Premieres Friday, June 26 at 9 p.m.

Great Performances presents the intimate theatrical production Gloria: A Life about Gloria Steinem, one of the most inspiring women of the feminist movement, premiering nationwide on Friday, June 26 at 9 p.m. on Southern Oregon PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS Video app.

Fifty years after Gloria Steinem began advocating for women’s equality and championing the equality rights of others, her vision remains highly relevant. Starring Academy, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Christine Lahti (“Evil,” “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” “Chicago Hope”) as Steinem, the play features an all-women cast playing both male and female roles. Act one focuses on Steinem’s life and path to activism. Act two consists of a “talking circle” with the audience to discuss the play’s themes, moderated by Gloria Steinem herself. This unique theatrical format offers a forum for Steinem’s philosophy on the necessity of conversation as a catalyst for change. The New York Times theater critic Jesse Green described the experience as “powerful” and “a kind of place whereyou’d like to curl up to share stories, and in sharing them, amplify them…. The hope seems contagious.”

Great Performances – Gloria: A Life is written by Tony Award nominee Emily Mann (Best Direction of a Play, “Having Our Say”), directed for the stage by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Best Direction of a Musical, “Pippin”) and produced by Pulitzer Prize- and 10-time Tony-winning producer Daryl Roth (“Angels in America,” “Hello, Dolly!”).

Notable Talent

• Christine Lahti, stars as Gloria Steinem, Academy Award-winning director of short film “Lieberman in Love,” Oscar nominated for her role in “Swing Shift,” two-time Golden Globe winner for her roles in “No Place Like Home” and “Chicago Hope,” Emmy Award-winning actor for her role in “Chicago Hope,” actor in Broadway’s “Present Laughter” and “God of Carnage”
• Diane Paulus, stage director of “Gloria: A Life,”Tony Award-winning director of the 2013 revival of “Pippin,” Tony nominated for her direction of the 2009 revival of “Hair,” director of Broadway’s “Waitress”
• Emily Mann, playwright, artistic director and longtime resident playwright of the McCarter Theatre Center, Tony Award winner for Outstanding Regional Theater and inductee to the American Theater Hall Fame
• Daryl Roth, producer of “Gloria: A Life,” 10-time Tony-winning producer of numerous plays and musicals including “Angels in America,” “Kinky Boots,” “Hello, Dolly!” and more
• David Horn, television director of “Gloria: A Life,” executive producer of Great Performances

Noteworthy Facts

• “Gloria: A Life” originally ran October 1, 2018-March 31, 2019 at the Daryl Roth Theater in New York City.
• Great Performances – Gloria: A Life is staged in-the-round to heighten the intimacy and personal connection between the actors and audience.
• March 31, 2019 was declared Gloria Steinem Day by the New York City Mayor’s Office.