TAKE ME OUT To Host Post-Show Talk Back With Cast Members, Billy Bean, and Sports Journalists

The Tony-nominated Best Revival, Take Me Out, will host a special post-show talkback on Tuesday, May 17 featuring members of the cast; Billy Bean, one of only two Major League Baseball players to come out as gay; as well as sports journalists Howard Bryant and Kat O'Brien. The panel, moderated by Ken Davidoff, will explore themes of the play, real world experiences, and what has --or hasn't -- changed since the premiere production in 2002. All ticket holders for that evening's performance are welcome to stay for the free discussion.

Second Stage Theater's (Carole Rothman, President and Artistic Director; Khady Kamara, Executive Director) production of Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out, directed by Scott Ellis, has been nominated for four Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Play and Best Featured Actor in a Play for Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Michael Oberholtzer, and Jesse Williams. Take Me Out opened to rave reviews on April 4th at Second Stage's Hayes Theater (240 West 44th Street) and has been extended through Saturday, June 11th.

TAKE ME OUT features Patrick J. Adams, Julian Cihi, Hiram Delgado, Brandon J. Dirden, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Carl Lundstedt, Ken Marks, Michael Oberholtzer, Eduardo Ramos, Tyler Lansing Weaks, and Jesse Williams.

In the Tony Award®-winning Take Me Out, playwright Richard Greenberg celebrates the personal and professional intricacies of America's favorite pastime. When Darren Lemming (Jesse Williams), the star center fielder for the Empires, comes out of the closet, the reception off the field reveals a barrage of long-held unspoken prejudices. Facing some hostile teammates and fraught friendships, Darren is forced to contend with the challenges of being a gay person of color within the confines of a classic American institution. As the Empires struggle to rally toward a championship season, the players and their fans begin to question tradition, their loyalties, and the price of victory.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Billy Bean is one of only two Major League Baseball players to come out as gay. For 6 years, he played for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres. As a closeted gay man in the brutally anti-gay world of baseball, Bean faced a wrenching choice between his love of the game and the love of his life. Ultimately unable to reconcile the two worlds he lived in, he walked away from pro baseball in the prime of his career.

When Bean came out in 1999, his story found nationwide media coverage, including on the Sunday cover of The New York Times and on CNN. On December 8, 1999, he was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on the nationally televised TV program 20/20. His memoir, Going the Other Way, originally published in 2003, became a national bestseller.

On July 15, 2014, Major League Baseball announced the appointment of Billy as MLB's first Ambassador for Inclusion, a role which puts him at the fore of the League's efforts for a fair and equitable workplace throughout all of baseball. Billy currently serves at MLB as Vice President & Special Assistant to the Commissioner overseeing multiple player education initiatives.

HOWARD BRYANT is the author of nine books, Full Dissidence: Notes From an Uneven Playing Field, The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America and the Politics of Patriotism, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, the three-book Legends sports series for middle-grade readers, and Sisters and Champions: The True Story of Venus and Serena Williams, and contributed to 16 others.

He covered three sports beats: the Oakland A's for the San Jose Mercury News (1998-2000), the New York Yankees for The Record (2001-2002), and the Washington Redskins (2005-2007). He was a columnist for the Boston Herald (2002-2005), has been a senior writer for ESPN since 2007 and the sports correspondent for NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon since 2006.

He has also consulted on several documentaries, including The Tenth Inning, Jackie Robinson, Hemingway, and Muhammad Ali, all by Ken Burns, and Lynn Novick's College Behind Bars.

KEN DAVIDOFF covered Major League Baseball from 1995 until March 2022, most recently with The New York Post (2012-2022), for whom he served as a baseball columnist. He also wrote for Newsday (2001-2012) and The Bergen Record (1994-2001). He still can be seen talking about the Yankees on the WPIX (Channel 11) weekly show about the sport's most famous team and has made appearances everywhere from ESPN to CNN to Fox News to the MLB Network and many more.

Ken served as the president of the Baseball Writers Association of America from 2010 to 2011, participating in the Baseball Hall of Fame's annual induction ceremony, and chaired the BBWAA's New York chapter from 2002 to 2004.

KAT O'BRIEN is a former Major League Baseball reporter who covered the Yankees for Newsday and the Texas Rangers for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. After leaving sports-writing, she worked for Real Madrid and ESPN Deportes. She currently works at Mastercard. Kat is an Iowa native turned New Yorker and West Village resident and she also loves visiting Spain.