History. Her story. Our story.
This new play about Gloria Steinem and the women she has partnered with in a decades-long fight for equality is brought to life by a dynamic ensemble of performers. Fifty years after Gloria began raising her voice and championing those of others, her vision is as urgent as ever. Gloria’s belief in talking circles as a catalyst for change offers us all a path forward. The first act is Gloria’s story; the second is our own.
This production includes strong language, mature themes, and discussions of sexual harassment and domestic violence.
Written by Emily Mann
Directed by Diane Paulus
In association with the McCarter Theatre Center by special arrangement with Daryl Roth
Notable dates
Opening Night: 1/30
ASL Interpreted: 2/16 at 2PM & 2/19 at 7:30PM
Audio Described: 2/28 at 7:30PM & 2/29 at 2PM
Open Captioned: 2/20 at 7:30PM & 2/22 at 2PM
Sensory Friendly: 2/29 at 2PM
Community Engagement and Production Sponsor
Allison Johnson
Corporate Education Sponsor
Bank of America
Original Off-Broadway production produced by Daryl Roth and Directed by Diane Paulus.
Commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater by Special Arrangement with Daryl Roth.
Photos & Videos
Press Coverage
Reviews
Features
Explore
Credits
Creative Team
Writer
Emily Mann
Writer
Emily Mann
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Emily Mann is a multi-award winning playwright and director in her thirtieth and final season as Artistic Director and Resident Playwright of McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ. Plays: Having Our Say, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth; Execution of Justice; Still Life; Annulla, An Autobiography; Greensboro (A Requiem); Meshugah; Mrs. Packard; and Hoodwinked (a Primer on Radical Islamism). Adaptations: Baby Doll, Scenes from a Marriage, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, A Seagull in the Hamptons, The House of Bernarda Alba, and Antigone. Currently in development: The Pianist. Gloria: A Life opened McCarter’s season this year after a successful run in New York at The Daryl Roth Theatre. Awards: Peabody, Hull Warriner, NAACP, seven Obies, Guggenheim; Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; a Princeton University Honorary Doctorate of Arts, a Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwrights’ Award, and the Margo Jones Award, given to a “citizen-of-the-theatre who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the encouragement of the living theatre everywhere.” This past June, she was awarded the TCG Visionary Leadership Award. In November 2019, Ms. Mann was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Director
Diane Paulus
Director
Diane Paulus
(she/her) Diane Paulus is the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. A.R.T.: 1776, WILD: A Musical Becoming, Gloria: A Life, Jagged Little Pill, ExtraOrdinary, The White Card, In the Body of the World, Waitress (film available online, French-language production in Quebec summer 2024), Crossing, Finding Neverland, Witness Uganda, Pippin (Tony Award, Best Revival and Best Director), The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony Award, Best Revival; NAACP Award, Best Direction), Prometheus Bound, Death and the Powers: The Robots’ Opera, Best of Both Worlds, The Donkey Show. Other work includes Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna, Invisible Thread at Second Stage, and the Public Theater’s Tony Award-winning revival of HAIR on Broadway and London’s West End. As an opera director, her credits include The Magic Flute, the complete Monteverdi cycle, and the trio of Mozart-Da Ponte operas, as well as the upcoming Carmen (2024 Glydenbourne Festival). Paulus is Professor of the Practice of Theater in Harvard University’s English Department and Department of Theater, Dance & Media. She was selected for Boston magazine’s 2023, 2022, 2020, and 2018 lists of Boston’s most influential people, the 2014 Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and as one of Variety’s “Trailblazing Women in Entertainment for 2014.”
Scenic Designer
Amy Rubin
Scenic Designer
Amy Rubin
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Off-Broadway: Orpheus Descending, Theater for a New Audience; Lucy, Audible Theatre; Cyrano, The New Group; Octet (Drama Desk nomination), Signature Theatre, Berkeley Rep; Gloria: A Life, Daryl Roth Theatre; Miles for Mary (Lucille Lortel nomination), Playwrights Horizons; Thom Pain, based on nothing, Signature Theatre; Aging Magician, New Victory Theater; Ike at Night, Public Theater. Regional: Most Happy, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Opera: Highway 1, LA Opera; Omar, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, BLO, Spoleto Festival USA; Snowy Day, Houston Grand Opera; Blue, Michigan Opera Theatre.
