Slices: A Ten-Minute Play Festival opened at Pier One Theatre last weekend and will run three more shows Thursday through Saturday this week starting at 7:30 p.m.

“Slices” is the inspiration of Christine Kulcheski, who first picked up Gary Garrison’s “A More Perfect 10: Writing and Producing the Ten-Minute Play” at the Valdez Theatre Conference last summer. She coordinated a writing workshop with local playwright Kate Rich and nine local writers participated in the four-week workshop.

According to co-producer, Rudy Multz, they opened submissions for plays in the second week of May and by June 15 had over 100 submissions to choose from. The final lineup of eight plays in the performance includes five local compositions. “The quality of the writing and submissions that were local was very, very high. If we had done the screening process as blind to the authors, I’m confident that we still would have chosen more from the locals. We have some very talented writers here,” he said.

The local plays include “Waiting for the Dough” by Val Sheppard, “Leaving” by Mary Sheppard-Fries, “Coots’ Christmas” by Christine Kulcheski, “Morning Glory” by Rudy Multz and “The Gospel According to Karen” by Jessica Golden. There are six different directors for the plays.

Multz said that most of the performers in the show have been involved in many other Pier One shows this summer and to see this performance event come together so quickly at the end of the season with very limited rehearsal time has been impressive.

He noted that not all the plays are exactly 10 minutes. “In the workshop we learned that a six-page script is the approximate length that we were looking for, but depending on the number of characters and dialogue, the timing for each of them is slightly different.” The plays have two to four characters.

Multz said attendance for the first week of production was good and “the audience is has been really receptive, and it seems like they’re really enjoying the variety.”

“There’s a lot of humor, there’s a lot of drama. All the stories are very different,” he said. He described the performance as somewhat of a variety show.

Tickets for this weekend’s show can be purchased online at the Pier One website or at their office at 332 E. Pioneer Ave.