Nudity, creationists and an opera filled with debut performances will premiere on stage next week as SF State’s theater department kicks off its fourth annual Fringe Fest.

“[The plays are] wild, wooly, adventurous and thought-provoking,” said Roy Conboy, Associate Professor of creative writing and head of the university’s playwright department.

The week-long event, directed by Conboy and creative writing student John Caldon, is part of an advanced play development workshop class, featuring six original, one-act plays written and preformed by SF State theater and creative writing students.

“It’s fun to see what others—directors, designers, actors and audience—bring to the piece,” said Steven Salzman, who is earning a masters degree in creative writing.

Salzman, 42, created his third full-length production, “Astronomical Differences,” in a short-play workshop in the spring, exploring the tale of a carpet cleaner, an astronaut and what he calls “a bloody mess.”

In addition to Salzman, the student playwrights and directors have spent over two months working with the cast and Conboy, witnessing each production come to life.

“[The actors are] strong and experienced and have a good sense of comic timing,” said graduate student and playwright, Terry Beswick, 48, whose play “Hot Shot” won him the James Highsmith Playwriting Award last year.

Beswick’s new play, “Gobsmacked in the Grand Canyon” follows the story of two river rafting tour guides—one creationist and one Darwinian evolutionist—who lead separate groups of tourists down the Colorado river.

“Without giving away the end of the play too much, I can say that the script does call for nudity,” he said.

Theater Arts junior Cassie Alcudia, 20, was chosen for the part “Anti-Echo” in Beswick’s play and has been rehearsing ever since.

“I thought I’d be a little more nervous, but I’m not,” Alcudia said of her debut performance. “Not yet anyway.”

The evening will also present “Divergence,” by Christopher Chen—which was first performed in 2003 at the San Francisco Fringe Festival— about a man and woman who meet on a park bench, trading stories of long-lost love; “Terror, Astonishment, Love,” by Evelyn Pine, a story of Bohemians, illusions and romance; and Joey Price’s “Your Father Is Dead,” a story that examines a funeral and the absence of mourners.

Last year, Price wrote and directed “Emo! The Musical,” a show about the wonders and pains of being an “emo” kid in contemporary times, in addition to creating an adaptation of Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman’s “Urinetown.”

The one act shows are scheduled to begin every evening during the week of Oct 15th at 6 p.m., in the Studio Theatre in the Creative Arts building. For more information, visit theatre.sfsu.edu