Thursday, 29 September 2011
Monday, 26 September 2011
An article from Greg in Hollywood
[Source]
Congratulations to “Firefly” and “Playboy Club” cast member Sean Maher who is now an openly gay actor
By Greg Hernandez on Sep 26, 2011 6:37 pm
As a gay blogger, this is the kind of post that makes all the effort worth it.
Actor Sean Maher, currently starring on NBC’s The Playboy Club as a closeted gay man, has come out publicly as a gay man in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“I’ve never discussed it publicly,” the 36-year-old told EW during an exclusive interview at a restaurant in his Los Feliz neighborhood. “I’ve never been asked about it publicly, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t paint a different picture. … It was so exhausting, and I was so miserable. I didn’t really have any life other than work and this façade I was putting on. So I kept my friends from college [where he was out] separate from my work friends, and that was very confusing. I just kept going on and on painting this picture of somebody I wasn’t. I didn’t have time for a personal relationship anyway. And you just don’t realize that it’s eating away at your soul.””
Sean is best known for his role on the series Firefly but his handsome looks got him a lot of attention when he starred in Fox’s short-lived cop drama Ryan Caulfield: Year One. (pictured, left).
You’ve got to figure Sean was encouraged to see someone like Neil Patrick Harris absolutely thrive as an openly gay performer. He joins the ranks of NPH, Luke Macfarlane, T.R. Knight and others who decided to come out while starring on a network television show.
I hope he becomes a bigger star than ever so that some of the other well-known actors out there, who are also gay, will be encouraged to also come out.
Sean and his partner, Paul, have been together for nearly nine years and have two children: Sophia Rose, 4, and Liam Xavier, 14 months.
So does Maher regret spending 14 years in the closet professionally?
“I don’t think I have regrets,” he said. “I do believe that sort of this journey took me to the place where I got and I don’t think I would feel so strongly about doing what I’m doing now had I not suffered for the years that I did.”
Congratulations to “Firefly” and “Playboy Club” cast member Sean Maher who is now an openly gay actor
By Greg Hernandez on Sep 26, 2011 6:37 pm
Actor Sean Maher, currently starring on NBC’s The Playboy Club as a closeted gay man, has come out publicly as a gay man in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“I’ve never discussed it publicly,” the 36-year-old told EW during an exclusive interview at a restaurant in his Los Feliz neighborhood. “I’ve never been asked about it publicly, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t paint a different picture. … It was so exhausting, and I was so miserable. I didn’t really have any life other than work and this façade I was putting on. So I kept my friends from college [where he was out] separate from my work friends, and that was very confusing. I just kept going on and on painting this picture of somebody I wasn’t. I didn’t have time for a personal relationship anyway. And you just don’t realize that it’s eating away at your soul.””
I hope he becomes a bigger star than ever so that some of the other well-known actors out there, who are also gay, will be encouraged to also come out.
Sean and his partner, Paul, have been together for nearly nine years and have two children: Sophia Rose, 4, and Liam Xavier, 14 months.
So does Maher regret spending 14 years in the closet professionally?
“I don’t think I have regrets,” he said. “I do believe that sort of this journey took me to the place where I got and I don’t think I would feel so strongly about doing what I’m doing now had I not suffered for the years that I did.”
An article from EW.com
[Source]
'Playboy Club' star Sean Maher opens up about his sexuality: 'This is my coming out ball'
by Tanner Stransky
Firefly alum and Playboy Club actor Sean Maher has worked steadily in Hollywood for 14 years, and during that time, he made the choice to be closeted about his personal life as a gay man — until now.
For the first time, Maher opens up about his sexuality in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I was nervous coming here today because I’ve just never talked about it,” Maher says, while sitting down to chat at Little Dom’s Italian bistro in Los Angeles’ trendy Los Feliz neighborhood, the area where the actor lives with Paul, his partner of nearly nine years, and their two children, Sophia Rose, 4, and Liam Xavier, 14 months. “But, it’s so liberating. It was interesting to be coming to have a conversation that I was always afraid to have.” Despite his trepidation, he adds with a big smile: “This is my coming out ball. I’ve been dying to do this.”
“I’ve never discussed it publicly,” the 36-year-old continues. “I’ve never been asked about it publicly, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t paint a different picture.” Maher says that not coming out wasn’t so much a choice as much as it was a reality of the business when he first came to L.A. fresh out of college back in 1997. Publicists working with him during his first Tinseltown role as the title character on Fox’s short-lived cop drama Ryan Caulfield: Year One assumed he was straight — and he didn’t tell them otherwise, out of fear. “I’m 22, I move to L.A., and it’s such a cliché, but the day I arrive, publicists from the show took me out to The Ivy for lunch,” he remembers. “They’re telling me, ‘You know, gosh, we’d really appreciate it if you could keep your girlfriend on the side because we want to appeal to the female demographic of the show.’”
Granted, Maher could have corrected his handlers, but in that instant, he decided not to. “At that moment, I didn’t think to say, ‘Oh, I’m gay,’ because right before I left New York [where he went to college at NYU], I had my manager tell me: ‘You need to get a girl on your arm or people will start talking.’ I remember telling him: ‘I’m gay.’ He had no idea. And he said: ‘All the more reason to get a girl on your arm.’ My agent was also like, ‘It’s best if you keep your options open. Maybe bisexual?’”
Despite pressure from his manager and agent, both of whom he has since parted ways with, it was ultimately Maher’s decision to stay in the closet, out of concern that he wouldn’t otherwise be able to book leading-man roles. “I kept thinking, This is my first show, I don’t want to get fired,” Maher says. “I’m thinking, What is the potential that if they caught wind that they had cast a gay lead actor that they would fire me? I was young, I was 22. I didn’t know anything. So that sort of started the idea of, okay, well, I’m working a lot, I guess I’ll just keep that gay part of my life on the back burner for now. I went so far as to sleep with women a couple times. It was a very confusing time for me.”
But being in the closet tormented Maher. “It was so exhausting, and I was so miserable,” Maher says. “I didn’t really have any life other than work and this façade I was putting on. So I kept my friends from college [where he was out] separate from my work friends, and that was very confusing. I just kept going on and on painting this picture of somebody I wasn’t. I didn’t have time for a personal relationship anyway. And you just don’t realize that it’s eating away at your soul.”
Through the years, though, Maher has slowly let the people closest to him in on his secret. Two mentors of his are Craig Zadan and Neil Meron — a pair of powerful and openly gay producers behind movies like Hairspray and Chicago, as well as TV shows like Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva — with whom he has worked with on two TV movies, ABC’s Brian’s Song (2001) and A&E’s Wedding Wars (2006). “After I did this movie called Brian’s Song, where I was another football player, one of the producers Craig would watch the dailies and said he knew immediately,” Maher remembers. “He says he knew the instant he met me, although he told me this months later. Craig was a really wonderful mentor to me because he knew, but he never asked me and never forced me to say anything. He just did his best to indirectly guide me.”
In Wedding Wars, Maher actually did play a gay character — a scary position for a gay actor attempting to appear straight. “This was where it’s still kind of tricky,” Maher remembers of the Wedding Wars time period. “We decided to do no press for it because I wasn’t ready to answer the question. Neil and Craig knew, so we just decided, okay, I was a supporting character anyway. The press was going to fall on [star] John Stamos anyway.”
The role for which Maher is probably most well-known is Dr. Simon Tam, a surgeon on the run after breaking his sister River (Summer Glau, who he’s pictured with here) out of a research facility, on the cult TV series Firefly and follow-up feature Serenity, both created by Joss Whedon. Maher remembers those projects as some of his best — even though his personal life was still off-limits during that time. “Looking back, on Firefly for instance, I do wish on day one I had told them because these are some of the most amazing people who are still like family to me,” Maher says. “I am so grateful for that show because they saved me. I was so unhappy and lonely and to come to work everyday with that group was wonderful. It really was all I had at that point in my life.”
Although there have been famous cases of homophobia in Hollywood (ex. when Isaiah Washington called fellow actor T.R. Knight a gay slur on the set of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and was subsequently fired), Maher says he never encountered much hostility — mostly because he was never out and was very adept at acting straight. “Because I was never out, I was never addressed in a negative way to my face,” Maher says. “Although I witnessed a lot of it, whether it be making fun of gays or gay jokes. I just bit my tongue or looked the other way. That was part of the reason that I didn’t come out earlier — because there was an energy on set, and I felt like my being gay would have offset that, especially with the crew.”
Does Maher regret spending 14 years in the closet professionally? “I don’t think I have regrets,” he responds. “I do believe that sort of this journey took me to the place where I got and I don’t think I would feel so strongly about doing what I’m doing now had I not suffered for the years that I did.”
Having a family is what ultimately what made Maher want to be honest about his sexuality. “I have these beautiful children and this extraordinary family,” Maher says, “and to think in any way shape or form that that’s wrong or that there’s shame in that or that there’s something to hide actually turns my stomach.” Maher kept thinking about what daughter Sophia would say when she realized he was closeted professionally. “What would she think if I said, ‘Oh honey, you can’t come with me to work because they don’t know I have an adopted daughter and they don’t know that I’m gay.’ My children and our family, I’ve really never been as proud of anything in my life. I couldn’t be happier at this point in my life, and I feel like we’ve created this pretty extraordinary family.”
So, why does this revelation come now? Maher decided to use his role on NBC’s The Playboy Club — a character coincidentally also named Sean, a closeted man who’s married to lesbian Playboy Bunny Alice (Leah Renee Cudmore) – to finally engage in a dialogue about how being closeted has strained his life in Hollywood. “I was working on other stuff, and then this role came up, which was like a light bulb going off,” Maher remembers. “I was like, This is perfect. I want to do this, and I want to use it as a platform to come out.”
As viewers saw in the premiere episode on Sept. 19, his character is involved with launching the Chicago chapter of the Mattachine Society, an underground gay-rights group from the ’50s and ’60s. The organization is scarcely remembered, but was the subject of a recent play, The Temperamentals, that launched in New York City starring Ugly Betty alum Michael Urie. “That’s part of the reason I wanted to do it so badly,” Maher says, “because I do think it’s a story that needs to be told.”
