Be scathed and surprised by Pulitzer-Prize nominated drama, Gloria

Be scathed and surprised by Pulitzer-Prize nominated drama, Gloria

Last Updated: 03 Jun 2021
Emma Forsyth

A stage production of Branden Jacob-Jenkins' Pulitzer-Prize nominated drama, Gloria is an explosive play that takes a scathing look at the exploitative nature of our media-saturated world and the personal cost of ruthless ambition.

Something startling is exactly what audiences can expect from Gloria. Directed by Kylie Bracknell [Kaarljilba Kaardn] and performed by Western Australia's most talented up-and-coming stage actors, the play is set to open at Roundhouse Theatre on June 10. Provocative and sharply observant, Jacobs-Jenkins’ smart satirical comedy explores questions of ambition, career, and who gets the right to shape the narrative.

WAAPA Actors

Gloria follows a group of ambitious editorial assistants at a Manhattan magazine whose main concern is how fast they can climb the journalistic ladder of success. But when an ordinary humdrum workday suddenly becomes anything but, the stakes for who gets the story become higher than ever. “I was writing about a group of people whose job is to basically transcribe life… and decide what’s newsworthy,” says Jacobs-Jenkins.

Bracknell is an accomplished performer, writer, director and producer. Passionate about language revival, Bracknell has developed innovative works completely in Noongar language, including Hecate, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Fist of Fury Noongar Daa, the first feature film to be dubbed in an Australian language. She was Associate Artist at the 2021 Perth Festival and is a recipient of a 2020 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award. “It’s a given in a work by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins that something startling will sooner or later occur that will have you rethinking everything you thought you understood about the play,” said Charles McNulty writing for the Los Angeles Times.

Gloria will be performed by WAAPA’s 3rd Year Acting students from Thursday 10 June to Wednesday 16 June, with a matinee on Saturday 12 June at 2.00pm.

Tickets can be found here.

Performing Arts Theatre WAAPA

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