Gloria
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Every year, there is at least one Tisch student who shares with
me a play as their favorite book.
Today’s read was Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ top-rated play Gloria.
The character, Gloria, is a fifteen-plus-year veteran at the mid-town
Manhattan magazine publication office.
Many of the young staff leave this office to go on to outstanding
careers in the field. Gloria is viewed
as an awkward peer who is always trying to connect with her colleagues. The play begins the evening after Gloria
hosts a party at her home that only one staffer attends. In the office, all other staffers make fun of
Dean, the sole member who attended. He
describes how uncomfortable he felt being there.
The first act focuses on everyone’s crass comments regarding Gloria and
how strange she is as a person. The act
ends with Gloria walking into the office & shooting all of her
colleagues! The rest of the play
discusses how the owners of the magazine and those who survived the killings
tried to produce books, screenplays, and TV pilots about Gloria’s killing of
her office mates. There are some good
soliloquies and character development, but the story for me is weak, reminding
me of a BRAVO or WE Network movie. Maybe
seeing it on stage might change my opinion, but I doubt it. The subject matter is overplayed in media
outlets and the reader never really gets to know Gloria - she only comes in the End
of Act 1 to shoot her peers. It does
have good reviews, so maybe I am being too harsh. Not the best read to pick-up after a number
of weeks under the weather. Hope the
next one will be better.
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