Roger Rees, Rick Elice Lead Reading of Dustin Lance Black's 8, 7/27

All Out Arts, with license from the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, is proud to announce as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival a one-night only reading of 8, a play chronicling the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter and AFER founding board member Dustin Lance Black.

8 is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by AFER to overturn Proposition 8, which stripped gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental freedom to marry.

Black, who penned the Academy Award-winning feature film MILK and the film J. EDGAR, based 8 on the actual words of the trial transcripts, first-hand observations of the courtroom drama and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families.

The reading will be onstage at The Wild Project (195 E 3rd ST) in New York's East Village at 8PM on Friday July 27th. Tickets are $35 and on sale at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/527

The cast includes Tony winners Stephen Mo Hanan and Roger Rees and Tony nominee Rick Elice. Other Broadway luminaries include Randy Graff, Michael Mastro, Destan Owens and David Turner. Familiar faces from television include Patrick Husted and Al Sapienza.

8 had its much-heralded Broadway world premiere on September 19, 2011, at the sold-out Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City. The production brought in over $1 million to support AFER's efforts to achieve full federal marriage equality.

8 had its West Coast premiere reading at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on Saturday, March 3, 2012, in Los Angeles. The West Coast premiere reading of "8" featured an all-star cast led by Golden Globe Award-winner and Academy and Emmy Award-nominee Brad Pitt as United States District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker; and Academy and Golden Globe Award-winner and Emmy Award-nominee George Clooney and Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winner Martin Sheen as Plaintiffs' lead cocounsel David Boies and Theodore B. Olson. The benefit reading was directed by AFER founding board member Rob Reiner, and raised more than $2 million for the fight to secure full federal marriage equality.

"People need to witness what happened in the Proposition 8 trial, if for no other reason than to see inequality and discrimination unequivocally rejected in a court of law where truth and facts matter," said AFER Founding Board Member Dustin Lance Black. "The goal of '8' is to show the world that marriage equality is a basic constitutional right. The facts are on our side and truth always finds the light. AFER and Broadway Impact are doing all we can to help speed that process along."

Throughout 2012, AFER and Broadway Impact are licensing "8" for free to colleges and community theatres nationwide in order to spur action, dialogue and understanding. Most productions will be followed by a talkback where cast and audience members can discuss the issues presented in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial. On Friday, Marriage Equality USA will lead the discussion. "We are thrilled to present a reading of "8" as a part of our festival of LGBT Arts and Culture," said artistic director Brian Maschka. "The play is completely in line with our mission to fight prejudice through the arts."

The story for "8" is framed by the trial's historic closing arguments in June 2010, and features the best arguments and testimony from both sides. Scenes include flashbacks to some of the more jawdropping moments of trial, such as the admission by the Proposition 8 supporters' star witness, David Blankenhorn, that "we would be more American on the day we permitted same-sex marriage than we were on the day before."

On February 7, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a landmark decision upholding the historic August 2010 ruling of the Federal District Court that found Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The Ninth Circuit concluded: "Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort."

To purchase tickets, visit http://www.freshfruitfestival.com/tickets.htm or
https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/9693295.

For information on how your local theater can produce "8," visit: www.8theplay.com.

 

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.

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