Gloria: A Life, A Great Performances Presentation

(Rochester, NY) -- 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, Great Performances – Gloria: A Life features an all-women cast playing both male and female roles. Act one focuses on Steinem’s life and path to activism, while 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. Gloria: A Life, A Great Performances Presentation airs Friday, June 26, 2020 from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

“Gloria Steinem saved my life in the early ’70s. She helped give me feminism, which became a life jacket for me to navigate through a world that didn’t like or respect women very much,” said Lahti. “I feel it’s illuminating, for young people especially, to see how someone like Gloria, who was ‘unwoke’ until she was 35 — and survived a difficult childhood with a mother who she felt didn’t matter — could become a world leader who has dedicated herself to making sure all women matter.”

Great Performances – Gloria: A Life was 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!”).

Great Performances – Gloria: A Life is part of PBS's summer “Trailblazers” initiative celebrating the centennial of the women’s vote and illuminating the stories of modern women who continue to make their voices heard to bring about change.