The Long Christmas Dinner | November 10th

NOVEMBER 10th | ONE NIGHT ONLY AT SYMPHONY SPACE

On Monday November 10, AWARD-WINNING ACTORS Becky Ann Baker, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jim Parsons and Roslyn Ruff will be joined by award–winning playwrights James Ijames and Sarah Ruhl, cultural commentator Chris Hayes, Author JacQUELINE WOoDSON and Wilder’s nephew Tappan Wilder for a special evening at New York’s Symphony Space, hosted by literary executor Jeremy McCarter.

Two New York institutions -- the Public Theater and Symphony Space -- are coming together to present a one-night-only reading and discussion of The Long Christmas Dinner. The incredible cast will include great actors (Becky Ann Baker, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jim Parsons and Roslyn Ruff), great writers (James Ijames, Sarah Ruhl and Jacqueline Woodson), a perceptive observer of our world (Chris Hayes) and our very own Tappan Wilder. Literary Executor Jeremy McCarter will host.  

Together, this cast will present a staged reading of The Long Christmas Dinner, Wilder’s one-act masterpiece that compresses 90 years of a family’s history into the span of a single holiday meal.

The event celebrates the publication of Our Town and the Cosmic One-Acts, a landmark new collection of Wilder’s short plays. After the reading, the cast will remain on stage for a conversation exploring the play’s enduring themes—time, family, tradition, and how we tell our stories in new ways.

Our Town & the Cosmic One Acts, published by HarperCollins on November 4th, will include Wilder’s three early masterpieces, Pullman Car Hiawatha, The Long Christmas Dinner, and The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, together with Our Town.  We think it will give readers a new way to appreciate Thornton Wilder's innovative, boundary-breaking genius. It also features a beautiful forward by our friend and award-winning playwright, Sarah Ruhl.