Our first screenplay reading will be Gloryway by Jonas Collins on Friday, May 21 at 7 p.m.

All VPSI readings are open to the public and free of charge.

The reading is followed by a discussion between audience and author, which is the payoff for the playwright or screenwriter.

Come listen to a brand new play and share your reactions with the author.

Synopsis: Gloryway is the quirky story of the Howard family’s rise and fall in the home-based product distribution business, and is loosely based on the writer’s own experience growing up in an Amway family. When a well-meaning, stay-at-home mom becomes empowered by an ‘at home’ business, she embraces the motivation tapes and the spin selling necessary to move upstream in the Gloryway River of Life. She racks up sales, but fails to see the windfall profit she was led to believe would come. After uncovering the shady dealings of her upstream sponsor, she nearly drops out, but when the Gloryway founder himself invites her to be featured on stage at the national rally, she gives in to her family’s wishes and attends. In the end, she sees through the scheming founder’s trumped-up promises and uncovers the true meaning of family.

About the Author: Jonas Collins is an oral surgeon by day, actor and screenwriter whenever he can. He has studied acting, screenwriting and film-making at various places around the country, including Charlottesville, New York, and Las Vegas. He has written half-a dozen feature-length screenplays, has acted in several plays at the Hamner (most notably Peter Coy’s A Shadow of Honor and Doug Grissom’s Scratchy Glass), and is a member of HIT, the Hamner Improv Troupe. He lives in Waynesboro and practices all his arts in both Waynesboro and Charlottesville.

Click to read more about VPSI, the Virginia Playwrights & Screenwriters Initiative.