Seoul Players will hold its 10-Minute Play Festival and Competition this weekend, with 16 plays competing in the opening round.

The plays, whittled down from over 150 submissions from Korea and overseas, will be performed over two nights, with audiences casting ballots on which four of the eight plays on each night will go through to the final, voted on by a panel.

“Our inbox was absolutely flooded with submissions this year,” said Seoul Players’ artistic director, Barri Tsavaris. “Every year, we are extremely humbled and delighted at the quality and variety of texts we receive from around the globe.”

“There is something for every artistic taste in this festival,” explains Tsavaris. “In choosing material, we really wanted to touch as many genres of theatre as possible. The audience is going to be in for some really exciting and diverse performances.”

But Tsavaris said that comedies were the most commonly chosen plays in this and previous years, both because they dominate the submissions and because they are a hit with the crowd.

“I think that within 10 minutes, with the nature of the timing, that it works better often for comedic ideas than dramatic ones,” she said.

“It’s often that faster is funnier, and it’s much easier to establish comedic characters and do punchlines in 10 minutes than it is to establish real-life characters and character arcs and all that.

“So we tend to get more comedies submitted, but I think we definitely lean toward that genre, because the audience loves it.”

But that does not guarantee that a comedy will win. Last year’s winner was a musical, and another musical is competing this year, written by a U.S.-based writing duo. And while 10 minutes might seem too short to cram in several songs, the performance is set to prove otherwise.

“It is challenging. I saw their tech rehearsal today, and they have got about four different songs in the musical,” Tsavaris said.

The festival has seen a strong number of writing entries, but Tsavaris said that some directors have had to take on more than one play to get all of them to the stage at previous festivals. This year has seen an increase in the number of people wanting to direct, so each play has its own director.

There has been an increase in interest from audiences, too. Attendances for the performances have also grown to the point that the festival has been moved to a larger venue to avoid turning people away.

“I think we were able to let everyone in on the first weekend last year, but we did sell out,” she said. “And then for the final night, we not only sold out but we were turning people away at the door. So we have definitely outgrown the (previous) place for this festival.”

The new theater is in Guro, not far from central Seoul, but wary of the difficulties that could arise from hundreds of people suddenly seeking a cab, the organizers have organized an optional bus to Itaewon to make it easier for some of the guests.

The first-round performances are at Arts Tree Theater on Friday at 9 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m., with the final round starting at 8 p.m. on Sept. 27.

The standard price for tickets is 15,000 won on each night, but there is an offer of a 30,000 won for all three nights for people who buy online at seoulplayers.org. A ticket on the bus is 5,000 won extra.

There is also a student discount. Student tickets are 10,000 won a night or 25,000 won for all three. Student ID is required.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)