Often I've described the New Works Festival of one-act plays as a grab bag: If you don't like one, wait a few minutes and you get something different -- three plays a week for four weeks.

But the grab bag rarely yields actual plays. Finished one-acts are hard to write, and because they have little commercial future, accomplished playwrights generally have better things to do.

They are, however, a way to put brand new work in front of audiences and learn -- that's why the New Works Fest is important. Audiences just have to realize that they will see mainly snapshots, character studies, ideological arguments, mood pieces or scenes lacking context ... pieces of plays, at best.

For the first weekend of the 18th festival, for my money the best play (and I mean play) is Brian Paul Robertson's "The Promise," staged by Apple Hill Playhouse. In the latter days of World War II, an injured soldier visits the parents and fiancee of a fallen comrade.

We're in the world of the American realists (Sherwood Anderson, William Inge) and their heirs, such as Horton Foote. I guess you'd call it a character sketch, but Roberston has a sure ear for dialogue and a penchant for small surprises. The convincing substance owes a lot to its actors, especially Phil Powell and Dan Shaffer as the father and visitor.

The most ambitious piece is Cory Tamler's "The Funeral," staged by the Heritage Players. It's the story told in Euripides' "Trojan Women" of Queen Hecuba grieving outside ransacked Troy -- with the giant difference that this Hecuba refuses to grieve, welcoming the nihilism of her loss.

Tamler mixes verse, prose and some vivid language. Sometimes it falls flat, sometimes it soars and sometimes it feels more like parody, as with the entertaining sadistic goddess of Strife, who's high camp.

The least realized play is Judy McGee's "Johnny Quest and the Giant Kidney," staged by the Theatre Factory, in which a serial killer offers to contribute a kidney to save a life. Interesting issues of motivation are raised, but superficially, perhaps because the acting lacks assurance and resonance.

At the least, the festival's first week provides variety (although not comedy); at its best, it shows new talent finding its way.