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What: Seventh annual 8x10 Alaska Playwrights Festival

When: 8:15 p.m. tonight and Saturday

Where: Riverfront Theatre, 1852 Second Ave.

Admission: $15 at 456-PLAY during business hours, or at the box office an hour before showtime.

It’s not every evening that you get to spend time with carnival freaks, aspiring sandwich-makers, cable television installers and alien invaders. For those with a hankering to do just that, the 8X10 Alaskan Playwrights Festival will be held this weekend.

The festival, entering its seventh year, offers a sampler platter of the work of the state’s aspiring playwrights.

The event, which is co-produced by the Look Glass Group Theatre and Fairbanks Drama Association, packs eight 10-minute plays into a single evening.

The plays are selected by a panel, taken from submissions received from all over Alaska.

The final show includes a little of everything — from comedy to drama, slapstick to tear-jerkers.

“We always say if you don’t like this play, wait nine minutes,” said Peggy Ferguson, the FDA executive director. “You might like the next one.”

Like they do every year, the brief plays run the gamut of topics.

Arlitia Jones of Anchorage contributed “Out of Egypt,” a comedy about a carnival troupe following Moses and the Jews through the desert.

Tom Moran of Fairbanks contributed “Co-Ax,” a bittersweet scene about a cable repairman.

Lance Peterson of Homer offered “Sunday Sandwich for Three,” about a man’s quest to create the perfect ham sandwich.

“It’s like a little mini lesson on capitalism and family politics,” Ferguson said.

Other local playwrights include Jean Anderson and Joyce Freeman-Clark.

Each of the plays is given a staged reading, which involves minimal choreography and props, but is meant to offer more than a simple read-through of the material.

Nine actors work on the eight plays, playing a variety of parts throughout the evening.

Kevin Harper, one of the actors, will play a man with flippers for feet, a stoned old-time surfer, and an invader from outer space during a busy night.

“We try to be in the character, absolutely, and I do have a couple of weird ones,” he said.

The playwrights range from experienced writers to those trying the genre for the first time.

Anderson, who has written short stories, offered a scene of a woman giving her husband flying lessons. Peterson said he penned his play uncertain if he could actually make it work — 10 minutes isn’t much time to work with.

“I was curious about how in the world you can get something across in 10 minutes and not have it be a joke,” Peterson said.

Ferguson said the committee looked for plays that manage to include all the elements of a full-length play — plot, character development, and story climax — in a brief scene.

“Even though they’re 10-minute plays, the playwright still has to get in, tell the story and get out,” she said.

At the end of each play, audience members are given the opportunity to give feedback on the scenes. The feedback is important for the playwrights who hope to expand their brief scenes into a full-length play.

“It’s a thrill to see the audience response,” said Linda Billington of Anchorage, who has had a play included in the festival every year. “Of course, you hope they laugh where they’re supposed to and not where they’re not supposed to.”