Costume Designer
Jessica Jahn
Costume Designer
Jessica Jahn
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. New York: Gloria: A Life, Daryl Roth Theatre; Love, Loss and What I Wore, Westside Theatre; One Night… (world premiere), Cherry Lane; Die Mommie Die! (Lucille Lortel Award), New World Stages; Monodramas, Mosè in Egitto, New York City Opera. Regional: Once On This Island, Paper Mill Playhouse; Dead Man Walking, Washington National Opera; Norma (Dora Mavor Moore Award), Canadian Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago; Life Is a Dream (world premiere), Santa Fe Opera; Carousel, Siege of Calais, Glimmerglass Festival; Anna Bolena, Lyric Opera of Chicago; The Manchurian Candidate (world premiere), Maria Stuarda, Seattle Opera; Moby Dick, Utah Opera; West Side Story, Houston Grand Opera. International: Norma, Gran Teatre del Liceu; Don Bucefalo, Wexford Opera Festival. Upcoming: Rigoletto, La Favorite, Houston Grand Opera; Blue, Lyric Opera of Chicago. Ms. Jahn is an Adjunct Costume Design Professor with Brandeis University’s Theater Arts Department.
Lighting Designer
Jason Lyons
Lighting Designer
Jason Lyons
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Broadway: Hand to God, On the Town, Bronx Bombers, Let It Be, Bring It On, Rock of Ages, The Threepenny Opera, Barefoot in the Park, Good Vibrations. Off-Broadway: Kings, Dry Powder, Barbecue, Public Theater; Sugar in Our Wounds, MTC. Regional: Austen’s Pride, 5th Avenue Theatre; Skylight, Gloria: A Life, McCarter Theatre Center; Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Junk, Arena Stage; Familiar, Robin Hood!, Red Velvet, Old Globe. TV: “Fosse/Verdon” (final two episodes). Honors: Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design.
Co-Sound Designer
Robert Kaplowitz
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Robert has spent the last twenty-five years designing sound and composing music for theater, and has been honored with an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design and a Tony for Fela! His musical Minors premiered at the Lantern Theater in Philadelphia; he also creates installation art, runs Nine Hostage Arts in Philly, teaches at Princeton, is an ambassador for the Prague Quadrennial, and loves his family more than anything else.
Co-Sound Designer
Andrea Allmond
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Andrea is a Los Angeles-based sound designer and composer. Off-Broadway: Gloria: A Life. Tours: Something Rotten (Assistant Audio), First National. Regional: Twelfth Night, Bella: An American Tall Tale (Associate Sound Designer), The Book Club Play (Associate Sound Designer), Dallas Theater Center; As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, Public Works Dallas, Dallas Theater Center; Once (Associate Sound Designer), The Velveteen Rabbit (Assistant Designer), South Coast Rep; Ann (Associate Designer), Arena Stage; Famous, The 11:11 in West Hollywood. Education/Training: MFA, Sound Design, University of California Irvine.
Projection Designer
Elaine J. McCarthy
Projection Designer
Elaine J. McCarthy
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life, Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education. Ms. McCarthy’s background in photography, film, and architecture has led to a twenty-five-year, worldwide career as an award-winning projection designer for live performance, including theater, dance, concerts, and opera. Career highlights include: Broadway: Wicked, Spamalot, Assassins, Into the Woods, Thurgood. Off-Broadway: Notes from the Field, Frequency Hopping (Scenic and Projection Design), Distracted (Scenic and Projection Design), Embedded. Opera: Iolanta, Everest, Tristan und Isolde, Moby Dick, Cold Mountain, Mazeppa, Dead Man Walking, War and Peace. The 2018-19 theater season had her working on three new Off-Broadway collaborations, all focusing on the lives of women.
Co-Wig Designer
Carissa Thorlakson
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Carissa is a New Jersey- based wig and makeup designer. Off-Broadway: Grand Hotel, Little Rock. Regional: A Christmas Carol (2013-2019), Simpatico, The Mousetrap, All the Days, The Gods of Comedy, McCarter Theatre Center (six seasons); Old Globe; Temple University; Olney Theatre Center; University of Delaware Resident Ensemble Players; The American Repertory Ballet; NewArts group, Newtown, CT; Santa Fe Opera (wig and makeup artist); Sarasota Opera; Kennedy Center; Shakespeare Theatre Company; Signature Theatre; Round House Theatre. Carissa also creates custom medical wigs, cosplay wigs, and teaches classes in wigs and makeup.
