Paul Rudnick, Larry Kramer & Bill C. Davis To Appear At 'The TEMPERMENTALS' Talkback 8/3

Tonight, Monday August 3rd the hit show "The Temperamentals" by Jon Marans begins Militant Mondays, a series of talk backs following the performance. Paul Rudnick will join fellow playwrights Larry Kramer, Bill C Davis & Jon Marans. It will be moderated by Jonathan Silverstein. "The Temperamentals" is Off Broadway at the TBG Theater, 312 West 36 Street 3rd Floor, NYC.

MANunderdog and Daryl Roth are presenting the new American play. Thomas Jay Ryan plays Harry Hay and Michael Urie (TV's "Ugly Betty") is Rudi Gernreich, with Tom Beckett, Matthew Schneck, and Sam Breslin Wright completing the cast. The acclaimed play is directed by Jonathan Silverstein. 2hrs & 15 mins Including intermission.

Larry Kramer is a playwright, author, public health advocate and LGBT rights activist. He wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award nominated Women in Love. His controversial novel Faggots, earned him denunciations from the gay community for his portrayal of shallow, promiscuous gay relationships in the 1970s; and became one of the best-selling novels about gay life. Witnessing the spread of the disease that became known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), he co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which has become the worlds largest private organization to assist people living with AIDS. Not content with the social services GMHC provided, Kramer expressed his frustration by writing the hit play "The Normal Heart." His activism extended to the founding of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), that was a direct action protest organization widely credited with having changed public health policy and public perception of people living with AIDS (PWAs) as well as awareness of HIV and AIDS diseases. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his play "The Destiny of Me," and has been a two-time recipient of the Obie Award. Bill C. Davis is the author of "Mass Appeal," about a young firebrand priest trying to shake up the church. It premiered at The Manhattan Theatre Club and then moved to Broadway starring Milo O'Shea and Eric Roberts. It subsequently has played around the world. Mr. Davis adapted the play as a screenplay that starred Jack Lemmon and Charles Durning and was chosen one of the ten best films for that year by The National Board of Review. Other plays include, "Dancing in the End-Zone," directed by Jose Ferrer and starred Elaine Stritch and later moved to Broadway starring Pat Carroll. His play, "Wrestlers," had its premiere in Los Angeles, with Mr. Davis acting in it opposite Mark Harmon. Other produced plays are "Spine", and "Avow." Bill C. also writes political essays for the online magazine Commondreams.org.

"The Temperamentals" tells the story of two men - the communist Harry Hay and the Viennese refugee and designer Rudi Gernreich - as they fall in love while building the first gay rights organization in the United States pre Stonewall. The play weaves together the personal and political to tell a relatively unknown chapter in gay history. It explores the love between two complex men, as their impossible dream of forming such an unheard of organization becomes a reality in this perilous, unpredictable world. It is an intimate portrayal of the men who created history and the epic struggles they overcame. The characters consist of the actual men who founded the Mattachine Society (Harry Hay, Rudi Gernreich, Chuck Rowland, Bob Hull, and Dale Jennings), as well as other prominent figures of the time.

Shows are: Friday-Tuesday 8pm & matinees Saturday & Sunday 3pm through August 23rd. Tickets are $50 through Smarttix: online at www.smarttix.com or by phone at (212) 868-4444.

For more information, visit www.thetemperamentals.com.

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