Vineyard Theatre Announces Original Cast Benefit Readings of GLORIA and BRUTAL IMAGINATION

Vineyard Theatre has announced a series of original cast benefit readings, including Gloria, the Pulitzer Prize finalist play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Evan Cabnet, which will air on January 19 and be available for viewing through January 22; Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady and directed by Joe Morton, dates to be announced for viewing in February 2021; and one more to be announced at a later date. All proceeds from these original cast readings will support the artists and programs in the nonprofit theatre's 2020-2021 Season.

The Gloria reading includes original cast members Kyle Beltran, Catherine Combs, Michael Crane, Jennifer Kim, Jeanine Serralles, and Ryan Spahn. Original cast members Joe Morton and Sally Murphy reunite for Brutal Imagination.

On Cyber Monday, November 30, The Vineyard will offer Membership bundles for $89 (regularly $105). The Cyber Monday Bundle, available for 24 hours only, includes:
● Access to all three original cast reunion benefit readings.
● Immediate access to all of Lessons in Survival Part 1 through June 30, 2021 (Normally an additional $30 as a Flex Member)
● Choose what you want to see of The Vineyard's future programming and save 50% off tickets, including mini-commissioned new works and Part 2 of Lessons In Survival
● The opportunity to reserve a socially distanced space for spring outdoor performances
● Early booking in advance of the public
● 25% off merchandise

The readings are included as a benefit of Vineyard Memberships, in addition to upcoming season programming. All Membership options and information are available at: www.vineyardtheatre.org/membership. Single tickets will be available with a minimum donation of $25, beginning Wednesday, December 9 at 1pm.

From the writer of such acclaimed plays as Everybody, An Octoroon, Appropriate, War and Neighbors, Gloria is Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins' funny, trenchant and powerful play that follows an ambitious group of editorial assistants at a notorious Manhattan magazine, each of whom hopes for a starry life of letters and a book deal before they turn 30. But when an ordinary humdrum workday becomes anything but, the stakes for who will get to tell their own story become higher than ever.

MacArthur "Genius" Grant winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins received The Vineyard's distinguished Paula Vogel Playwriting Award for emerging writers in 2011.

Oppenheimer Award-winning playwright and poet Cornelius Eady, and renowned actors Joe Morton and Sally Murphy, reunite for a reading of Eady's play Brutal Imagination, which premiered at The Vineyard in 2002 and remains a potent examination of racial injustice in America. Brutal Imagination is based on Eady's poem cycle exploring the notorious 1994 incident in which Susan Smith, a white woman from South Carolina, claimed that an African American man had kidnapped her children. The FBI searched for the man until Smith confessed the truth: she had invented the man and had drowned the children. Brutal Imagination brings this invented man to life and tells the story from his perspective. The original Vineyard world-premiere production was directed by Diane Paulus, with original music by Diedre L. Murray.

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