Although Maher was only seen in a handful of scenes in the premiere episode, his character Sean’s storyline gets bigger in the coming weeks. For starters, he becomes the campaign manager for Playboy Club staple Nick (Eddie Cibrian), who’s running for state’s attorney. “There’s some great stuff in the next episode when we have my parents over for dinner,” Maher says. “It’s a beard-y situation. When are we having grandkids comes up, but there is actually two things we’re hiding: There’s the gay thing for both of us, but then also the Playboy Club thing. [His parents] would be mortified if they knew she worked in the Club. So there’s lots of things we’re keeping hidden.”
In the end, coming out publicly is what Maher feels he needed to do to tie his life together, personally and professionally. “Creatively, I feel so much more open and free, and I am so happy on The Playboy Club,” he says. “I think it’s because I’ve never been so open on set. All of the relationships that I have off-camera, I never would have allowed five years ago. It feels so liberating.”
'Playboy Club' star Sean Maher opens up about his sexuality: 'This is my coming out ball'
by Tanner Stransky
For the first time, Maher opens up about his sexuality in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I was nervous coming here today because I’ve just never talked about it,” Maher says, while sitting down to chat at Little Dom’s Italian bistro in Los Angeles’ trendy Los Feliz neighborhood, the area where the actor lives with Paul, his partner of nearly nine years, and their two children, Sophia Rose, 4, and Liam Xavier, 14 months. “But, it’s so liberating. It was interesting to be coming to have a conversation that I was always afraid to have.” Despite his trepidation, he adds with a big smile: “This is my coming out ball. I’ve been dying to do this.”
“I’ve never discussed it publicly,” the 36-year-old continues. “I’ve never been asked about it publicly, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t paint a different picture.” Maher says that not coming out wasn’t so much a choice as much as it was a reality of the business when he first came to L.A. fresh out of college back in 1997. Publicists working with him during his first Tinseltown role as the title character on Fox’s short-lived cop drama Ryan Caulfield: Year One assumed he was straight — and he didn’t tell them otherwise, out of fear. “I’m 22, I move to L.A., and it’s such a cliché, but the day I arrive, publicists from the show took me out to The Ivy for lunch,” he remembers. “They’re telling me, ‘You know, gosh, we’d really appreciate it if you could keep your girlfriend on the side because we want to appeal to the female demographic of the show.’”
Granted, Maher could have corrected his handlers, but in that instant, he decided not to. “At that moment, I didn’t think to say, ‘Oh, I’m gay,’ because right before I left New York [where he went to college at NYU], I had my manager tell me: ‘You need to get a girl on your arm or people will start talking.’ I remember telling him: ‘I’m gay.’ He had no idea. And he said: ‘All the more reason to get a girl on your arm.’ My agent was also like, ‘It’s best if you keep your options open. Maybe bisexual?’”
Despite pressure from his manager and agent, both of whom he has since parted ways with, it was ultimately Maher’s decision to stay in the closet, out of concern that he wouldn’t otherwise be able to book leading-man roles. “I kept thinking, This is my first show, I don’t want to get fired,” Maher says. “I’m thinking, What is the potential that if they caught wind that they had cast a gay lead actor that they would fire me? I was young, I was 22. I didn’t know anything. So that sort of started the idea of, okay, well, I’m working a lot, I guess I’ll just keep that gay part of my life on the back burner for now. I went so far as to sleep with women a couple times. It was a very confusing time for me.”
But being in the closet tormented Maher. “It was so exhausting, and I was so miserable,” Maher says. “I didn’t really have any life other than work and this façade I was putting on. So I kept my friends from college [where he was out] separate from my work friends, and that was very confusing. I just kept going on and on painting this picture of somebody I wasn’t. I didn’t have time for a personal relationship anyway. And you just don’t realize that it’s eating away at your soul.”
Through the years, though, Maher has slowly let the people closest to him in on his secret. Two mentors of his are Craig Zadan and Neil Meron — a pair of powerful and openly gay producers behind movies like Hairspray and Chicago, as well as TV shows like Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva — with whom he has worked with on two TV movies, ABC’s Brian’s Song (2001) and A&E’s Wedding Wars (2006). “After I did this movie called Brian’s Song, where I was another football player, one of the producers Craig would watch the dailies and said he knew immediately,” Maher remembers. “He says he knew the instant he met me, although he told me this months later. Craig was a really wonderful mentor to me because he knew, but he never asked me and never forced me to say anything. He just did his best to indirectly guide me.”
In Wedding Wars, Maher actually did play a gay character — a scary position for a gay actor attempting to appear straight. “This was where it’s still kind of tricky,” Maher remembers of the Wedding Wars time period. “We decided to do no press for it because I wasn’t ready to answer the question. Neil and Craig knew, so we just decided, okay, I was a supporting character anyway. The press was going to fall on [star] John Stamos anyway.”
Although there have been famous cases of homophobia in Hollywood (ex. when Isaiah Washington called fellow actor T.R. Knight a gay slur on the set of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and was subsequently fired), Maher says he never encountered much hostility — mostly because he was never out and was very adept at acting straight. “Because I was never out, I was never addressed in a negative way to my face,” Maher says. “Although I witnessed a lot of it, whether it be making fun of gays or gay jokes. I just bit my tongue or looked the other way. That was part of the reason that I didn’t come out earlier — because there was an energy on set, and I felt like my being gay would have offset that, especially with the crew.”
Does Maher regret spending 14 years in the closet professionally? “I don’t think I have regrets,” he responds. “I do believe that sort of this journey took me to the place where I got and I don’t think I would feel so strongly about doing what I’m doing now had I not suffered for the years that I did.”
Having a family is what ultimately what made Maher want to be honest about his sexuality. “I have these beautiful children and this extraordinary family,” Maher says, “and to think in any way shape or form that that’s wrong or that there’s shame in that or that there’s something to hide actually turns my stomach.” Maher kept thinking about what daughter Sophia would say when she realized he was closeted professionally. “What would she think if I said, ‘Oh honey, you can’t come with me to work because they don’t know I have an adopted daughter and they don’t know that I’m gay.’ My children and our family, I’ve really never been as proud of anything in my life. I couldn’t be happier at this point in my life, and I feel like we’ve created this pretty extraordinary family.”
So, why does this revelation come now? Maher decided to use his role on NBC’s The Playboy Club — a character coincidentally also named Sean, a closeted man who’s married to lesbian Playboy Bunny Alice (Leah Renee Cudmore) – to finally engage in a dialogue about how being closeted has strained his life in Hollywood. “I was working on other stuff, and then this role came up, which was like a light bulb going off,” Maher remembers. “I was like, This is perfect. I want to do this, and I want to use it as a platform to come out.”
As viewers saw in the premiere episode on Sept. 19, his character is involved with launching the Chicago chapter of the Mattachine Society, an underground gay-rights group from the ’50s and ’60s. The organization is scarcely remembered, but was the subject of a recent play, The Temperamentals, that launched in New York City starring Ugly Betty alum Michael Urie. “That’s part of the reason I wanted to do it so badly,” Maher says, “because I do think it’s a story that needs to be told.”
Although Maher was only seen in a handful of scenes in the premiere episode, his character Sean’s storyline gets bigger in the coming weeks. For starters, he becomes the campaign manager for Playboy Club staple Nick (Eddie Cibrian), who’s running for state’s attorney. “There’s some great stuff in the next episode when we have my parents over for dinner,” Maher says. “It’s a beard-y situation. When are we having grandkids comes up, but there is actually two things we’re hiding: There’s the gay thing for both of us, but then also the Playboy Club thing. [His parents] would be mortified if they knew she worked in the Club. So there’s lots of things we’re keeping hidden.”
In the end, coming out publicly is what Maher feels he needed to do to tie his life together, personally and professionally. “Creatively, I feel so much more open and free, and I am so happy on The Playboy Club,” he says. “I think it’s because I’ve never been so open on set. All of the relationships that I have off-camera, I never would have allowed five years ago. It feels so liberating.”
Sunday, 25 September 2011
An article from Los Angeles Times
[Source]
‘Alphas’ finale: Ryan Cartwight says, ‘It’s a crazy one’
Sept. 25, 2011 | 10:08 a.m.
The first season finale of “Alphas” airs Monday and the SyFy series has carved out its own personality after starting with a concept that sat somewhere between “The X-Files” and “X-Men.” The characters are a collection of oddballs and outsider souls and at the top of that list is Gary Bell, the autistic young man who can “see” energy and communication signals in the air, making him a walking antenna and the world’s supreme electronic eavesdropper. Ryan Cartwright, a familiar face to fans of “Bones,” plays Gary, and Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher caught up with the 30-year-old Brit to talk about the show. This is Part 2 of the interview.
GB: You made some memorable appearances on “Bones” as the doomed intern Vincent Nigel-Murray so you know the rhythms of a procedural. “Alphas” is aiming for something different, though, isn’t it? there are those episodes that feel more like a character study.
RC: That was a lot of work through myself and a lot of the other actors, too, and we love the excitement of running around and catching the bad Alpha and that kind of thing, but the beauty of this job is that we get those kind of, well, I wouldn’t call them “acting days,” but those times when you get to explore your character. You get to know each other. Zak [Penn, the co-creator of the series] says it’s like that show “In Treatment” because we’re constantly in these therapy sessions to deal with everyone’s issues and it’s a nice way to explore the characters. It gives you a bit of poetic license.
GB: In what way?
RC: You can just sit down with the doctor and discuss your life problems. That’s a nice set-up for exposition. We love it. And now that we’ve gotten to know our characters we’re allowed to improvise a little, which was weird for me. I really had to think about it first, “What would an autistic person say?” That extra step is a challenge, things don’t drip off the tongue lightly. But now it’s fun and everyone has found their feet. We enjoy each other characters. It’s a dream job for that.
GB: Your character on “Bones” was a relatively fleeting presence on that series but he had quite the impact – his death led to the two main characters finally getting in bed together and he even had a baby named after him.
RC: All of that is just me in real life, mate. That’s just me. I shine through every part I play. Every one is naming their babies after me. No, it’s lovely. You get those roles and you don’t know what they will lead to. “Bones” was just two days filming when I got it and then they called me back. It was the same with my character on “Mad Men.” When I did that I thought it would be just one episode. “Alphas” is the only thing I’ve done in the States where I knew it was a full season, recurring. The others, it’s always been a nice surprise.
