Vineyard Theatre announces 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.

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 16 at 1pm. 

Pulitzer-Prize Finalist
Gloria
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Evan Cabnet 
Featuring
Kyle Beltran, Catherine Combs, Michael Crane, Jennifer Kim, Jeanine Serralles, Ryan Spahn  

ALL HAIL ‘GLORIA’! One of the year’s best plays.
It’s not just “Game of Thrones” that boasts jaw-dropping shockers — the new play “Gloria” has such a fantastic moment, it’s killing me that I can’t spill the beans.
Bitingly funny and fierce.  This is a great ride.
– New York Post

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.

Brutal Imagination
By Cornelius Eady
Directed by Joe Morton
Featuring
 Joe Morton and Sally Murphy

“Resuscitating this frightening invention of racism and desperation and letting him speak for himself is the bold and inspired idea behind ”Brutal Imagination”…. It grabs you instantly and ferociously, and a corresponding excitement glitters through this two-character chamber work.”
 — The New York Times

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.