The reading will follow a big-screen showing of the Vice Presidential debate between Joseph Biden and Sarah Palin. The evening, to be hosted by Katrina vanden Heuvel, will benefit The Nation magazine and will include a post-reading reception.

The play follows the life of Helen Gahagan Douglas, who went from being a successful stage actress and wife of actor Melvyn Douglas to an established liberal Congresswoman, and whose political career ended when she ran for the U.S. Senate in 1950 opposite Richard Nixon, who accused her of being a Communist.