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align=center><FONT face=Georgia><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#222222>Cleveland Public Theatre underserves
</FONT></SPAN></B><STRONG><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Branden
Jacobs-Jenkins’ ‘Gloria’</SPAN></STRONG></FONT><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></B></P>
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align=center><SPAN
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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align=center><SPAN
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face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
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face=Georgia> </FONT></SPAN></B><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Donald Trump tweets
that the press is “dangerous and sick” and the “true enemy of the people.” He
may be right if Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Gloria” – </SPAN><FONT
color=#222222><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">a</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "> 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist currently on stage
at Cleveland Public Theatre – is </SPAN></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">any
indication.</SPAN></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"></SPAN></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN>The
play is primarily set in the toxic Manhattan offices of a trendy national
</SPAN><SPAN><FONT color=#333333>magazine and revolves around a group of
</FONT>ruthlessly ambitious, thoroughly self-absorbed, and genuinely despicable
20-something editorial assistants (</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#222222>Michael Prosen, Sarah Maria Yannie and Evangeline Zhiyi Han).<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">These miserable
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333>cubicle dwellers
</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">are abusive to and
threatened by an ambivalent intern </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#222222>(Isaiah Betts), easily dismiss the clinically depressed
37-year-old chief fact-checker (Keith Kornajcik), and take their brutal passive
aggressiveness out on an unassuming and awkward colleague named Gloria (Sally
Groth), a </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#333333>longtime copy editor</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#222222>.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They seem to hate
everything, including each other.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#222222 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN><FONT
color=#222222>The </FONT>humor is typical Jacobs-Jenkins:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>dark like “An Octoroon,” cruel and
acidic like “Appropriate” and, at times, terribly funny like “Neighbors” and so
many others.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And like these plays,
there is much more than meets the eye in terms of insightful and biting social
commentary. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here, the playwright
addresses the loss of identity and human connection in this era of social media,
the death of print media – figuratively and literally (warning: this play
contains gunshots and graphic violence) – as well as the media i</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">ndustry’s parasitic
tendency to feast on and monetize human tragedy.<SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333>Sadly,
much of the humor and meaningful underpinnings are never fully realized in this
production.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#333333
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'>For
more of this article, go to </SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>