GLC Screening and Talk-Back: Civil War Epic “The Gray House”
What does it take to move from page to screen? As a mode of public engagement with historical topics, what are the unique opportunities and challenges of historic drama?
Thursday, February 5, 2026
6:30—9:00pm
Yale University, Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511
Screening of one full episode + additional previews of upcoming episodes | Rated TV-MA - due to language, mild nudity, smoking, sex, and violence
Talk-back: Public Historian Christy Coleman in conversation with:
Ben Vereen (Emmy nominee actor)
Ian Duff (stage and screen actor)
Lori McCreary (Gray House producer; CEO and co-founder of Morgan Freeman’s production company Revelations Entertainment)
Join the Gilder Lehrman Center for an exciting screening and talk-back featuring “The Gray House,” a Civil War epic about a network of female spies who help turn the tide of the war. The drama focuses on the true story of a group of unsung women, a Virginia socialite, her mother, a formerly enslaved sister-in-arms, and the city’s most notorious courtesan. They operate deep inside the corridors of Confederate power and transform an underground railroad into an effective underground spy network, risking life and liberty.
Produced by Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman, directed by Roland Joffe, and starring Mary-Louise Parker (The West Wing), Daisy Head (Harlots), Amethyst Davis (Kindred) and Ben Vereen (Roots), the eight-part series will stream on Prime in early 2026.
Speakers
Since 2019 Coleman has served as executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a state agency that operates two museums that explore the 17th-century confluence of American Indian, European, and African cultures and the American Revolution.
Ben Vereen is a legendary, boundary-breaking performer whose work has shaped television, film, and theater for more than five decades. His performance as Chicken George in Roots is considered one of television’s defining roles, earning major recognition and lasting cultural impact.
Ian Duff made his theatre debut in Greg Keller’s “Dutch Masters,” directed by Andre Holland. On television, he stars in Amazon Prime’s “The Gray House” and appeared as a series regular on “The Republic of Sarah,” with recurring roles in “New Amsterdam” and “We Own This City.”
Lori McCreary is the CEO of Revelations Entertainment, a production company she and actor Morgan Freeman founded in 1996 with a mission to produce entertainment that reveals truth.