Photo Flash: Inside the Benefit Reading of THE DESTINY OF ME Featuring Mark Ruffalo, Lee Pace, and More

On Monday, June 25, Ellen Barkin, Eric Bogosian, Edie Falco, Gideon Glick, Josh Hamilton, Lee Pace and Mark Ruffalo appeared in a one-night-only reading of Larry Kramer's The Destiny of Me, to benefit The New Group. Trip Cullman directed with an introduction by Tony Kushner. Check out photos from the event below!

The New Group gratefully acknowledges Ryan Murphy for this presentation of The Destiny of Me.

The Destiny of Me, Larry Kramer's companion play to the 1985 classic The Normal Heart, follows Ned Weeks as he checks into a hospital to undergo an experimental treatment for AIDS. As he undergoes treatment, Ned reexamines his life as a young gay man growing up in a household and a world reluctant to accept who he is. The reading, arriving timed to NYC Pride, coincides with Larry Kramer's birthday. Please join us on June 25 for this very special one-night-only event.

Directed by Trip Cullman, this benefit reading featured Ellen Barkin (Rena Weeks), Eric Bogosian (Richard Weeks), Gideon Glick (Alexander Weeks), Josh Hamilton (Dr. Thomas Hamilton), Lee Pace (Benjamin Weeks) and Mark Ruffalo (Ned Weeks), with Stage Directions read by Edie Falco.

Larry Kramer (Playwright): After graduating from Yale he worked in the film industry, eventually writing and producing the Oscar film adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love. With the sudden arrival of hiv/AIDS in 1981, he with five friends founded Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the first service organization for the sufferers of this plague. In 1987 he founded ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, which fought into being the treatments that now keep us alive. His writings include the novel Faggots, the plays The Normal Heart, The Destiny of Me and Just Say No, and his political writings, Reports from the holocaust and The Tragedy of Today's Gays. Ryan Murphy directed the film of The Normal Heart. His many awards include an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Yale. His attempt to establish a program for the study of gay history at Yale remains a failure. Farrar Straus and Giroux published volume one of The American People, his history of homosexuality and is readying volume two. He and his husband architect/interior designer David Webster live in New York and Connecticut.

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP has generously provided lead sponsor support for The Destiny of Me.

The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Adam Bernstein, Executive Director) is an award-winning, artist-driven company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater. The company's upcoming 2018-2019 Season features four world premiere productions: Sharr White's The True, directed by Scott Elliott, with Edie Falco, Michael McKean and Peter Scolari (Fall 2018); Clueless, The Musical, by Amy Heckerling, with choreography by Kelly Devine, directed by Kristin Hanggi (Fall 2018); Jeremy O. Harris' "Daddy," a co-production with Vineyard Theatre, directed by Danya Taymor, featuring Alan Cumming (Winter 2019); and Jesse Eisenberg's Yea, Sister!, directed by Scott Elliott (Winter 2019). For more, please visit www.TheNewGroup.org.

Photo Credit: Erik Carter/courtesy of The New Group