Co-Wig Designer
Anne Ford-Coates
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Broadway: Oklahoma!, The Nap, Frozen, A Bronx Tale, On Your Feet!, Disaster!, It Shoulda Been You, On the Twentieth Century. Off-Broadway: The Wolves, Playwrights Realm, Lincoln Center; Mary Page Marlowe, Second Stage. Opera: Fellow Travelers, Prototype Festival; Silent Night, The Atlanta Opera; Guilty Mother, On Site Opera; Lost in the Stars, Candide, Glimmerglass Festival; Dead Man Walking, Appomattox, Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Washington National Opera.
Casting
Tara Rubin Casting
Casting
Tara Rubin Casting
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life, SIX, The Shape She Makes, Marie Antoinette. Broadway/National Tours: Ain’t Too Proud, King Kong, The Band’s Visit, Prince of Broadway, Indecent, Bandstand, Sunset Boulevard, Miss Saigon, Dear Evan Hansen, A Bronx Tale, Cats, Falsettos, Disaster!, School of Rock, Bullets Over Broadway, Les Misérables, Big Fish, The Phantom of the Opera, Billy Elliot, Shrek, Spamalot, …Spelling Bee, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys. Off-Broadway: Gloria: A Life; Smokey Joe’s Café; Here Lies Love; Love, Loss, and What I Wore. Regional: Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, Westport Country Playhouse, Asolo Rep.
Production Stage Manager (1/24 - 2/23)
Chris De Camillis
Production Stage Manager (1/24 - 2/23)
Chris De Camillis
A.R.T: thirty productions in fifteen years at A.R.T. as Artistic Coordinator/Resident Stage Manager. Broadway: Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Misery, It’s Only a Play, The Glass Menagerie. Off-Broadway: Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven; The Hard Problem, Pride’s Crossing, Lincoln Center; Much Ado About Nothing, NYSF/Delacorte; The Total Bent, Public Theater; Parable of the Sower, Public Theater Under the Radar Festival; Oliver Twist, TFNA. For Esch, Tommy, Jeremy, and Jan.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Production Stage Manager (2/25 - 3/1)
CJ LaRoche
Production Stage Manager (2/25 - 3/1)
CJ LaRoche
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Broadway: Side Show, The Addams Family, On the 20th Century. National Tour: Flashdance. Off-Broadway: Kings, Desperate Measures, Clueless The Musical, Little Shop of Horrors, Curvy Widow, Nevermore, The Fantasticks, The Woodsman, Himself And Nora, Stalking The Bogeyman, Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, Old Jews Telling Jokes, Ring Twice For Miranda, Laugh it Up, Stare it Down, Three on a Couch, Phallacy, Building the Wall.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Cast
Ensemble
Gabrielle Beckford
Ensemble
Gabrielle Beckford
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Regional: Gloria: A Life, McCarter Theatre Center; Crowns (Yolanda, fifteen-year anniversary production), McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf; Nina Simone: Four Women, A Play with Music, Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Hair, Geva Theatre Center; All Shook Up, Laguna Beach Playhouse; Aida, Hairspray, Big River, Sister Act, Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts. Education/Training: BFA, Musical Theatre, Rider University.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Ensemble (2/18 - 3/1)
Emily Borromeo
Ensemble (2/18 - 3/1)
Emily Borromeo
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Broadway & National Tour: School of Rock. Off-Broadway: Broadway Bounty Hunter (Joe Iconis). TV: Host of “Sunny Side Up,” a preschool series (Emmy nomination), Sprout/NBCUniversal; “Tell Me a Story,” CBS; “Sneaky Pete,” Amazon; “The Jim Gaffigan Show”; “The Sing-Off,” NBC. Education/Training: Brown University. Emily is thrilled to join this group of powerful artists and to continue working towards equality, understanding, and dignity for all people.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Swing
Rachel Cognata
Swing
Rachel Cognata
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life; Hype Man: a break beat play, Greater Good, Company One Theatre. Regional: Really, Hype Man (Elliot Norton Award), Company One Theatre; Cardboard Piano, New Repertory Theatre; The Book Club Play, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Ensemble
Joanna Glushak
Ensemble
Joanna Glushak
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Broadway: leading roles in War Paint, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Sunday in the Park with George, Les Misérables, Hairspray, The Sweet Smell of Success, Urinetown, Rags, Conversations with My Father, Welcome to the Club, After the Night and the Music. Tour: Finding Neverland, First National. Off-Broadway: Gloria: A Life, Daryl Roth Theatre. TV: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Younger.” Education/Training: Yale School of Drama. JoannaGlushak.com
Actors’ Equity Association member
Gloria Steinem
Patricia Kalember
Gloria Steinem
Patricia Kalember
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life; The White Card, ArtsEmerson. Broadway: Don’t Dress for Dinner, Losing Louie, The Nerd. Off-Broadway: Gloria: A Life, Daryl Roth Theatre; Y2K; From Above; Search and Destroy; The Foreigner (Original Cast). Regional: Westport Playhouse, Bay Street Theater, Baltimore Center Stage. Film/TV: Limitless, Girl Most Likely, Company Men, Signs, Jacob’s Ladder, “Thirtysomething,” “Sisters,” “Olive Kitteridge,” “Power,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Madam Secretary,” “The Tick.”
