FREEPORT – Far from the bright lights of Broadway, Maine is home to a variety of talented playwrights, but it still can be hard for them to get their work produced.

Now, the Freeport Players, a community theater group founded in 1989 that uses local actors and crew to put on its shows, has created just such an opportunity.

Its new production, “Can U Rel8?” is a collection of short plays all authored by Maine playwrights. The show, which runs at the Freeport Performing Arts Center on weekends from Sept. 14-30, features works from Presque Isle’s John Cariani, a Tony-nominated actor and the author of “Almost, Maine”; Ray Dinsmore of Stonington; Linda Britt of Auburn; Cullen McGough of Portland; and EB Coughlin, a 16-year-old Cape Elizabeth High School student.

The fact that the anthology show ended up featuring all Maine playwrights was a happy accident, said Elizabeth Guffey, Freeport Players managing and artistic director, who also has written a play featured in the show.

“It actually didn’t start out to be (a show with all Maine playwrights),” Guffey said. “It just happened that the plays that I liked the best were all by playwrights who were either currently living in Maine or grew up here.”

The plays don’t have a connecting story line per se, though they do all have related elements.

“They’re definitely distinct (stories),” Guffey said. “They share a common theme, which is relationships between people, but they are not tied together by a single storyline.”

Alicia Ouellette Bellmore, who is directing several of the short plays, as well as acting in one of them, said she was excited to see a show featuring works exclusively by Mainers. “I think it’s really important,” she said. “How else are Maine folks going to get this stuff done? And there’s a lot of need for new plays and there’s a lot of need for actors to do (shows) like this because they are unprecedented, there’s not any standard for it. I think to do these kind of things is just what we need.”

“(It’s) really cool,” agreed Linda Duarte, who is co-directing the show with Ouellette Bellmore. “I think they should do that more often.”

In Coughlin’s case, her play, “The Way It Is,” came to Guffey’s attention after it was selected for Portland Stage Co.’s 2012 Young Writers Project and was read at the company’s Little Festival Of The Unexpected in May. Guffey said once she heard the play read she knew she wanted to stage it as part of “Can U Rel8?”

“I look for plays that are character-driven, make me laugh, and reveal something powerful about relationships on a human level. EB’s play meets all those criteria,” Guffey said.

“‘The Way It Is’ is the first play that I’ve ever written,” said Coughlin, “and it’s just such an honor for it to be included in ‘Can U Rel8?’ I had no idea when I wrote it that people would respond to it as well as they have.”

Coughlin said her play came out of a theater class that she took at school.

“It was a class that I took because I’ve always been interested in theater,” she said. “In third and fourth grade, we had little skits at my elementary school and I’ve been interested in theater since then. I was in some plays in middle school and, in high school. I’ve been in some plays and I’ve also been able to work back stage as tech.”

Guffey said the fact that Coughlin was such a talented writer at a young age didn’t come as a shock.

“It’s been remarkable to me and no longer surprises me that young people are writing really good work,” she said.

Guffey said she decided to include her own work, “Surprise,” in the show when she realized she needed one more play.

“It was something I had written,” she said. “And when I was looking for one more piece to fill out the evening, it came down to that and another piece and I can’t be objective about my own work, so I took those pieces and the rest of the plays that I already selected and gave them to a couple of members of the board and said, ‘Read these, and then tell me which of these other two options you think fits best with the rest.’”

The board agreed that Guffey’s play was the better fit, and it was in the show, which has been in rehearsals since mid-August.

“For this particular show, it’s been about a six-week process from the time we get auditions to the time what will actually be in front of an audience, which is relatively short for major production,” Guffey said.

While there is a time crunch, Ouellette Bellmore said the cast and crew is up to the challenge. “I’m really excited by it,” she said during a rehearsal last week, adding that she thinks audiences will really respond to the show. “It’s awesome. The title says it all, ‘Can U Rel8?’ There is something that everyone can relate to in it.”

Chris Clemens, left, and Michael Millett rehearse a scene from the Freeport Player’s new show, “Can U Rel8?” at the Performing Arts Center. It opens Sept. 14.