PORTLAND

A 78-year-old first-time playwright, Arthur Boatin, a Harpswell resident, is about to see his work produced in Portland as part of this year’s Maine Playwrights Festival.

MPF is an annual competition of new one-act plays by Maine writers. In 2015 49 plays were submitted, from which six were chosen for fully staged production. The six selected plays are the “winners” of the competition, and each writers’ prize is a theatrical production.

A single program of all six plays will be performed five times, May 13-16, at St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress St., Portland. Authors take an active role in the months-long production process, attending actor auditions and the rehearsals that began in early April.

Boatin’s prize-winning play, “Predestination,” is adapted from a short story he wrote last year. That story was mostly in dialogue, and the writer saw its potential as a theater piece even while writing the story. Although playwriting is new to him, Boatin draws on youthful experience as an actor, including a season of summer stock in Weston, Vermont. Nevertheless, he found the process of adaptation no simple thing, and to make the play he wound up extending the action of the original story and adding new characters.

Boatin’s play takes place in the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland. Its main characters are a couple having a weekend getaway to Midcoast Maine. The author considers “Predestination” a comedy, in that it has a happy ending and contains, he hopes, many amusing lines. But even comedies can have serious issues at their core. “Predestination,” Boatin says, asks what is the glue that binds mature couples, who know one another so well that they may risk boredom with the relationship or irritation with the partner.

The other five scripts selected to be a part of MPF are “3 a.m. at Denny’s” by Shondra Jin Robbins, “Click Here” by David Susman, “Creation” by David Vazdauskas, “Houston” by Michael Kimball and “The Lift” by Susan Staples.

Performances of all six plays will take place at 7:30 p.m. May 13-16, with an additional 2 p.m. performance May 16, which will be followed by an audience talkback session moderated by Melinda Lopez.