GB: The season finale is Monday night. Is there an intriguing tidbit you can share without undermining any of the big surprises?
RC: It’s action-packed. My ears are still ringing from listening to bullets and rifles all day. There’s a lot of smoke. I think there’s some grenades. A good number of explosions. There’s a massive man — a guy who is an ex-wrestler, he’s a huge man. So there’s a huge man in it. The huge man grabs me. It’s a super-fun one and it’s a crazy one. The fit hits the shan. And then it goes off the wall.
– Geoff Boucher
‘Alphas’ finale: Ryan Cartwight says, ‘It’s a crazy one’
Sept. 25, 2011 | 10:08 a.m.
 |
| Gary Bell, played by Ryan Cartwright, in a scene from "Alphas." (Russ Martin / Syfy) |
GB: You made some memorable appearances on “Bones” as the doomed intern Vincent Nigel-Murray so you know the rhythms of a procedural. “Alphas” is aiming for something different, though, isn’t it? there are those episodes that feel more like a character study.
RC: That was a lot of work through myself and a lot of the other actors, too, and we love the excitement of running around and catching the bad Alpha and that kind of thing, but the beauty of this job is that we get those kind of, well, I wouldn’t call them “acting days,” but those times when you get to explore your character. You get to know each other. Zak [Penn, the co-creator of the series] says it’s like that show “In Treatment” because we’re constantly in these therapy sessions to deal with everyone’s issues and it’s a nice way to explore the characters. It gives you a bit of poetic license.
GB: In what way?
RC: You can just sit down with the doctor and discuss your life problems. That’s a nice set-up for exposition. We love it. And now that we’ve gotten to know our characters we’re allowed to improvise a little, which was weird for me. I really had to think about it first, “What would an autistic person say?” That extra step is a challenge, things don’t drip off the tongue lightly. But now it’s fun and everyone has found their feet. We enjoy each other characters. It’s a dream job for that.
GB: Your character on “Bones” was a relatively fleeting presence on that series but he had quite the impact – his death led to the two main characters finally getting in bed together and he even had a baby named after him.
RC: All of that is just me in real life, mate. That’s just me. I shine through every part I play. Every one is naming their babies after me. No, it’s lovely. You get those roles and you don’t know what they will lead to. “Bones” was just two days filming when I got it and then they called me back. It was the same with my character on “Mad Men.” When I did that I thought it would be just one episode. “Alphas” is the only thing I’ve done in the States where I knew it was a full season, recurring. The others, it’s always been a nice surprise.
GB: The season finale is Monday night. Is there an intriguing tidbit you can share without undermining any of the big surprises?
RC: It’s action-packed. My ears are still ringing from listening to bullets and rifles all day. There’s a lot of smoke. I think there’s some grenades. A good number of explosions. There’s a massive man — a guy who is an ex-wrestler, he’s a huge man. So there’s a huge man in it. The huge man grabs me. It’s a super-fun one and it’s a crazy one. The fit hits the shan. And then it goes off the wall.
– Geoff Boucher
Friday, 23 September 2011
An article from Los Angeles Times
[Source]
‘Alphas’ and autism: Ryan Cartwright channels a special role
Sept. 23, 2011 | 2:14 p.m.
The first season finale of “Alphas” airs Monday and the SyFy series has carved out its own personality after starting with a concept that sat somewhere between “The X-Files” and “X-Men.” The characters are a collection of oddballs and outsider souls and at the top of that list is Gary Bell, the autistic young man who can “see” energy and communication signals in the air, making him a walking antenna and the world’s supreme electronic eavesdropper. Ryan Cartwright, a familiar face to fans of “Bones,” plays Gary, and Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher caught up with the 30-year-old Brit to talk about the show. This is part 1 of the interview.
GB: Portraying a character with autism is a bit of a tightrope act especially in a show that values a grounded reality and humor. Talk a bit about finding the Gary we see on “Alphas.”
RC: Even from the page you could tell it was going to be a piecemeal effort; there were several elements I’d have to figure out. Usually my only problem when I’m putting a role together in the States is just figuring out if I can do the American accent but this obviously had the autism thing and his abilities with all the electromagnetic wave lengths that he can see. So I had what was on the page but I had to research everything else and also come up with imaginary hand signals and stuff and then just conglomerate everything together and find that happy marriage.
GB: As far as autism, how intense was your research?
RC: We determined exactly where he was on the autism scale. Originally we weren’t sure if it was Asperger’s or how severe the autism was or should be. I read a load of books and met with people and eventually everyone [on the show's creative team] would defer to me because I did do all that research because, as you say, there is a certain sensitivity and we didn’t want to upset anyone.
GB: When you say you met with people, what was the setting for that?
RC: It was toward the end [of pre-production]. I was already up in Toronto and they had a specialist come by at the read-through but by that point it was so late in the day that I had already kind of got the character down. Everything I asked her — “I was going to do this,” “I was thinking he might do this” — she said was on board and on the right track. There’s also another lady, who I have not met, who they run all the scripts by. I was offered, just before I came up [to Toronto], a chance to go to a center and meet some autistic people at a therapy session but by that point I felt I had found what I needed through books and watching documentaries. What was nice about researching the neuroscience behind everything [was that] I could base the performance on the reasoning behind it. I wasn’t just imitating people. You could go and meet autistic people but then you might end up mimicking them instead of getting to know what’s actually going on inside. And I would have felt weird asking them specific questions about their conditions. I think it would have been rude.
GB: Gary has some distinctive hand gestures that go along nicely with the visual effects team’s efforts showing what the character sees in the air. Did you work in tandem with the effects folks to devise all of that?
RC: No, no, the egg came before the chicken, man. I just had to figure it out. I worked out some hand gestures and tried to imagine in my mind what I was seeing. Actually I think that I did speak with the effects people in the middle of filming the pilot. They asked what I was doing and I said, “When I do this, I see this…” So for the series they filmed me explaining what I was doing and what exactly I would be seeing as I did my hands. Gary isn’t manipulating anything with his hands. He obviously isn’t touching them with his hands, it’s all just a guide of sorts… For me it’s an invented tic to physicalize this world and this light show he sees all the time.
– Geoff Boucher
‘Alphas’ and autism: Ryan Cartwright channels a special role
Sept. 23, 2011 | 2:14 p.m.
 |
| Gary Bell, played by Ryan Cartwright, in a scene from "Alphas." (Syfy) |
GB: Portraying a character with autism is a bit of a tightrope act especially in a show that values a grounded reality and humor. Talk a bit about finding the Gary we see on “Alphas.”
RC: Even from the page you could tell it was going to be a piecemeal effort; there were several elements I’d have to figure out. Usually my only problem when I’m putting a role together in the States is just figuring out if I can do the American accent but this obviously had the autism thing and his abilities with all the electromagnetic wave lengths that he can see. So I had what was on the page but I had to research everything else and also come up with imaginary hand signals and stuff and then just conglomerate everything together and find that happy marriage.
GB: As far as autism, how intense was your research?
RC: We determined exactly where he was on the autism scale. Originally we weren’t sure if it was Asperger’s or how severe the autism was or should be. I read a load of books and met with people and eventually everyone [on the show's creative team] would defer to me because I did do all that research because, as you say, there is a certain sensitivity and we didn’t want to upset anyone.
 |
| Gary Bell, played by Ryan Cartwright, in a scene from "Alphas." (Russ Martin / Syfy) |
RC: It was toward the end [of pre-production]. I was already up in Toronto and they had a specialist come by at the read-through but by that point it was so late in the day that I had already kind of got the character down. Everything I asked her — “I was going to do this,” “I was thinking he might do this” — she said was on board and on the right track. There’s also another lady, who I have not met, who they run all the scripts by. I was offered, just before I came up [to Toronto], a chance to go to a center and meet some autistic people at a therapy session but by that point I felt I had found what I needed through books and watching documentaries. What was nice about researching the neuroscience behind everything [was that] I could base the performance on the reasoning behind it. I wasn’t just imitating people. You could go and meet autistic people but then you might end up mimicking them instead of getting to know what’s actually going on inside. And I would have felt weird asking them specific questions about their conditions. I think it would have been rude.
GB: Gary has some distinctive hand gestures that go along nicely with the visual effects team’s efforts showing what the character sees in the air. Did you work in tandem with the effects folks to devise all of that?
RC: No, no, the egg came before the chicken, man. I just had to figure it out. I worked out some hand gestures and tried to imagine in my mind what I was seeing. Actually I think that I did speak with the effects people in the middle of filming the pilot. They asked what I was doing and I said, “When I do this, I see this…” So for the series they filmed me explaining what I was doing and what exactly I would be seeing as I did my hands. Gary isn’t manipulating anything with his hands. He obviously isn’t touching them with his hands, it’s all just a guide of sorts… For me it’s an invented tic to physicalize this world and this light show he sees all the time.
– Geoff Boucher
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Mat Bomer was pictured with Cheyenne Jackson
[Source]
Sep 20 2011 12:52 PM ET
'8': On the scene at the new, star-studded Broadway play by Dustin Lance Black
by Stephan Lee
For one night only, the stars turned out on Broadway last night to stage a reading of 8, the new dramatization — directed by Joe Mantello and penned by Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk — of Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, the landmark 2010 trial that led the Federal Court to rule Proposition 8 unconstitutional. To say that the night’s cast was star-studded is an understatement; performers included Morgan Freeman, Rob Reiner, John Lithgow, Bradley Whitford, Ellen Barkin, Cheyenne Jackson, Matt Bomer, and Christine Lahti, among many other big names.
A crowd of celebrities, theater lovers, and LGBT rights supporters packed into the small but historic Eugene O’Neill Theater. On the way to find my seat, I spotted Barbara Walters, Jeffrey Toobin, and Fran Drescher, with gay ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson in tow. Amid set pieces for The Book of Mormon, which is currently in engagement at the Eugene O’Neill, the stage was set simply with director’s chairs arranged Inherit the Wind-style to represent a courtroom. The performers walked onstage to thunderous applause — it was really a heart-swelling, galvanizing moment to see the group taking their seats, especially on the eve of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’s official repeal.
