Joe Brancato likes producing new works at his charming Penguin Rep theater in Stony Point - so much so that he's willing to take an old play and have it rewritten to start his company's 31st season. Playwright Richard Vetere - whose works "One Shot, One Kill", "The Marriage Fool", "First Love" and "Gangster Apparel" have been given their premieres at Penguin - wrote the first play of Penguin's 20th season, called "The Vows of Penelope Corelli."

Back then, Brancato recalls, "it was a workshop of an idea, a much shorter version. Scenes weren't completely written. It was part of a summer comedy one-act festival."

Now, it's a two-acter that will start Season 31.

It's still a comedy - about a woman who wins a big lottery prize and is then visited, out of the blue, by her long-absent husband.

"I've asked him to write the comeuppance scene, where the biggest problem is to be dealt with, the husband returning," Brancato says.

But he's given Vetere a twist: "Everybody would have to believe he's coming back for the money," Brancato says. "But what I've asked him to do - and I hope we're able to pull this off - is to make the money the problem instead of the money being the gift."

It's a tall order, but one that demonstrates Brancato's drive to try the new and unexpected, to push the creative process along.

"Even though it's a light, four-person summer comedy that will be done by small groups across the country once it's published, hopefully we've given it a tinge and a depth," he says.

Of course, change is not easy on actors, stage managers, playwrights or directors.

"Even though we're celebrating 31 years, I feel like we're still starting over," he says, laughing, "because to do a show requires so much patience, collaboration and understanding," he says.

"At least years ago, we had the freakin' drugs," he jokes. "Now, it's 'Without drugs, we have to do this?'

"All kidding aside," he adds, "We're hoping for a sweet summer and we're hoping that - given the issues in the world and the economy - people will realize that staying in Rockland or crossing that bridge is better than facing traffic and paying for parking and paying a hundred bucks for a ticket."

After "Penelope Corelli" - which stars Andrea Maulello, Josette diCarlo, Thom Rivera and Fil Formicola and opens this weekend and runs through June 8 - comes a character-driven drama called "The Fall to Earth."

Brancato has some heavy-hitters coming to Crickettown Road for "The Fall to Earth," including Tony-winner Michele Pawk ("Hollywood Arms") and Amelia Campbell, who Brancato directed in the Off-Broadway production of "Tryst." The third member of the cast is a young actress named Laura Heisler.

The play, by Chicago writer Joel Drake Johnson, has "that Chicago sensibility," Brancato says. "It's about a mother and her daughter on a journey and how this dysfunctional mother deals with the people she meets," he says.

How did Brancato get Tony-winner Pawk to commit?

"I sent her the play and she called me and said 'How can I say no to this? I want to play this part. You tell me when, you tell me where," the director recalls.

That show runs June 27 through July 20.

Then comes Richard Strand's "Ten Percent of Molly Snyder" -Aug. 15 through Sept. 7 - a dark comedy about a woman whose life is ruined by a series of bureaucrats.

"The reason I chose this play is because right now, the voice of the individual in this country is beckoning to be heard," Brancato says. "We're getting lost, with these CEOs and these pharmaceutical companies and the gas companies. Never before in my life, I think, has it been so pronounced, that we have real issues.

"I can't address it head-on with a serious play right now because it's all happening right now. But this suggests the victimization of the individual in kind of a funny way that will inspire, we hope, some good conversation afterward," he says.

Then, from Oct. 10 to Nov. 2, comes "The Woman in Black" by Stephen Mallatratt, a thriller that's been running in London for years, Brancato says.

It's a spooky thriller and an hommage to that genre, he says.

While the main-stage season may not be as balanced drama-comedy as in past years, Brancato says the risk - of doing two comedies, a thriller and a character-driven story that has a dark take on motherhood - is worth it.

"Like it or not, we'll have some great discussions about it," he says.

Brancato says he's excited to welcome a new set designer to Penguin. Joe Egan, whose productions at Nyack High School included this year's stunning "The Phantom of the Opera," is a set designer by trade who has a growing list of schools and venues for which he's design sets.

He was a longtime designer at Mamaroneck's Emelin Theatre and will design sets and costumes this season.

And there's a new team for sound at the theater, Brancato says.

One of Penguin's most wildly successful programs is expanded this summer, although apparently not enough.

The "Play With Your Food" readings - in which patrons eat a boxed dinner, hear a new play read and then discuss it - are already sold out for the season, Brancato says.

He hinted he'd love to expand the events to extra evenings, but fears it might overburden the staff for that feature, which is currently slated for Monday evenings: June 2, July 7, July 21, Aug. 18, and Sept. 8, all at 7 p.m.

Penguin will also expand its offerings for young theatergoers this year, as Brancato has programmed a Children's Theatre Festival.