The play: Celia

Four female family members gather in the kitchen of a shared multi-family home in the Bronx on a hot August Sunday evening in 1980. Banal discussions about the weather and earlier dinner preparations soon turn into an examination of the lifestyle and marriage prospects of a fifth female family member who is no longer present and has returned to her Manhattan apartment. There are disagreements among the women as to what is best for her as she approaches her 30s. What ensues is an examination of faith, morality, women’s roles in the family, the decisions they make, politics, and a nagging secret one of them holds.

The Playwright: Terrence Dwyer

a retired police officer and attorney, holds an MFA from Wilkes University where he studied creative non-fiction and playwriting. He is the author of three textbooks and his first general market nonfiction book, The Badge Between Us: Duty, Marriage, and Family, from Bloomsbury Publishing, was released in February 2026. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Playwright’s Center, Mystery Writers of America, Public Safety Writer's Association, National Writers Union, and Textbook and Academic Authors Association.  His most recent full-length play, Depositions, was produced as a staged reading at the Scranton Fringe Festival during September 2025, and produced in several central New York venues during 2026 through Window Sills Productions and the Center for the Arts.

The Taste:

First Tastes is a new play reading series paired with culinary test kitchen samplings, occurring most third Thursdays in 2026. Each evening of theatre places newly devised works into the hands of our local community actors, and invites the public to read along, take “tasting notes”, and engage in direct discussion with the playwrights and culinary artists.

Eat, drink, and tell stories.

Monthly: February – December

For more information about the series: CLICK HERE