THE PLAYGROUND THEATRE & Emily Mann present
GLORIA: A Life
23 MAR | 4PM
Written and Directed by Emily Mann
With Stockard Channing as Gloria
Five decades after Gloria Steinem began raising her voice for equality and championing the voices of others, she remains a leader of the American feminist movement. Emily Mann's new play traces the progress of Steinem's extraordinary life, from her undercover Playboy Bunny expose in the 1960s, through her founding of Ms. Magazine in the 1970s, to her activism in today's women's movement.
"In many ways Gloria: A Life, a play about a movement, became a movement. For mil lennia, human beings have been sitting around campfires, telling and listening to each other's stories.... Only being together with all five senses allows us to empathize, to understand, and to act. This is the magic of both a movement and a play. Like a pebble tossed into a pond, the ripples keep changing lives."
-GLORIA STEINEM, FROM HER FOREWORD
BOOKING INFORMATION
Duration: 90 min
Interval: 15 min
Content Warnings:
Accessibility: n/a
Recommended for 15+
Tickets (Unreserved)
General Admission £25
Senior Concession £20
Unemployed | Under 30 | Student £15
Access for All £20 (reserved)
Access for All Note: Please contact boxoffice@theplaygroundtheatre.org.uk for your complementary ticket for a career/companion/friend
This event is part of the Women's Voices Festival. Festival passes are available to see all events.
"Gloria: A Life doesn't dwell on Steinem's romantic life ... The meaningful connections here are the ones Steinem made with women. This show is in no danger of getting old anytime soon."
-ELISABETH VINCENTELLI, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"Emily Mann's well-crafted play encourages cathartic engagement ...The show's real power comes in Steinem's ability to give voice to the deep-seated feelings of powerlessness and frustration and exploitation that many women feel and to channel those feelings into meaningful action."
-THOM GEIER, WRAP
"Gloria: A Life is a unique, deeply moving performance created in the hopeful, conversational spirit of its extraordinary subject."
-SARA HOLDREN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE'S VULTURE
"One part theatre, one part consciousness-raising group therapy session, Gloria:
A Life offers an experience that promises to be a more intimate recollection of Steinem's journey, not only because it's been singularly shaped by the hands of women."
- NOOR BRARA, VOGUE
Emily Mann is a Tony nominated director and playwright and a Tony winning Artistic Director. In her 30 years as Artistic Director and Resident Playwright at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey, she wrote 15 new plays and adaptations, directed over 50 productions, produced 180 plays and musicals, and supported and directed the work of emerging and legendary playwrights including Ntozake Shange, Athol Fugard, Edward Albee, Christopher Durang, Nilo Cruz, Joyce Carol Oates, Tarell Alvin McCraney and Danai Gurira and is known for her productions of Williams, Lorca, Chekhov, and Shakespeare .
On Broadway, she directed her own plays Execution of Justice and Having Our Say, Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics and A Streetcar Named Desire. Her other plays include: Still Life; Annulla, An Autobiography; Greensboro (A Requiem); Meshugah; Mrs. Packard; Gloria: A Life which aired on PBS’ Great Performances. and The Pianist, a play with music. Her adaptations include: Baby Doll, Scenes from a Marriage, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, A Seagull in the Hamptons, The House of Bernarda Alba, and Antigone. She recently premiered On Cedar Street, a new musical co-written with Lucy Simon, Carmel Dean and Susan Birkenhead. Awards include: Peabody, Guggenheim, Hull Warriner, NAACP, 6 Obies; Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, WGA nominations; Princeton University Honorary Doctorate of Arts; Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwrights' Award; Margo Jones Award; TCG Visionary Leadership Award; The Lilly Award, and Gordon Davidson Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater. She has recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Dramatists Guild in Playwriting. She has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Theater Hall of Fame. Her new play, Code Red, is in development for 2025/26.
Jane Bertish
Theatre includes: plays at The Royal Court including Seven Lears and The Last Supper, Golgo, Phaedra with Glenda Jackson, Conversations With My Father with Judd Hirsch at The Old Vic, Tales From Vienna Woods at The Royal National Theatre, A Round Heeled Woman with Sharon Gless at The Aldwich Theatre, Nicholas Nickleby in the West End and Chichester, The Syndicate with Ian McKellen at Chichester, The House Of Bernada Alba with Shoreh Aghdashloo at The Almeida in a translation by Emily Mann. Film includes, Dance With A Stranger, Paperhouse, Three, The Roman Spring Of Mrs Stone, tv includes, Dinner With The Parents, Ted Lasso, This Sceptered Isle, Midsummer Murders, Emerald City, Black Mirror, You, Me And The Apocolypse, Sword Of Honour, All best Jane Sent from my iPad