Black based the play on transcripts from the actual trial — which opponents of marriage equality fought hard to keep from the public until now — in addition to interviews with key players, including the plaintiffs, couples Sandy Stier (played by Lahti) and Kris Perry (Barkin) and Jeff Zarrillo (Bomer) and Paul Katami (Jackson). Lithgow and Freeman, reading as the couples’ lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies, delivered rousing speeches, and Whitford gamely read the role of the opposition’s stumbling lawyer, Charles Cooper. Reiner drew big, wry laughs with his portrayal of Institute of American Values founder David Blankenhorn, as did Broadway veteran Jayne Houdyshell as anti-same-sex rights activist Maggie Gallagher, who, oddly enough, was in the audience.
Afterwards, the performance got a standing ovation as the real-life plaintiffs stood next to their celebrity counterparts (Zarrillo and Katami looked thrilled to be played by Bomer and Jackson — but who wouldn’t be?), and the party moved a few blocks downtown to Gotham Hall for a late dinner and cocktails. You really just had to follow the horde of svelte, well-dressed men through Times Square to find your way. At the after party, I ran into Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford, who is currently filming What to Expect when You’re Expecting opposite Anna Kendrick. “He’s a genius,” Crawford said of Black, a good friend. “I’d love to work with him some day.”
Next, my friend Mell introduced me to White Collar star Matt Bomer, who was graciously shaking hands and talking to a never-shrinking cluster of people all night. Bomer, whose intense eye contact and all-around pleasantness was a bit overwhelming — charisma overload — told me about his preparations for the night. “I called Jeff [Zarillo] when I got the job to see where he and Paul were during the trial, what they were going through, what they were feeling. They’re really incredible, brave people.”
I sat down with Lost alum Ken Leung, who played Dr. William Tam in 8 and worked with director Mantello 13 years ago in Corpus Christi, as he finished his dinner. He told me his interest in LGBT issues came just from being a “fellow human being.” I also asked him about his involvement in the rumored Showtime adaptation of the comic book Chew — he is indeed in talks with author John Layman, but nothing is official yet.
With some trepidation, I approached two of the biggest stars of the evening, twins Spencer and Elliott (portrayed by Jay Armstrong Johnson and Ben Rosenfeld in the play), sons of Perry and Stier. I wasn’t sure if the mama bears would appreciate their boys being hounded by the press, but they were bursting with pride for their moms. “I’m proud of them 24-7,” said Spencer, “but on days like today, my pride is just something else.” On their depictions in the play, Elliott said, “Towards the end, I felt like I was watching myself.” Spencer added, “When [Armstrong Johnson] started crying on stage after Kris’ speech, I started crying too — it was weird, like a mirror image.”
Sep 20 2011 12:52 PM ET
'8': On the scene at the new, star-studded Broadway play by Dustin Lance Black
by Stephan Lee
 |
| Image Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty Images |
A crowd of celebrities, theater lovers, and LGBT rights supporters packed into the small but historic Eugene O’Neill Theater. On the way to find my seat, I spotted Barbara Walters, Jeffrey Toobin, and Fran Drescher, with gay ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson in tow. Amid set pieces for The Book of Mormon, which is currently in engagement at the Eugene O’Neill, the stage was set simply with director’s chairs arranged Inherit the Wind-style to represent a courtroom. The performers walked onstage to thunderous applause — it was really a heart-swelling, galvanizing moment to see the group taking their seats, especially on the eve of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’s official repeal.
Black based the play on transcripts from the actual trial — which opponents of marriage equality fought hard to keep from the public until now — in addition to interviews with key players, including the plaintiffs, couples Sandy Stier (played by Lahti) and Kris Perry (Barkin) and Jeff Zarrillo (Bomer) and Paul Katami (Jackson). Lithgow and Freeman, reading as the couples’ lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies, delivered rousing speeches, and Whitford gamely read the role of the opposition’s stumbling lawyer, Charles Cooper. Reiner drew big, wry laughs with his portrayal of Institute of American Values founder David Blankenhorn, as did Broadway veteran Jayne Houdyshell as anti-same-sex rights activist Maggie Gallagher, who, oddly enough, was in the audience.
Afterwards, the performance got a standing ovation as the real-life plaintiffs stood next to their celebrity counterparts (Zarrillo and Katami looked thrilled to be played by Bomer and Jackson — but who wouldn’t be?), and the party moved a few blocks downtown to Gotham Hall for a late dinner and cocktails. You really just had to follow the horde of svelte, well-dressed men through Times Square to find your way. At the after party, I ran into Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford, who is currently filming What to Expect when You’re Expecting opposite Anna Kendrick. “He’s a genius,” Crawford said of Black, a good friend. “I’d love to work with him some day.”
Next, my friend Mell introduced me to White Collar star Matt Bomer, who was graciously shaking hands and talking to a never-shrinking cluster of people all night. Bomer, whose intense eye contact and all-around pleasantness was a bit overwhelming — charisma overload — told me about his preparations for the night. “I called Jeff [Zarillo] when I got the job to see where he and Paul were during the trial, what they were going through, what they were feeling. They’re really incredible, brave people.”
I sat down with Lost alum Ken Leung, who played Dr. William Tam in 8 and worked with director Mantello 13 years ago in Corpus Christi, as he finished his dinner. He told me his interest in LGBT issues came just from being a “fellow human being.” I also asked him about his involvement in the rumored Showtime adaptation of the comic book Chew — he is indeed in talks with author John Layman, but nothing is official yet.
With some trepidation, I approached two of the biggest stars of the evening, twins Spencer and Elliott (portrayed by Jay Armstrong Johnson and Ben Rosenfeld in the play), sons of Perry and Stier. I wasn’t sure if the mama bears would appreciate their boys being hounded by the press, but they were bursting with pride for their moms. “I’m proud of them 24-7,” said Spencer, “but on days like today, my pride is just something else.” On their depictions in the play, Elliott said, “Towards the end, I felt like I was watching myself.” Spencer added, “When [Armstrong Johnson] started crying on stage after Kris’ speech, I started crying too — it was weird, like a mirror image.”
Matt Bomer plays at "8" in New York
[Source]
Dustin Lance Black Debuts Prop. 8 Play in New York
4:08 PM PDT 9/20/2011 by David Rooney
NEW YORK -- With Morgan Freeman needling witnesses and John Lithgow socking across the impassioned concluding arguments, there was bound to be some dramatic heat. But the most emotional moment of Monday's starry one-night-only Broadway presentation of Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, came when plaintiffs and prosecutors joined the actors portraying them onstage for the curtain call.
The play was composed out of transcripts, plaintiff interviews and courtroom observations from the 2010 Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco, at the end of which Chief Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that California's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. That decision currently is inching through the appeals process.
A 2009 Oscar winner for his original screenplay of Milk, Black was a vocal opponent of Prop. 8 during the 2008 election and is a board member of American Foundation for Equal Rights, the advocacy organization for which profits from the Broadway staged reading and all future presentations of 8 are destined.
STORY: Star-Studded Cast Debuts Dustin Lance Black's Prop. 8 Play
Black wrote the play during research trips for his screenplays on Warners' upcoming Clint Eastwood feature, J. Edgar, and his next project, Barefoot Bandit, which is coming together at Fox, with David Gordon Green likely to direct.
"I carried around these huge binders with trial transcripts and spent all my time combing through them looking for the choice bits that would tell the story of what went on inside that courtroom," Black said.
While Black doesn't rule out the possibility of developing the material into a feature, for now, the play is headed to drama-program workshops at Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern universities. "We want to personalize the play and deepen it to the point where it's ready to be seen by the world," he said.
"To me, this is an educational outreach tool," added Black. "It's important that people know the arguments on both sides as this case makes its way to the Supreme Court."
STORY: Dustin Lance Black Writing Barefoot Bandit Movie
Black said he was concerned about presenting the play for the first time in New York, given that the same-sex marriage bill was passed by state legislature in June, potentially robbing the issue of some urgency. But rousing support from actors signing on for the event, plus sponsors including Steve Bing, Roland Emmerich and David Geffen, who funded the production and its splashy after party at the Gotham Club, indicated that strong sentiment remains behind the push for equal rights on a federal level.
"New Yorkers just got it," said Black. "We didn't have to explain anything to the people who gave their time and money to this endeavor. They said, yes, we want to lead the way to full national equality."
In addition to Freeman and Lithgow as the crack litigating team of David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, the premiere of 8 featured Ellen Barkin, Christine Lahti, Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson as the two couples that filed suit against Prop. 8 in Federal District Court, all of whom were in attendance at the event.
STORY: 'Milk' Scribe Joins GLAAD Against Newsweek
Directed by Joe Mantello (Wicked), the reading was staged at the Eugene O'Neill Theater, where Tony winner The Book of Mormon is playing to sell-out crowds. (That show has no Monday performance.) Given the financial support for the Prop. 8 campaign from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there was a certain irony in 8 being performed beneath set designer Scott Pask's playful Mormon Tabernacle proscenium.
Also among the cast were Bradley Whitford as lead defense attorney Charles Cooper, Bob Balaban as a methodical Judge Walker and Yeardley Smith, bringing the voice of Lisa Simpson to an expert witness on the psychology of marriage. Rob Reiner drew the biggest laughs as defense witness David Blankenhorn, evading "yes" or "no" answers while inadvertently sabotaging his own shaky arguments.
Spotted in the audience were Bruce Cohen, Chace Crawford, Anna Deavere Smith, Thomas Roberts, Barbara Walters and Brian Williams.
STORY: Prop. 8 Opponents Know War Isn't Over
"I've been an advocate for women's rights all my life, and gay Americans are I think the last minority not granted equal rights under the law," said Lahti, summing up the reason so many actors lent their support. "I think theater has the power to make people think about their prejudices, and a play like this can help affect change. I'm honored to have been a part of it."
Dustin Lance Black Debuts Prop. 8 Play in New York
4:08 PM PDT 9/20/2011 by David Rooney
"To me, this is an educational outreach tool," the writer says at the star-studded one-night-only presentation. "It's important that people know the arguments on both sides as this case makes its way to the Supreme Court."
NEW YORK -- With Morgan Freeman needling witnesses and John Lithgow socking across the impassioned concluding arguments, there was bound to be some dramatic heat. But the most emotional moment of Monday's starry one-night-only Broadway presentation of Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, came when plaintiffs and prosecutors joined the actors portraying them onstage for the curtain call.
