A staged reading of the play celebrating its 95th year. 
Directed by Majka Kiely-Miller ’27

The great American novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder’s The Long Christmas Dinner is a moving, funny, sometimes sorrowful, and ingeniously theatrical holiday masterpiece. This event is part of a national campaign organized by the Wilder Estate.

The play also has a notable connection to Vassar: The Long Christmas Dinner was first produced on November 25, 1931, in a joint performance by the Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar Philaletheis at the Yale University theater in New Haven, Connecticut.

Nearly a century later, the Wilder Estate is inviting cultural organizations nationwide to bring The Long Christmas Dinner to their audiences as part of a national campaign celebrating the play. Participating events will benefit from the promotional support of the broader initiative.

The campaign’s flagship event will take place in New York, with a starry reading and discussion hosted by The Public Theater, the home of Hamilton, A Chorus Line, and Shakespeare in the Park. The event continues a Public Theater tradition that began in 2013, bringing actors together with artists, writers, and thinkers to read Wilder’s play and explore its themes of time, family, tradition, life, and death.

Sponsored by the Office of Advancement and the Drama Department. 

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations required: email boxoffice@vassar.edu or call (845) 437-5599.