STONINGTON — Presque Isle native John Cariani, a successful actor and playwright, is known far and wide for his achievements on and off stage, as well as his work in television and film.

In Stonington, however, his reputation rises largely from his work with local playwrights at the Stonington Opera House through a series of workshops he has conducted over the past three winters.

Audiences can see the fruits of his latest workshop next week when the Opera House presents “All Shorts: 14 New Plays by 14 Local Playwrights.”

Full productions of 14 new 10-minute plays written by participants in Cariani’s workshop last January will be performed Thursday, Oct. 27, through Sunday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m.

The productions feature more than 15 community actors alongside Actors Equity guest artists Robert Burke, Dave Mason, Kathy McCafferty and Warren Jackson.

Cariani is directing five of the plays. Opera House Arts Artistic Director Judith Jerome will direct five, and guest director Sally Wood of Portland will direct four.

Perhaps best known for his role as Julian Beck on the TV show “Law & Order,” Cariani is also acclaimed among theater lovers for his Tony Award-nominated performance in Broadway’s 2004 revival of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

The Presque Isle High School graduate also is earning a reputation as a first-rate playwright.

His most recent play, “Last Gas,” premiered at Portland Stage in 2010. Last year, his first play, “Almost Maine,” became the most produced play of all time. It has been produced by more than 300 theaters worldwide.

First produced at Portland Stage, “Almost Maine” moved to Off Broadway and was praised by The Wall Street Journal as “one of the 10 Best Plays of the 2004-05 regional theater season.”

In a telephone interview last week, Cariani said that when Jerome first asked whether he’d be interested in teaching a play- writing workshop, he flatly said: “No. I have never taught play writing.”

He said Jerome cleverly convinced him to conduct the workshops by asking him to remember where he’s from and give people here an opportunity to explore the art of writing plays.

He’s glad she changed his mind.

“It’s someone from Maine who writes about Maine,” he said of workshop participants. “I help people interested in telling their stories tell them.”

Cariani also is pleased by the short-play focus of the workshops.

“It’s a popular form of play writing,” he said, adding that workshop participants read numerous 10-minute plays by writers such as Anton Chekhov and John Patrick Shanley, as well as several non-published writers.

“We read two a day to get people thinking about telling a story with people talking,” he said. “When they’re good, they’re just incredible.”

The fast-paced workshops also involve a lot of writing.

“It was exercise after exercise, after exercise,” Cariani said. “When I left, their job was to write a 10-page play. Ten pages equal 10 minutes.”

Cariani kept in touch with his writing students and coached them via phone calls as they worked on their plays.

He said the workshop included people from all walks of life, teachers, a chef, a minister and so on, but all their stories are specific to Stonington.

“Specific stories become universal very quickly,” Cariani said, hinting at the high quality of the finished products his students created.

He said that a 10-minute play precludes writers from traveling through time and produces plays that are practically in real time.

“Ten minutes in life can be pivotal and dramatic and fascinating and huge,” Cariani said, again hinting at the power of his students’ 10-minute dramas.

Last year, the Opera House presented seven new plays that emerged from the 2009 workshop.

Cariani said the turnout for last year’s productions was huge and unexpected. He said regional theaters across the nation are supporting playwrights who write about the region because people turn out to see their stories told.

“Last year, every audience member would have a different favorite because each play spoke to different people,” he said. “It’s silly to have people write plays and never have them produced.”

Playwrights presenting new plays this year include Amy Morley of Lamoine and Nancy Hodermarsky of Deer Isle, each premièring their second play from the workshop series.

The other playwrights are H. Louise Bernstone, Jeff Brink, Bob Burke, Ray Dinsmore, Nolan Ellsworth, Elizabeth Guffey, Dan Hadley, Mickey Jacoba, Dindy Royster, Mike Wolf, Debbie Little Wyman and Veronica Young.

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