The play was composed out of transcripts, plaintiff interviews and courtroom observations from the 2010 Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco, at the end of which Chief Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that California's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. That decision currently is inching through the appeals process.
A 2009 Oscar winner for his original screenplay of Milk, Black was a vocal opponent of Prop. 8 during the 2008 election and is a board member of American Foundation for Equal Rights, the advocacy organization for which profits from the Broadway staged reading and all future presentations of 8 are destined.
STORY: Star-Studded Cast Debuts Dustin Lance Black's Prop. 8 Play
Black wrote the play during research trips for his screenplays on Warners' upcoming Clint Eastwood feature, J. Edgar, and his next project, Barefoot Bandit, which is coming together at Fox, with David Gordon Green likely to direct.
"I carried around these huge binders with trial transcripts and spent all my time combing through them looking for the choice bits that would tell the story of what went on inside that courtroom," Black said.
While Black doesn't rule out the possibility of developing the material into a feature, for now, the play is headed to drama-program workshops at Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern universities. "We want to personalize the play and deepen it to the point where it's ready to be seen by the world," he said.
"To me, this is an educational outreach tool," added Black. "It's important that people know the arguments on both sides as this case makes its way to the Supreme Court."
STORY: Dustin Lance Black Writing Barefoot Bandit Movie
Black said he was concerned about presenting the play for the first time in New York, given that the same-sex marriage bill was passed by state legislature in June, potentially robbing the issue of some urgency. But rousing support from actors signing on for the event, plus sponsors including Steve Bing, Roland Emmerich and David Geffen, who funded the production and its splashy after party at the Gotham Club, indicated that strong sentiment remains behind the push for equal rights on a federal level.
"New Yorkers just got it," said Black. "We didn't have to explain anything to the people who gave their time and money to this endeavor. They said, yes, we want to lead the way to full national equality."
In addition to Freeman and Lithgow as the crack litigating team of David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, the premiere of 8 featured Ellen Barkin, Christine Lahti, Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson as the two couples that filed suit against Prop. 8 in Federal District Court, all of whom were in attendance at the event.
STORY: 'Milk' Scribe Joins GLAAD Against Newsweek
Directed by Joe Mantello (Wicked), the reading was staged at the Eugene O'Neill Theater, where Tony winner The Book of Mormon is playing to sell-out crowds. (That show has no Monday performance.) Given the financial support for the Prop. 8 campaign from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there was a certain irony in 8 being performed beneath set designer Scott Pask's playful Mormon Tabernacle proscenium.
Also among the cast were Bradley Whitford as lead defense attorney Charles Cooper, Bob Balaban as a methodical Judge Walker and Yeardley Smith, bringing the voice of Lisa Simpson to an expert witness on the psychology of marriage. Rob Reiner drew the biggest laughs as defense witness David Blankenhorn, evading "yes" or "no" answers while inadvertently sabotaging his own shaky arguments.
Spotted in the audience were Bruce Cohen, Chace Crawford, Anna Deavere Smith, Thomas Roberts, Barbara Walters and Brian Williams.
STORY: Prop. 8 Opponents Know War Isn't Over
"I've been an advocate for women's rights all my life, and gay Americans are I think the last minority not granted equal rights under the law," said Lahti, summing up the reason so many actors lent their support. "I think theater has the power to make people think about their prejudices, and a play like this can help affect change. I'm honored to have been a part of it."
Broadway's 8, the Prop 8 Courtroom Drama - Matt Boner
[Source]
Playbill.com Talks to the Stars of Broadway's 8, the Prop 8 Courtroom Drama
By Harry Haun
20 Sep 2011
Morgan Freeman, Matt Bomer, Bob Balaban, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Cheyenne Jackson and more brought the fight for marriage equality to Broadway Sept. 19 in Dustin Lance Black's 8, drawing from California court transcripts.
*
What "opened" Sept. 19 at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre, for that one night only, was a previously secured Pandora's Box of socio-political agitprop — the actual transcripts, massively edited and superbly reenacted, of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a case brought last year to overturn California's 2008 voter-approved anti-gay Proposition 8.
Rather fittingly, the refried courtroom drama was played out by a starry, conspicuously committed cast of 21 name-brand actors, under the glistening white church arches and stained-glass facades where The Book of Mormon normally works out. The choir they were preaching to, for the most part, was an audience of the converted.
The setting was not altogether a surprise since one of that musical's recent Tony contenders, Rory O'Malley (he's the young Elder who gleefully subscribes to a "Turn It Off" policy of gay discretion), is a founding father of Broadway Impact, an organization favoring marriage equality and formed the minute Proposition 8 passed in California. "It's nice to be in the family house," O'Malley admitted.
This East Coast group joined hands with the Los Angeles-based American Foundation for Equal Rights as sponsors of the evening, and the expected $1 million proceeds are earmarked for AFER and their on-going fight against prejudice.
The drama at hand is a now-it-can-be-shown saga of the suit two California couples — Sandy Stier & Kristin Perry and Jeff Zarrillo & Paul Katami — brought to challenge Proposition 8. Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who famously represented the opposing sides in Bush v. Gore, argued their case successfully before the Republican-appointed Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled that Prop. 8 unfairly discriminated against homosexuals. (That ruling is now being appealed.)
Those proceedings were originally set to be broadcast live, but the opponents of marriage equality filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that effectively denied national access to the testimony — until now. One daily visitor to the courtroom took notes, seeing a play in the proceedings, and got the transcripts.
Dustin Lance Black, the Oscared scripter of "Milk," trimmed 12 days of testimony into a compact-but-still-coherent 90 minutes that provided a fair playing field for both sides, along with some effective drama and some surprising laughs.
It was a formidable undertaking. "Those transcripts have more frequent-flyer miles than most bi-coastal businessmen," admitted Black. "I used to carry them with me. All my little pay jobs, I would take another binder — there were many of them — and start finding the gems, finding the things that I thought were personal or humorous — and then, also, places where each side made their best points.
"Thankfully, I was there the entire time throughout the experience. I'm a founding board member of AFER so my first responsibility is to the case, and then when I met Broadway Impact — Rory — he said that if I wrote something he would stage it as a fund-raiser. Really, it was his idea. Then, I signed on and AFER signed on, and it became something that none of us thought it would be when I first met him for coffee."
Now that the play has gotten its act together for its solitary Broadway showing, the plan is to roll it out to the provinces — to college campuses and regional theatres throughout the country for presentation. Foes of marriage equality, said Black, "know that trial did not go well for them. They don't want this seen. I think it's incredibly important that it be seen, that this play act as an outreach of education so it's going on tour — for no charge — so people across the country will know what the arguments are on both sides as it makes this way toward the Supreme Court because there's no state, there's no city, there's nowhere in this country that will not be affected by this U.S. Supreme Court's decision so we all have to know what we're talking about."
8 immediately goes to Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. Productions also are currently being developed at American Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theater Festival and Carnegie Mellon University.
As world premieres go, 8 had a light turnout of stars. Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson were very much in evidence, as was Judith Light. "I think this is so extraordinary, I can't wait to see it," Light gushed to the press, "and, of course, it is being directed by Joe Mantello, who's my director of the moment." Come Thursday, she joins him, Stockard Channing, Stacy Keach, Rachel Griffiths and Thomas Sadoski in preparing Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities for a Nov. 3 date on Broadway.
The prettiest and most prominent of the politicos in attendance was, easily, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who spoke with some vaulted eloquence of the evening. "There were folks camped out overnight to get tickets to this play. What a message that sends about how committed New Yorkers are to equality and helping other states achieve marriage equality as we've done here! And what a wonderful way to get that message across on The Great White Way, yet again using art and theatre to send an empowering social-change message."
Like good little converts, the audience sat rapt and riveted as testimonies raced by.
Oscar winner Morgan Freeman, with some Nelson Mandela still clinging to his persona, commanded focus as he fought his usual good fight playing defense attorney Boies — with Spencer Tracy gone, it was hard to quarrel with that casting — even Boies later said Freeman did a better job of the words than he did.
Then, the twice-Tonyed John Lithgow completed the one-two punch of good-guys with a roof-raising summation that busted the applause meter. "It overtook me as I was speaking," he confessed later. "I knew it had to be the final big impact of the play, but, I dunno — something just swept over me. The audience was so with it because it was resoundingly speaking what they wanted to hear said. It was great."
The man he was playing, Olson, admitted that the speech — like much of the play — brought tears to his eyes. "The kind of performance you give in the courtroom is quite different from what you saw on stage, but John did a brilliant job of it."
Christine Lahti and The Normal Heart's newly Tonyed Ellen Barkin dispatched the female half of their clients — Perry & Stier — married with kids: twin sons, Spencer and Elliott, played by Jay Armstrong Johnson and Ben Rosenfield — and the male half, Zarrillo & Katami, was played by Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson.
At play's end, all eight real-life characters were summoned to the stage to take a bow with their impersonators, by Rob Reiner, one of two actors on stage who was a card-carrying director (the other was the judge, Bob Balaban).
Reiner proved himself very much Carl Reiner's boy, delivering a hilarious meathead performance in a meaty cameo: a particularly pedantic Prop. 8 advocate.
Balaban, who made his movie debut as Joe Buck's high-school pickup in "Midnight Cowboy," presided with his customary judicial dignity. No one would suspect he had the shakes from the altitude: "It was very challenging. My judge had to sit on top of a high platform, and I was very afraid that I would fall off at any time." This didn't prevent him from drawing some droll fun from the judge. "One of the things they said to us, because we did rehearse — today, for a couple of hours — was, 'Don't forget: Funny things did happen in this trial. People laughed in the trial.' We were allowed to get laughs in this because some of it is really funny."
He also didn't disguise his attack mode toward the prosecuting attorney, Charles Cooper, played with frazzled exasperation by Bradley Whitford. "I played a vaguely similar judge, actually, in 'Howl,' the movie about Allen Ginsberg, only in that case the judge was much more hidden about his opinions," recalled Balaban. "In this case, this judge does seem to come out, kind of — but, of course, you could have performed it differently. I could have been sweeter, but I decided not to be."
