Not just desserts

The Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre serves up new plays by local writers—along with its trademark cake and coffee—in a free series of staged readings over the next four weeks. All featured plays came out of the ongoing playwrights’ workshop that meets at the Thistle Dew on Mondays at 7 p.m.

“It’s a place where a playwright can hear a play read,” said Thistle Dew artistic director Thomas Kelly. “Three of the plays we’ve workshopped have been published and two have been produced.”

First in the series, on January 12 and 13, is Homecoming by Leo McElroy. As Kelly explained, the play involves a man “who was adopted as a child. His mother wants to meet him, but she has an ulterior motive.”

On January 19 and 20, the featured play will be Ghost Writer by Donya Wicken. “It won lots of votes from the participants in our regular Monday workshop series,” Kelly said.

Annie’s Story by Laura Sheperd follows on January 26 and 27. The topic here is child abuse. “It happened when she was 10 or 11 years old,” Kelly said. “She relives it through the first act, and in the second act she makes a discovery.”

Random Acts wraps up the series on February 2 and 3 with several short plays by different authors.

All performances begin at 8 p.m. Reservations are required. The Thistle Dew is located at 1901 P Street. For tickets or for more information, call (916) 444-8209, or e-mail thistledewplaywrights@yahoo.com.