A wealth of color washes the walls, and all varieties of art and sound to please the senses. A comfortable seat and a cool drink help to relax and refresh a tired body, as an acting troupe prepares to perform a new piece. A festival fit for a king.

Or a college student.

StageWest Productions makes this possible by bringing Scriptease, its free readers’ theater series, to Kinkajou Coffee, 2002 Woodland Ave. in Des Moines. Merging an art gallery feel with an informal reading of new theater has attracted standing-room-only audiences to the art in the market coffee shop.

“It’s a very casual, very relaxed atmosphere,” says Jean Elgin, co-owner of Kinajou Coffee. “You can come in, sit down, and enjoy the art around you.”

Featured this month is a presentation of an original script from the Iowa Scriptwriters Alliance, “Get Real” by Kay Rhoads. It’s directed by Patrick Gouran, associate professor of music.

Rhoads says Scriptease is a wonderful informal opportunity for scriptwriters to get some stage time for their plays.

“This is a staged reading with limited rehearsal and no technical aspects,” Rhoads says. “It gives the playwright, me, the opportunity to hear it on stage and then make revisions.”

The play is centered around a family of a man, a woman and a child in a small Midwestern town. The man was convicted of murder and has been in prison for 17 years. He is about to be released and is trying to make amends with his wife and daughter, whose views of him are tainted by his conviction.

“It’s an investigation of human interactions,” Gouran says.

One critical scene, he says, describes the death of a young man in a car accident.

“We look back into the life of these two major characters to see what transpired then and how that affects the present,” Gouran says.

Rhoads says that “Get Real” presents a case for the audience and lets them be the jury.

“It leaves the audience to decide whether he has changed, and whether people are capable of change,” Rhoads says.

Elgin says that Kinkajou was full for last month’s Scriptease show and hopes this month will be just as exciting.

“Our capacity is about 60, and last month was very packed,” Elgin says.

“At least half of the people that come in every month are regulars, which is great, but we love to see new faces too.”

Lambert says that StageWest tries to bring a variety of different types of plays to the audience.

“Sometimes we’ll read something we’re looking at for next season to get an audience reaction for it,” Lambert says.

Kinkajou Coffee is open with the Metro Market on Fridays and Saturdays, and opens only for special events during the week. Scriptease has been an ongoing series performed at Kinkajou the last Tuesday of every month since October 2003.

“People enjoy hearing new things, plays they normally wouldn’t get to hear,” Lambert says.

“Audiences really seem to like the series, so it works out for everyone.”