Doubtlessly, Whitford in the hapless role of Cooper appreciated the mercy shown. "Just think what this guy went through," he said. "He's a smart guy. I don't think he ever thought it was going to get to court. I think he thought it was just going to go through the motions. What is striking about the trial is that, once you get into court, not only is he facing the greatest team of lawyers a human being can face, but there is absolutely no argument against civil rights justification for same-sex marriage. So I thought of this guy like the coyote in the roadrunner cartoons where he's running really, really fast and then suddenly realizes, ‘I went over the cliff.' Aw, going down."
Jayne Houdyshell, still basking in her Follies raves, is another who had fun playing the devil's advocate — in this case, Maggie Gallagher, a strident pro-Prop. 8-er. Her first four words — "The bottom line is" — brought the house down. "I had no idea that that line would get the response it did. But it was a nice way to start the moment. I was very flattered and happy when I was asked to do this because I think it's a really glorious project and needs to be done, and I hope it's done all across the country. It's a brilliant idea to present it in this way so people can see and cheer up-close a personal and historic moment in our country."
O'Malley wangled himself a character in the evening, Ryan Kendall. "I just met him yesterday," he said, "a very strong, amazing individual with a sense of humor and a lot of compassion and courage who's sharing his story about going through conversion therapy because his family wanted him to change who he was."
Stepping outside his immediate acting circle and getting a good look at the cast assembled, he called it "a dream come true — mostly because I have been watching so many of these actors as a kid growing up. It means so much for them to support this issue. So many of them are straight actors whom I really look up to."
Manning other real-life roles were over-qualified worthies like Yeardley Smith, Kate Shindle, Anthony Edwards, K. Todd Freeman, Ken Leung, Larry Kramer, Campbell Brown and Stephen Spinella.
Playbill.com Talks to the Stars of Broadway's 8, the Prop 8 Courtroom Drama
By Harry Haun
20 Sep 2011
 |  |
| Dustin Lance Black | |
| Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
*
What "opened" Sept. 19 at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre, for that one night only, was a previously secured Pandora's Box of socio-political agitprop — the actual transcripts, massively edited and superbly reenacted, of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a case brought last year to overturn California's 2008 voter-approved anti-gay Proposition 8.
Rather fittingly, the refried courtroom drama was played out by a starry, conspicuously committed cast of 21 name-brand actors, under the glistening white church arches and stained-glass facades where The Book of Mormon normally works out. The choir they were preaching to, for the most part, was an audience of the converted.
The setting was not altogether a surprise since one of that musical's recent Tony contenders, Rory O'Malley (he's the young Elder who gleefully subscribes to a "Turn It Off" policy of gay discretion), is a founding father of Broadway Impact, an organization favoring marriage equality and formed the minute Proposition 8 passed in California. "It's nice to be in the family house," O'Malley admitted.
This East Coast group joined hands with the Los Angeles-based American Foundation for Equal Rights as sponsors of the evening, and the expected $1 million proceeds are earmarked for AFER and their on-going fight against prejudice.
The drama at hand is a now-it-can-be-shown saga of the suit two California couples — Sandy Stier & Kristin Perry and Jeff Zarrillo & Paul Katami — brought to challenge Proposition 8. Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who famously represented the opposing sides in Bush v. Gore, argued their case successfully before the Republican-appointed Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled that Prop. 8 unfairly discriminated against homosexuals. (That ruling is now being appealed.)
Those proceedings were originally set to be broadcast live, but the opponents of marriage equality filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that effectively denied national access to the testimony — until now. One daily visitor to the courtroom took notes, seeing a play in the proceedings, and got the transcripts.
|  | |
| Morgan Freeman | ||
| photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
It was a formidable undertaking. "Those transcripts have more frequent-flyer miles than most bi-coastal businessmen," admitted Black. "I used to carry them with me. All my little pay jobs, I would take another binder — there were many of them — and start finding the gems, finding the things that I thought were personal or humorous — and then, also, places where each side made their best points.
"Thankfully, I was there the entire time throughout the experience. I'm a founding board member of AFER so my first responsibility is to the case, and then when I met Broadway Impact — Rory — he said that if I wrote something he would stage it as a fund-raiser. Really, it was his idea. Then, I signed on and AFER signed on, and it became something that none of us thought it would be when I first met him for coffee."
Now that the play has gotten its act together for its solitary Broadway showing, the plan is to roll it out to the provinces — to college campuses and regional theatres throughout the country for presentation. Foes of marriage equality, said Black, "know that trial did not go well for them. They don't want this seen. I think it's incredibly important that it be seen, that this play act as an outreach of education so it's going on tour — for no charge — so people across the country will know what the arguments are on both sides as it makes this way toward the Supreme Court because there's no state, there's no city, there's nowhere in this country that will not be affected by this U.S. Supreme Court's decision so we all have to know what we're talking about."
8 immediately goes to Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. Productions also are currently being developed at American Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theater Festival and Carnegie Mellon University.
As world premieres go, 8 had a light turnout of stars. Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson were very much in evidence, as was Judith Light. "I think this is so extraordinary, I can't wait to see it," Light gushed to the press, "and, of course, it is being directed by Joe Mantello, who's my director of the moment." Come Thursday, she joins him, Stockard Channing, Stacy Keach, Rachel Griffiths and Thomas Sadoski in preparing Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities for a Nov. 3 date on Broadway.
|  | |
| Christine Quinn | ||
| photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
Like good little converts, the audience sat rapt and riveted as testimonies raced by.
Oscar winner Morgan Freeman, with some Nelson Mandela still clinging to his persona, commanded focus as he fought his usual good fight playing defense attorney Boies — with Spencer Tracy gone, it was hard to quarrel with that casting — even Boies later said Freeman did a better job of the words than he did.
Then, the twice-Tonyed John Lithgow completed the one-two punch of good-guys with a roof-raising summation that busted the applause meter. "It overtook me as I was speaking," he confessed later. "I knew it had to be the final big impact of the play, but, I dunno — something just swept over me. The audience was so with it because it was resoundingly speaking what they wanted to hear said. It was great."
The man he was playing, Olson, admitted that the speech — like much of the play — brought tears to his eyes. "The kind of performance you give in the courtroom is quite different from what you saw on stage, but John did a brilliant job of it."
|  | |
| Christine Lahti | ||
| photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
At play's end, all eight real-life characters were summoned to the stage to take a bow with their impersonators, by Rob Reiner, one of two actors on stage who was a card-carrying director (the other was the judge, Bob Balaban).
Reiner proved himself very much Carl Reiner's boy, delivering a hilarious meathead performance in a meaty cameo: a particularly pedantic Prop. 8 advocate.
Balaban, who made his movie debut as Joe Buck's high-school pickup in "Midnight Cowboy," presided with his customary judicial dignity. No one would suspect he had the shakes from the altitude: "It was very challenging. My judge had to sit on top of a high platform, and I was very afraid that I would fall off at any time." This didn't prevent him from drawing some droll fun from the judge. "One of the things they said to us, because we did rehearse — today, for a couple of hours — was, 'Don't forget: Funny things did happen in this trial. People laughed in the trial.' We were allowed to get laughs in this because some of it is really funny."
He also didn't disguise his attack mode toward the prosecuting attorney, Charles Cooper, played with frazzled exasperation by Bradley Whitford. "I played a vaguely similar judge, actually, in 'Howl,' the movie about Allen Ginsberg, only in that case the judge was much more hidden about his opinions," recalled Balaban. "In this case, this judge does seem to come out, kind of — but, of course, you could have performed it differently. I could have been sweeter, but I decided not to be."
Doubtlessly, Whitford in the hapless role of Cooper appreciated the mercy shown. "Just think what this guy went through," he said. "He's a smart guy. I don't think he ever thought it was going to get to court. I think he thought it was just going to go through the motions. What is striking about the trial is that, once you get into court, not only is he facing the greatest team of lawyers a human being can face, but there is absolutely no argument against civil rights justification for same-sex marriage. So I thought of this guy like the coyote in the roadrunner cartoons where he's running really, really fast and then suddenly realizes, ‘I went over the cliff.' Aw, going down."
|  | |
| Jayne Houdyshell | ||
| photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
O'Malley wangled himself a character in the evening, Ryan Kendall. "I just met him yesterday," he said, "a very strong, amazing individual with a sense of humor and a lot of compassion and courage who's sharing his story about going through conversion therapy because his family wanted him to change who he was."
Stepping outside his immediate acting circle and getting a good look at the cast assembled, he called it "a dream come true — mostly because I have been watching so many of these actors as a kid growing up. It means so much for them to support this issue. So many of them are straight actors whom I really look up to."
Manning other real-life roles were over-qualified worthies like Yeardley Smith, Kate Shindle, Anthony Edwards, K. Todd Freeman, Ken Leung, Larry Kramer, Campbell Brown and Stephen Spinella.
Telling my dad that I am gay-LIVE
I've been following his YouTube posts since this April. The last day of DADT policy, finally he called his family.And he uploaded the live video on YouTube.
DADT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_ask,_don%27t_tell
YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AreYouSuprised
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/areyousuprised
Monday, 19 September 2011
MSNBC - Dustin Lance Black's Prop 8 Play
Bradley Whitford on MSNBC with Thomas Roberts for "Prop 8 Drama Hits Broadway for 'One Night Only' Premiere"
An article from The Wall Street Journal
[Source]
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011, 11:46 P.M. ET
Play about Prop 8 makes its Broadway debut
NEW YORK — A play based on last year's federal court fight over California's gay marriage ban made its Broadway debut on Monday night with an all-star cast, only hours after a federal judge decided to unseal the trial's video recordings.
Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black's play "8'' was born, in part, by frustration that Proposition 8 backers had succeeded in getting the U.S. Supreme Court to bar broadcast of the landmark case.
During the trial, former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and attorney David Boies — best known as adversaries who represented opposing sides in the disputed 2000 presidential election — put on a powerfully clear argument in favor of gay marriage. Prop. 8 was eventually ruled unconstitutional in August 2010. The case is under appeal.
Black, a member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, wrote his play using the trial transcript, firsthand observations of the courtroom drama and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families.
"It was extraordinary," Joe Mantello, who directed the reading, said afterward. "The actors really threw themselves in it. It was mind blowing."
