Summary
NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), in partnership with Broadway Impact, announce additional casting and roles for the highly anticipated one-night only staged reading of "8," a new play chronicling the historic trial in the federal legal challenge to California's Proposition 8. The play is written by AFER Founding Board Member and Academy Award-winning writer Dustin Lance Black and will be directed by two-time Tony Award-winning actor and director Joe Mantello.
Academy, Tony and four-time Emmy Award nominee Bob Balaban; acclaimed "White Collar" television star Matt Bomer; Emmy Award- winning journalist Campbell Brown; celebrated playwright and gay rights activist Larry Kramer; two-time Academy Award-nominated, multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning, two-time Tony Award- winning actor John Lithgow; Tony Award nominee and Broadway Impact Co-Founder Rory O'Malley; and Emmy Award winner and three-time Golden Globe Award nominee Bradley Whitford will appear in the world premiere of "8" on Broadway, joining the previously announced Anthony Edwards, Morgan Freeman, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei. The production 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 eliminated the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples in California.See the full content of this document
Extract
September 19, 2011
Black, who penned the Academy Award-winning feature film Milk, 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 new play will have its world premiere on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City on Monday, September 19, 2011 for an exclusive, one-night only fundraiser to benefit AFER. Additional casting for the all-star benefit will be announced soon.
"The fight for marriage equality is not an abstract battle," said Chad Griffin, AFER Board President. "It's a fight for the rights of real people, many of them our friends and our neighbors -- and all of them our fellow Americans. With this play we are pulling back the curtain on discrimination and bigotry by showing the American public the prejudiced and absurd arguments being made by those defending measures like Proposition 8. The dark walls of discrimination are crumbling, and this play and the trial it is based on show why and how."Bob Balaban will play US District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled over a year ago in California that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional. Morgan Freeman and John Lithgow will play David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, the two attorneys appointed by AFER to lead the case filed to overturn Prop. 8. Bradley Whitford will play Charles C...See the full content of this document
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