Actors’ Equity Association member
Ensemble
Patrena Murray
Ensemble
Patrena Murray
(she/her) A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3). Other credits: Lemon Girls, La MaMa; Gloria: A Life, McCarter Theatre Center, Daryl Roth Theater; Men on Boats, Baltimore Center Stage; The Oresteia, Shakespeare Theatre Company; Masculinity Max, The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Public Theater; Venus, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Signature Theatre; Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1,2 & 3), Mark Taper Forum. Film/TV: “New Amsterdam,” Daddy, ” The Sopranos,” “Law & Order.”
Actors’ Equity Association member
Ensemble
Erika Stone
Ensemble
Erika Stone
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Regional: Gloria: A Life, McCarter Theatre Center; Off the Rails (Isabel, staged reading), The Further Adventures of Super Indian, Cherry Orchard and Commodity Cheese, Native Voices at the Autry (Ensemble Member); William, Inc., Whale Song, Perseverance Theatre; Our Voices Will Be Heard, Perseverance Theatre, AFN Fairbanks. Film/TV: “Lucky Louie,” Spring Breakdown. Education/Training: BA, Boston University.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Ensemble
Brenda Withers
Ensemble
Brenda Withers
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Brenda is a writer, actor, and co-founder of the Harbor Stage Company on Cape Cod. Regional (Acting): Gloria: A Life, Crimes of the Heart, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, McCarter Theatre Center; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Hartford Stage; Geva Theatre Center; Hudson Stage Company. Playwriting: Portland Stage, Performance Space New York, Amphibian Stage, Two River Theater, Northern Stage. Brenda is a member of The Pool and a recent playwriting fellow at Huntington Theatre Company. Education/Training: Dartmouth College.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Ensemble (1/24 - 2/16)
Eunice Wong
Ensemble (1/24 - 2/16)
Eunice Wong
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life. Off-Broadway: Trial of the Catonsville 9, Transport Group; Faust, Classic Stage Company; Mourning Becomes Electra, Target Margin; Antigone, The House of Bernarda Alba, NAATCO. Regional: Gloria: A Life, McCarter Theatre Center; Smart People, Huntington Theatre Company; Studio Theatre; Atlantic; Guthrie Theater; Yale Rep; Cincinnati Playhouse. Honors: Helen Hayes Award (Lead Actress); IRNE nomination (Best Ensemble); LA Press Club Journalism Award. Writing: Chief Editor, Countering Violence Against Women (Truthdig); Writer, “What the Health.” TV: “Law & Order.” Education/Training: The Juilliard School.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Assistant Stage Manager (2/18 - 3/1)
Jakob W. Plummer
Assistant Stage Manager (2/18 - 3/1)
Jakob W. Plummer
A.R.T.: Gloria: A Life, Borrowed Cash. Broadway: Oslo (Tony Award for Best Play), Sunday in the Park with George, A View From the Bridge (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play), The Crucible, Pretty Woman. Off-Broadway: one in two. Regional: The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Juilliard, Weston Playhouse, Merrimack Repertory, Playhouse Square, Cain Park. Other: The GRAMMY Awards, The US Open, TEDTalks, The Actors’ Fund, Heartbeat Opera, The World Science Festival. Core member of Fair Wage Onstage.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Assistant Stage Manager (1/24 - 2/16)
Carolyn Reich
Assistant Stage Manager (1/24 - 2/16)
Carolyn Reich
A.R.T.: Gloira: A Life. New York: Gloria: A Life, Daryl Roth Theatre; The Play That Goes Wrong, New World Stages; Original Sound, Cherry Lane. National Tours: Frozen, Disney Theatricals; How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Big League; The Bodyguard, Troika; The Bridges of Madison County, NETworks. Regional: Ragtime, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival; Murder on the Orient Express, Hartford Stage; Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, Trinity Rep; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, McCarter Theatre Center. Education/Training: University of Michigan.