The play was performed as a one-night-only reading at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre starring Morgan Freeman, Ellen Barkin, Anthony Edwards, Bradley Whitford, John Lithgow, Cheyenne Jackson, Campbell Brown, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner and Larry Kramer, among others. The mood was festive and no mention was made of the latest judge's decision on stage.
The 21 actors read from binders that contained the script and sat in director's chairs on stage. The only props were the flags of California and the United States and a video monitor that played anti-gay marriage political ads. One odd note was struck inadvertently right at the beginning: The proscenium was decorated like a Mormon temple — the legacy of the show that usually plays in the space, "The Book of Mormon."
Freeman portrayed Boies, Lithgow played Olson, Whitford played pro-Prop 8 attorney Charles Cooper and Bob Balaban played the judge. The other actors played various plaintiffs, witnesses and experts. Celebrities spotted in the audience included newscasters Brian Williams and Barbara Walters, and actress Fran Drescher.
At the end of the reading, the cast invited the real Olson and Boies onto the stage, as well as the four plaintiffs: Sandy Stier (played by Barkin), Kris Perry (Lahti), Paul Katami (Jackson) and Jeff Zarrillo (Matt Bomer).
"I thought it was great," said Boies afterward. "It's a little bit humbling to see Morgan Freeman up there and a little bit worrisome — now my clients are going to want him and not me."
Boies said the judge's decision to release the video of the trial wouldn't harm the play's prospects. "Having all of these ways of expressing this issue is important. Theater has a way of reaching people and I think the people who did this did a terrific job of boiling down a three-and-a-half week trial down to 70 or 80 minutes."
The American Foundation for Equal Rights and fellow producer Broadway Impact, a gay-rights group, hope to license "8'' to schools and community organizations nationwide in order to spur action, dialogue and understanding.
Just hours before the play's debut, Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Francisco ruled that no compelling reasons exist to keep the video recordings secret. His order will take effect on Sept. 30 unless a higher court overrules him.
Andy Pugno, general counsel to the Protect Marriage coalition, said his group would appeal immediately to the Ninth Circuit. He declined to comment on the Broadway reading or the play.
The audience at the reading was overwhelmingly pro-gay marriage, although Black tried to tease out both sides' best argument from trial. Reiner, who played a witness for the anti-gay marriage side, triggered laughs when he was cornered by the plaintiff's attorneys or fumbled for an answer.
The text itself was sometimes technical and dense, though Lithgow's passionate reading as Olson in closing arguments cut through much of the legalese and the audience cheered and clapped.
In an earlier interview, Black, who penned the Academy-Award winning feature film "Milk," said he wasn't worried if the trial video was one day made available, saying most Americans wouldn't have the patience to watch the dozens of hours of testimony. He also thought his play might act as a guide to editing the footage.
___
Online:
Play site: http://www.afer.org/broadway8
Broadway Impact: http://www.broadwayimpact.com
National Organization for Marriage: http://www.nationformarriage.org
___
Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
—Copyright 2011 Associated Press
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011, 11:46 P.M. ET
Play about Prop 8 makes its Broadway debut
NEW YORK — A play based on last year's federal court fight over California's gay marriage ban made its Broadway debut on Monday night with an all-star cast, only hours after a federal judge decided to unseal the trial's video recordings.
Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black's play "8'' was born, in part, by frustration that Proposition 8 backers had succeeded in getting the U.S. Supreme Court to bar broadcast of the landmark case.
During the trial, former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and attorney David Boies — best known as adversaries who represented opposing sides in the disputed 2000 presidential election — put on a powerfully clear argument in favor of gay marriage. Prop. 8 was eventually ruled unconstitutional in August 2010. The case is under appeal.
Black, a member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, wrote his play using the trial transcript, firsthand observations of the courtroom drama and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families.
"It was extraordinary," Joe Mantello, who directed the reading, said afterward. "The actors really threw themselves in it. It was mind blowing."
The play was performed as a one-night-only reading at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre starring Morgan Freeman, Ellen Barkin, Anthony Edwards, Bradley Whitford, John Lithgow, Cheyenne Jackson, Campbell Brown, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner and Larry Kramer, among others. The mood was festive and no mention was made of the latest judge's decision on stage.
The 21 actors read from binders that contained the script and sat in director's chairs on stage. The only props were the flags of California and the United States and a video monitor that played anti-gay marriage political ads. One odd note was struck inadvertently right at the beginning: The proscenium was decorated like a Mormon temple — the legacy of the show that usually plays in the space, "The Book of Mormon."
Freeman portrayed Boies, Lithgow played Olson, Whitford played pro-Prop 8 attorney Charles Cooper and Bob Balaban played the judge. The other actors played various plaintiffs, witnesses and experts. Celebrities spotted in the audience included newscasters Brian Williams and Barbara Walters, and actress Fran Drescher.
At the end of the reading, the cast invited the real Olson and Boies onto the stage, as well as the four plaintiffs: Sandy Stier (played by Barkin), Kris Perry (Lahti), Paul Katami (Jackson) and Jeff Zarrillo (Matt Bomer).
"I thought it was great," said Boies afterward. "It's a little bit humbling to see Morgan Freeman up there and a little bit worrisome — now my clients are going to want him and not me."
Boies said the judge's decision to release the video of the trial wouldn't harm the play's prospects. "Having all of these ways of expressing this issue is important. Theater has a way of reaching people and I think the people who did this did a terrific job of boiling down a three-and-a-half week trial down to 70 or 80 minutes."
The American Foundation for Equal Rights and fellow producer Broadway Impact, a gay-rights group, hope to license "8'' to schools and community organizations nationwide in order to spur action, dialogue and understanding.
Just hours before the play's debut, Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Francisco ruled that no compelling reasons exist to keep the video recordings secret. His order will take effect on Sept. 30 unless a higher court overrules him.
Andy Pugno, general counsel to the Protect Marriage coalition, said his group would appeal immediately to the Ninth Circuit. He declined to comment on the Broadway reading or the play.
The audience at the reading was overwhelmingly pro-gay marriage, although Black tried to tease out both sides' best argument from trial. Reiner, who played a witness for the anti-gay marriage side, triggered laughs when he was cornered by the plaintiff's attorneys or fumbled for an answer.
The text itself was sometimes technical and dense, though Lithgow's passionate reading as Olson in closing arguments cut through much of the legalese and the audience cheered and clapped.
In an earlier interview, Black, who penned the Academy-Award winning feature film "Milk," said he wasn't worried if the trial video was one day made available, saying most Americans wouldn't have the patience to watch the dozens of hours of testimony. He also thought his play might act as a guide to editing the footage.
___
Online:
Play site: http://www.afer.org/broadway8
Broadway Impact: http://www.broadwayimpact.com
National Organization for Marriage: http://www.nationformarriage.org
___
Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
—Copyright 2011 Associated Press
Cast debuts Prop. 8
[Source]
Star-Studded Cast Debuts Dustin Lance Black's Prop. 8 Play
5:10 PM PDT 9/19/2011 by Tina Daunt
Two of the entertainment industry’s leading advocates of marriage equality are combining forces Monday night in New York for a chamber reading of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s new play 8, a drama based on the litigation to overturn California’s Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that reversed the state supreme court’s ruling recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex unions.
Rehearsals for the performance were transformed into a celebration when a California federal court ruled early Monday that video records of the trial can be released to the public, something the anti-marriage equality forces had opposed and vow to appeal.
STORY: Dustin Lance Black Writing Barefoot Bandit Movie
“This is a significant victory for the American people, who will soon be able to see the evidence put forward by both sides in this historic federal trial," said Chad Griffin, board president for the Los Angeles-based American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER). "The public will soon see the extraordinarily weak case that the anti-marriage proponents presented in a desperate attempt to defend this discriminatory law."
AFER is an organization rooted in the film industry and is the sole sponsor of the so-far successful federal court challenge to Proposition 8, which passed in 2008. The foundation -- with support from David Geffen and Steve Bing -- funded a federal challenge to the ballot proposition that successfully convinced a federal court to overturn the measure.
STORY: 'Milk' Scribe Joins GLAAD Against Newsweek
When the release of the tapes were in doubt, AFER teamed up with gay rights advocacy group Broadway Impact to sponsor Black's play 8 for a one night reading at New York's Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The play draws on the verbatim transcripts of the Proposition 8 trial, along with observations from the courtroom and interviews with the same-sex couples on whose behalf the challenge was mounted.
All proceeds -- which are expected to top $1 million -- from tonight’s readings will benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights.
“Our opponents continue to fight tooth-and-nail to hide the video recordings of the Prop. 8 trial,” Griffin said. “But their campaign cannot survive in the face of our greatest strength: telling our stories proudly, openly and honestly.”
AFER and Broadway Impact have put together an all-star cast for tonight’s reading, including Emmy and Tony Award winner and two-time Golden Globe Award nominee Ellen Barkin; Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell; Broadway star Kate Shindle; and two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella, along with Bob Balaban, White Collar star Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, Anthony Edwards, Morgan Freeman, Cheyenne Jackson, Larry Kramer, Christine Lahti, John Lithgow, Rory O’Malley, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Bradley Whitford.
Michele Reiner and Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen (who worked with Black on Milk, for which Black won his screenwriting Oscar) were instrumental in pulling the cast together. The production is directed by Joe Mantello, best known for his work on Wicked and Angels in America.
Balaban will play U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, who found Prop. 8 unconstitutional. Freeman and Lithgow will play David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, the two high-profile attorneys—one a Democrat and the other a Republican—retained by the Foundation for Equal Rights—to argue the case. Bomer and Jackson will play Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami, a gay couple who were two of the four plaintiffs challenging Prop. 8. Barkin will play Sandy Stier and Lahti will play Kris Perry – the other plaintiffs – a lesbian couple that have been together for eleven years and are the parents of four boys.
Organizers are hopeful that others throughout the country will take the script -- like theater groups did with Laramie Project and Vagina Monologues -- and use it to stage their own productions.
“By helping to share the story of the fight for equality, you become a part of it,” Griffin said. “The dark walls of discrimination are crumbling quickly -- this play shows why.”
Email: tinadaunt@gmail.com
Star-Studded Cast Debuts Dustin Lance Black's Prop. 8 Play
5:10 PM PDT 9/19/2011 by Tina Daunt
Rehearsals for the performance were transformed into a celebration when a California federal court ruled early Monday that video records of the trial can be released to the public, something the anti-marriage equality forces had opposed and vow to appeal.
