Many artistically-minded students choose Brandeis for its breadth of theater opportunities, performances and productions. Brandeis Ensemble Theater’s production of Quickies, a series of student-written one-act plays and sketches, definitely falls into these ideas of opportunites and inclusive theater productions.

The show, held on Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater, was decidedly low-key. Actors intermittently walked out of the green room and into the theater to watch their friends between acts, joining the almost sold out crowd sitting in the house.

Quickies is unique in many ways. In an email to the Justice, the show’s co-producer Carly Chernomorets ’16 said that one of the show’s main values is inclusion.

Chernomorets went to on explain that the Brandeis Ensemble Theater board oversees the selections process and tries to include as many writers, directors and actors as possible. This year, the team selected 10 “quickies” for the festival.

True to its name, the rehearsal process for Quickies was very fast-paced. Chernomorets explained that “the day of Quickies, all of the actors, directors, and production staff are called to the theatre at 10 [a.m.] for the morning meeting, and after that [they] rehearse until around 6 [p.m.], at which point we get ready to open the house for audiences”.

The rehearsal process for Quickies was essentially just one day of rehearsals. This is no more time than the 24 Hour Musical had earlier this year to prepare their show.

The show opened with “Another Lesbian Farce,” written by Ayelet Schrek ’17 and directed by Ariella Assouline ’17 and Morgan Winters ’17. The skit was an entertaining parody of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that turned on the fact that the two female leads were lesbians. In the parody, the male leads pursue the women until they realize that they would rather pursue each other.

Later on in the show, “Crusty the Roadman” parodied the classic holiday song “Frosty the Snowman.” The sketch replaced the snowman with a homeless Vietnam veteran.

Amanda Ehrmann ’18 wrote “1, 2, 3, The Color Red,” a dramatic and insightful skit directed by Bethany Greenbaum ’15. The play followed a 40-year-old woman named Penelope (Lily Elderkin ’18 in the hospital, Hailey Saul ’16 in flashbacks) in the hospital, suffering from hallucinations and synaesthesia, a neurological phenomenon that links different senses. Penelope told her doctor (Andrew Elmers ’16) the story of how she met her now-fiancée Brian (Sara Brande ’15), a man with obsessive compulsive disorder, in college. The end of the play featured a shocking plot twist as it revealed that Penelope had been hallucinating at least part of her relationship with Brian.

One of the funniest plays was “A Study in Sherlock,” written and directed by Sam LeVangie ’15. Aaron Fischer ’15 gave a hilarious performance of Sherlock, a London detective. Fischer portrayed Sherlock as a conceited and seemingly all-knowing detective whose only true skills were taking credit for the police’s work and ignoring his sidekick Watson’s (Mo Pepose ’17) intermittent declarations of love.

Arguably the cutest play of the night was, “Don’t Catch Feelings” written by Sarah Duffett ’17 and directed by Dennis Hermida ’16. The lighthearted sketch ended the show on a happy note.

The play followed a man and a woman with a romantic past talking in a café (Zach Marlin ’16 and Rachel Liff ’16, respectively) as their inner voices (Justin Cates ’17 and Danielle Frankel ’17, respectively) narrated what they were truly thinking. The play ended with the two characters hugging and deciding to pursue a relationship, which elicited a chorus of coos from the crowd.

Chernomorets stressed the importance of Quickies to Brandeis’ campus culture and theater scene. She mentioned that “Quickies is a space of inclusion, and we really do our best to get as many people involved as humanly possible,” she said. “Quickies is a great way to get a taste of what it’s like to be involved in a big production without the time commitment and with way less pressure.”

The show was entertaining to watch—it had its dramatic moments, its comedic scenes and even poignant social commentary about mental health and gender. However, Quickies’ role in fostering an inclusive, inviting and welcoming campus culture, as referenced by Chernomorets, may be even more important.