On Oct. 24, De Anza’s Actors’ Ensemble performed their first of three lunchtime theater shows scheduled for this quarter.

With about four weeks to prepare, the show, appropriately titled “Seven Short Plays for a Short Span of Attention,” consists of 10-minute one-act comedies recently written by and performed at the Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre.

Actors’ Ensemble is a class designed to give theater students the opportunity to display their various skills such as acting, designing and directing.

“Whenever you do theater, you need teamwork,” said De Anza student and Actors’ Ensemble participant Smret Yohannes. “This class really teaches us how to work together, as a team.”

Although instructor Sarah Albertson chose the plays as well as casted each student in specific roles, the students have been given creative freedom, controlling all aspects of a theater production, including set design, prop design, direction, lighting and publicity.

“I check in on them from time to time,” said Albertson. “They pretty much direct themselves.”

Part of the ensemble’s goal was to create something new and exciting for each script they were handed.

“In scenes, you often get a lot of people just sitting at tables and talking,” said Albertson. “We tried to do something a little more theatrical.”

Scheduled for Nov. 5 in G3, the ensemble’s next show, “A Shake of Shakespeare and Bits of Beckett,” will consist of a 15-minute version of Hamlet, directed by De Anza student Scott Ludwig, as well as two short plays by Samuel Beckett.