Actors’ Equity Association member
Additional Staff
Assistant Director
Rebecca Aparicio
Assistant Director
Rebecca Aparicio
(she/ella) A.R.T.: Jack and The Beanstalk (Director), Gloria: A Life (Assistant Director), Endlings (Assistant Director). Rebecca Aparicio is a New York-based bilingual director and writer. Recent: Karen Zacarias’ Jardin Salvaje, GALA Hispanic Theatre (world premiere adaptation, Helen Hayes recommended), Beastgirl (based on the chapbook by Elizabeth Acevedo, book by C. Quintana and music by Janelle Lawrence), Kennedy Center (world premiere, Helen Hayes nominated); Caridad Svich’s The House on the Lagoon, GALA Hispanic Theatre (world premiere; Best Direction, DC Broadway World), Maria Irene Fornes’ Sarita, Roundabout Refocus Series. Rebecca is a member of the Latinx Playwrights Circle, Latinx Theatre Commons, Board Member of The Flea Theatre, and a founding member of Magic Forest Theatre, dedicated to creating new musicals for young audiences. RebeccaAparicio.com.
Associate Costume Designer
Sophie Schneider
Gloria Wig
Gabriella Vincent
Lighting Design Intern
Zach Sager
Additional Sound Equipment
PRG
Associate Projection Designer
Maxwell Bowman
Projection Programmer
Christine Franzen
Original Projection Programmer
Paul Vershbow
Voice and Text
Erika Bailey
Voice and Text
Erika Bailey
A.R.T.: Gatsby; Becoming a Man; Life of Pi; 1776; WILD: A Musical Becoming; Jack and the Beanstalk; Gloria: A Life; Moby-Dick; We Live in Cairo; Endlings; Othello; ExtraOrdinary; The Black Clown; Jagged Little Pill; WARHOLCAPOTE; Burn All Night; The Night of the Iguana; Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women; Fingersmith; In the Body of the World; Waitress; O.P.C. Broadway: Mary Stuart. Regional: Vanity Fair, Central Square Theater; New Electric Ballroom, Gloucester Stage Company; Arms and the Man, Guthrie Theatre; The Foreigner, Cabaret, To Kill a Mockingbird, Kansas City Repertory Theatre. As Head of Voice and Speech at A.R.T., Erika also teaches in the Theater, Dance & Media concentration at Harvard as well as coaching public speaking skills across the university. Education: MA, Voice Studies, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; MFA, Acting, Brandeis University.
Rehearsal Intern
Devonne Pitts
Harvard University Arts and Museum Fellow, supported by the Harvard University Office of Career Services
Rehearsal Intern
Rachel Resheff
Harvard University Arts and Museum Fellow, supported by the Harvard University Office of Career Services
Additional A.R.T. Staff for Gloria: A Life
Scenic Carpenters: Dan Baker, Justin Cagle, Aaron Cohen, Dean Covert, Thomas Eckenfels, Michael Greene, Victor Gutierrez, Sam O’Brien, Patrick Phillips, Wesley Scanlon, Jake Seibert
Overhire Electricians: Carmen Alfaro, Kevin Barnett, Michaela Bocchino, Matt Cost, Mark Fortunado, Greg Hanawalt, Laura Hildebrand, Rebecca O’Leary, Zachary Straeffer, Brittany Trymbulak,
Sound Overhire: Elizabeth Cahill, Jessica Hawkins, Marta Levin, Jacob Montgomery, Josh Northcutt, Bekah Rudinec, Adelaide Zhang
Stage Crew Bernadette Benoit, Caitlyn Buja, Rachel Corning, Joseph-Jude Deauna-Torres, Russell Feinstein, Dan Fountain, Doug Hallenbrook
Videographer: Johnathan Carr
Photographers: Maria Baranova, Gretjen Helene
ASL Coach: Stephanie Hakulin
ASL Interpreters: Júlia Barnes, Jennifer Gibbons, Christopher Robinson
Audio Describers: Jessica Shroder (primary), Janet Stankus (secondary)
Captioning: C2 Captioning
Special Thanks
Kathy Najimy, Amy Richards
Gloria: A Life rehearsed at New 42nd Street Studios.