This week on L.A. Theatre Works, last year’s adaptation of Dustin Lance Black’s 8 is featured, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, John C. Reilly, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jane Lynch.

About the play (from Amazon.com):

George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Martin Sheen lead an all-star cast in a powerful portrait of an American civil rights struggle, written by Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J. Edgar) and directed by Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men).

In November 2008, California’s Proposition 8 stripped the freedom to marry away from gay and lesbian couples. Now, two of the nation’s most renowned attorneys, under the auspices of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, have joined forces to challenge Proposition 8 under the United States Constitution. “8” faithfully recreates the progression of the historic 2010 federal trial through original court transcripts and interviews conducted with the plaintiffs, as their stories are brought to life before a live audience.

About the writer:

Dustin Lance Black (born June 10, 1974) is an American screenwriter, director, film and television producer, and LGBT rights activist. He has won two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the television series Big Love and an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk.

Black is a Founding Board Member of the American Foundation for Equal Rightsand writer of 8, a staged reenactment of the federal trial that led to an appellate court’s overturn of California’s Proposition 8.


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