Asolo Rep Presents Branden Jacobs-Jenkins GLORIA

Asolo Rep continues its season with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' gripping and engrossing GLORIA, a Pulitzer Prize-finalist and one of The New York Times' Best Theater Picks of 2015. Directed by FSU/Asolo Conservatory Director and Asolo Rep Associate Artistic Director Greg Leaming, GLORIA previews April 4 and 5, opens April 6 and runs through April 29 in the Cook Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

It's business as usual for a group of disgruntled 20-something editorial assistants at a magazine in Manhattan, where the only subject matter the group can agree on is that they want more than the life they're leading. But when the morning banter is forced to an arresting halt, it alters their perspectives and lives in a way they could have never imagined. Deeply pertinent and provocative, GLORIA takes audiences on an unpredictable, unnerving journey to a simple and very human insight.

"GLORIA is an equally exciting and alarming new play from one of the most brilliant young writers working in the American theatre," said Asolo Rep Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards. "This will be a truly memorable theatrical event."

A recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is one of the leading voices for the American stage. His plays include Neighbors (Public Theater); Appropriate (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Victory Gardens Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Signature Theatre); An Octoroon (Soho Rep); and War. He is a Residency Five playwright at Signature Theatre and a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow at the Juilliard School.

"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has a knack of turning our expectations in the theatre on their head, and leaving us with an experience that is unlike any other," said director Greg Leaming. "GLORIA is a comedy of character, a satire, a tragedy, a drama and a sentimental comedy all rolled into one. What starts out being a brilliant portrait of Millenials in the workplace eventually becomes a scathing portrait of how we live in the 21st century."

Asolo Rep favorite Denise Cormier plays Gloria/Nan. At Asolo Rep, she has appeared in The Little Foxes; Good People; All The Way; The Great Society; Ah, Wilderness!; Born Yesterday ; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; and Our Betters. Delphi Borich plays Kendra/Jenna. She was recently seen in the National Tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, where she understudied Ella. Her regional credits include Peter and the Starcatcher (The Barn Stage Company) and Peter Pan (Syracuse Stage). Bryce Michael Wood plays Miles/Shawn/Rashaad. His credits include The Royale (Hippodrome Theatre), Smart People (Geva Theatre Center and Kitchen Theatre Company), Welcome to Fear City (Contemporary American Theater Festival), and Row, where he starred as Muhammad Ali at Goodspeed Opera House

The cast also features FSU/Asolo Conservatory third year MFA students: Aleksandr Krapivkin (Dean/Devin) and Wes Tolman (Lorin). Both Krapivkin and Tolman are also in Shakespeare in Love at Asolo Rep this season. Second year FSU/Asolo Conservatory student Jenny Vallancourt plays Ani/Sasha/Callie.

GLORIA contains gun shots and potentially disturbing, realistically depicted gun violence. Prop guns are used in the performance. Recommended for ages 17+. For more information visit: http://www.asolorep.org/shows/gloria/2017-2018.

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