As a big fan of comedy, I’m always on the lookout for fresh voices in that tricky, underestimated genre. When was the last time someone won a Best Actor or Actress Oscar for a comic role? (And I mean leading, not supporting.) At least things are less hopeless in the theater: For every ten winners in a dramatic part, there’s a Mark Rylance in “Boeing-Boeing” or Julie White in “The Little Dog Laughed.” Still, leads in comedies are easily overlooked by nominators — which is just what happened to Justin Bartha last year, despite a brilliant performance in “Lend Me a Tenor.”

Anyway, all this to say that I’m a comedy hound and I’ve noticed that for some reason, 59E59 seems to present more than its faire share of plays in that genre, usually by new writers. So I dutifully check them out because as any prince can tell you, you have to kiss a lot of frogs. (And many of those shows do turn out to be frogs, like “ScreenPlay,” reviewed today.) But still, I’m encouraged by 59E59’s willingness to take chances on a genre that doesn’t have as much critical currency as, say, the family drama or the multimedia exposition of America’s ills. Sooner or later, something is going to stick.