couple in their mid-30s involving an incident with a mouse,” McVicker said. “Kirk is kind of a macho character who doesn’t really care, and Taylor is a schoolteacher who enjoys the simple things in life and is very over-the-top when it comes to killing mice.”

Each student director was allowed to pick the play they direct, meaning the Ten Minute Play Festival encompasses a variety of work.

Freshman Heather Garsen is involved in one of the more dramatic plays in the festival. She has a role in “Overtones,” directed by senior Johnny Trillayes.

“It deals with women who are very prim and proper on the outside, but shows all these voices inside their heads telling them what to do and what to say,” Garsen said. “I play one of the inner voices.”

For many freshman like McVicker and Garsen, the Ten Minute Play Festival presents a beginning opportunity to work in the Mary Moody Northen Theater’s unique setup.

“I’m very excited about getting to perform [in the Mary Moody Northen Theatre],” McVicker said. “Ever since I saw ‘The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler,’ I’ve just been really excited to be in that space. I’ve never performed in the round before.”

The festival also gives actors experience with different directing styles and often allows actors to be more engaged with their directors in the decision-making processes of production.

“It’s way more collaborative,” McVicker said. “I’ve worked in the past with directors who just nail you down to their ideas, but so far the directors here just kind of push you in a direction, and then you do the rest of the work.”

Garsen noted how the festival offers a mutual educational experience for everyone involved.

“It’s cool because you’re learning valuable things as an actor, but the student directors you’re working with are benefiting too and learning as they go along, and in the end you get a really quality, exciting production” Garsen said.

The Ten Minute Play Festival runs Dec. 6-7 at 5 p.m. at the Mary Moody Northen Theater. Admission is free.