For more than a decade, Joe Mickelson has written poems and song lyrics.

But the 29-year-old with an affinity for creative writing had never tackled a play — at least not until he signed up for the Inver Hills Community College One-Act Play Festival.

Since October, Mickelson has learned how to direct and manage a cast of actors and peers, write for the stage and handle all the technical minutiae that bringing a one-act play to life demands.

“I really learned the depth that it requires,” he said on Thursday night, prior to directing a rehearsal of his original, 20-minute-long comedy, “Interviewing Nightmare.” “It’s been a huge experience; it’s been awesome,” he said.

Mickelson’s play is one of five productions students performed last Friday during the annual one-act play festival, which is organized and hosted by the college’s Theatre Club. As part of the festival, students get a chance to write, direct and act with their peers. A faculty member, Meri Golden, serves as an advisor for the festival, but the vast majority of the work — and responsibility — for the festival is left in the hands of the students.

In November, after the school’s fall production wraps up, students submit scripts, hold auditions and set up rehearsal schedules with their cast and crew, Golden said. After that, they have roughly a month-and-a-half to practice their production before it is performed as part of the festival, which is held at the college’s black box theatre in the Fine Arts building.

This year, students directed and performed in the Holocaust-era drama “I Never Saw Another Butterfly”; “Best of Luck,” an original sketch written by student Jim Christianson; “What Did You Say What For?”; “Almost, Maine” and Mickelson’s comedy, which lampoons office politics.

“If they really want to go into theater or start their own theaters, it’s a first lesson,” explained Golden, a long-time actress who frequently participants in shows hosted by Twin Cities-area theaters. “They learn what it takes to put a production together, because they have to go through the entire process.”

That was certainly true for Christianson, who wrote a screenplay during an English course he took last fall and decided to convert a portion of it into a two-minute long, dialogue-heavy play.

Christianson, 23, has been involved in theater before, but never directed his own production. When you’re acting in a play, you can focus on the almost-microscopic details of your role, he said. But when you’re in the director’s chair, he said, forces you to look at the big picture.

Actress Elaina Zimmerman, 18, who played three roles in “Interviewing Nightmare,” said working with student directors was a “relaxing” experience that allowed her to the freedom to experiment with her characters.

“I feel like I’ve found a whole new strength for myself, how far I can go to become a great actor or to get that character out there,” she said.