STORY: Dustin Lance Black Writing Barefoot Bandit Movie
“This is a significant victory for the American people, who will soon be able to see the evidence put forward by both sides in this historic federal trial," said Chad Griffin, board president for the Los Angeles-based American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER). "The public will soon see the extraordinarily weak case that the anti-marriage proponents presented in a desperate attempt to defend this discriminatory law."
AFER is an organization rooted in the film industry and is the sole sponsor of the so-far successful federal court challenge to Proposition 8, which passed in 2008. The foundation -- with support from David Geffen and Steve Bing -- funded a federal challenge to the ballot proposition that successfully convinced a federal court to overturn the measure.
STORY: 'Milk' Scribe Joins GLAAD Against Newsweek
When the release of the tapes were in doubt, AFER teamed up with gay rights advocacy group Broadway Impact to sponsor Black's play 8 for a one night reading at New York's Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The play draws on the verbatim transcripts of the Proposition 8 trial, along with observations from the courtroom and interviews with the same-sex couples on whose behalf the challenge was mounted.
All proceeds -- which are expected to top $1 million -- from tonight’s readings will benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights.
“Our opponents continue to fight tooth-and-nail to hide the video recordings of the Prop. 8 trial,” Griffin said. “But their campaign cannot survive in the face of our greatest strength: telling our stories proudly, openly and honestly.”
AFER and Broadway Impact have put together an all-star cast for tonight’s reading, including Emmy and Tony Award winner and two-time Golden Globe Award nominee Ellen Barkin; Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell; Broadway star Kate Shindle; and two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella, along with Bob Balaban, White Collar star Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, Anthony Edwards, Morgan Freeman, Cheyenne Jackson, Larry Kramer, Christine Lahti, John Lithgow, Rory O’Malley, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Bradley Whitford.
Michele Reiner and Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen (who worked with Black on Milk, for which Black won his screenwriting Oscar) were instrumental in pulling the cast together. The production is directed by Joe Mantello, best known for his work on Wicked and Angels in America.
Balaban will play U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, who found Prop. 8 unconstitutional. Freeman and Lithgow will play David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, the two high-profile attorneys—one a Democrat and the other a Republican—retained by the Foundation for Equal Rights—to argue the case. Bomer and Jackson will play Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami, a gay couple who were two of the four plaintiffs challenging Prop. 8. Barkin will play Sandy Stier and Lahti will play Kris Perry – the other plaintiffs – a lesbian couple that have been together for eleven years and are the parents of four boys.
Organizers are hopeful that others throughout the country will take the script -- like theater groups did with Laramie Project and Vagina Monologues -- and use it to stage their own productions.
“By helping to share the story of the fight for equality, you become a part of it,” Griffin said. “The dark walls of discrimination are crumbling quickly -- this play shows why.”
Email: tinadaunt@gmail.com
An article from HRC
[Source]
![HRC-BACKSTORY [BLOG]](http://174.121.110.138/%7Ehrcorg/hrcbackstory/images/logo/hrc-backstory.jpg)
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Soon To Be in the Dustbin of History
By Joe Solmonese
September 16th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Tomorrow is a truly historic day in American history. For tomorrow, September 20, 2011, will mark the end of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which bans lesbian, gay, and bisexual men and women from serving openly in our armed services. Since 1993, gay Americans willing to risk their lives and serve their country in uniform have been forced to serve in silence, out of fear of being discharged.
Following President Obama, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs’ certification of repeal two months ago, and a built-in waiting period, this discriminatory law will now formally be a thing of the past. For far too long, the ban on openly gay service members endangered our security, violated our values, and ruined lives. Tomorrow’s formal, final end of DADT is a monumental step in this movement’s history – not just for those wishing to openly serve their country, but for all Americans who believe in fairness, equality, and the right to pursue our passions free of discrimination.
While we cheer the demise of this ugly law, let us also think about the thousands of men and women affected by DADT – brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines – some fired outright and others who just couldn’t bear the thought of living a lie, whose careers fell victim to this mistake of a law. Now, some want to return to their military careers, but face frightful uncertainty about whether or not they can reclaim their ranks or the assignments that were stolen from them.
And despite this milestone, much work remains to ensure we continue toward full equality in the military. The so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the military from extending a number of benefits to the spouses of gay and lesbian service members, such as health insurance benefits. Gay and lesbian service members and their loved ones also face limitations in areas like family housing, access to legal services, spousal relocation support and an adequate infrastructure to process incidents of discrimination and harassment against gay and lesbian service members. We must also do everything we can to ensure that transgender Americans are able to serve in the U.S. military. It’s incumbent on fair-minded lawmakers to push back against discriminatory legislative actions, push for the repeal of DOMA and pay attention to military personnel matters.
We all know our fight for equality is not over. Our challenges are many: from presidential candidates who’ve promised to reinstate DADT to a far-right Congress that continues to defend the equally horrific Defense of Marriage Act in court. We won’t let any of their attacks go unchallenged. HRC will keep fighting, most especially thanks to people like you.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Soon To Be in the Dustbin of History
By Joe Solmonese
September 16th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Following President Obama, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs’ certification of repeal two months ago, and a built-in waiting period, this discriminatory law will now formally be a thing of the past. For far too long, the ban on openly gay service members endangered our security, violated our values, and ruined lives. Tomorrow’s formal, final end of DADT is a monumental step in this movement’s history – not just for those wishing to openly serve their country, but for all Americans who believe in fairness, equality, and the right to pursue our passions free of discrimination.
While we cheer the demise of this ugly law, let us also think about the thousands of men and women affected by DADT – brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines – some fired outright and others who just couldn’t bear the thought of living a lie, whose careers fell victim to this mistake of a law. Now, some want to return to their military careers, but face frightful uncertainty about whether or not they can reclaim their ranks or the assignments that were stolen from them.
And despite this milestone, much work remains to ensure we continue toward full equality in the military. The so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the military from extending a number of benefits to the spouses of gay and lesbian service members, such as health insurance benefits. Gay and lesbian service members and their loved ones also face limitations in areas like family housing, access to legal services, spousal relocation support and an adequate infrastructure to process incidents of discrimination and harassment against gay and lesbian service members. We must also do everything we can to ensure that transgender Americans are able to serve in the U.S. military. It’s incumbent on fair-minded lawmakers to push back against discriminatory legislative actions, push for the repeal of DOMA and pay attention to military personnel matters.
We all know our fight for equality is not over. Our challenges are many: from presidential candidates who’ve promised to reinstate DADT to a far-right Congress that continues to defend the equally horrific Defense of Marriage Act in court. We won’t let any of their attacks go unchallenged. HRC will keep fighting, most especially thanks to people like you.
Friday, 16 September 2011
An article from broadwayworld.com
[Source]
Dustin Lance Black's '8' Announces $40 Rush Tickets
Friday, September 16, 2011; Posted: 06:09 PM - by BWW News Desk
A limited number of $40 tickets to the World Premiere all-star staged reading of Dustin Lance Black's new play "8" will be released for public sale at 10:00AM Monday morning, September 19, 2011. Tickets will be sold at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street) until 6:00PM, and must be paid for by cash only. Tickets will be sold on a first-come first-served basis and are limited to two tickets per person.
"8," a new play chronicling the historic trial in the federal legal challenge to California's Proposition 8 will have its World Premiere on Broadway in a one night-only staged reading to benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER). The play is written by AFER Founding Board Member and Academy Award-winning writer Dustin Lance Black and directed by two-time Tony Award-winning actor and director Joe Mantello. 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 one night only Broadway staged reading stars Bob Balaban, Ellen Barkin, Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, Anthony Edwards, K. Todd Freeman, Morgan Freeman, Jayne Houdyshell, Cheyenne Jackson, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Larry Kramer, Christine Lahti, Ken Leung, John Lithgow, Rory O'Malley, Rob Reiner, Ben Rosenfield, Kate Shindle, Yeardley Smith, Stephen Spinella and Bradley Whitford.
Following the New York debut on September 19th, AFER and Broadway Impact will license "8" to schools and community organizations nationwide in order to spur action, dialogue and understanding. AFER and Broadway Impact will coordinate these staged readings across the country, so that "8" will live on beyond its September premiere.
The story for "8" is framed by the trial's historic closing arguments in June 2010, but features the best arguments and witness testimony presented by both legal teams. Scenes include reenactments of many of the well-documented jaw-dropping moments of trial, such as the admission by the Prop. 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."
AFER prevailed in federal district court when, based on the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Chief Judge Walker concluded that California had no rational basis or vested interest in denying gays and lesbians marriage licenses and thus found Proposition 8 "unconstitutional" on August 4, 2010. It is currently under appeal by the anti-marriage proponents and is being expedited through the court system at a relatively rapid pace.
Unfortunately, the American public was not given a chance to witness the historic trial because the proponents of Proposition 8 launched a number of desperate attempts to forever hide the trial videotapes. Although the trial proceedings were open to the public, and all courtroom testimony and events were thoroughly documented, the trial video most vividly compares the weakness of the proponents' arguments to the well-reasoned, valid and constitutionally-based arguments and evidence put forth by AFER's renowned legal team, plaintiffs and expert witnesses.
The trial videotapes have been kept under seal due to a federal protective order. On August 29th, 2011, AFER's legal team made a strong case for the full and unedited release of the trial recordings at a hearing before Chief Judge Ware at US District Court. While a swift decision is expected from Chief Judge Ware, there is no guarantee that the trial footage will ever be available for the public to see. This is precisely the reason Black wrote "8."
Proceeds from the September 19th reading will go directly to the fight for full federal marriage equality and to support educational efforts on the freedom to marry nationwide.
Dustin Lance Black's '8' Announces $40 Rush Tickets
Friday, September 16, 2011; Posted: 06:09 PM - by BWW News Desk
A limited number of $40 tickets to the World Premiere all-star staged reading of Dustin Lance Black's new play "8" will be released for public sale at 10:00AM Monday morning, September 19, 2011. Tickets will be sold at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street) until 6:00PM, and must be paid for by cash only. Tickets will be sold on a first-come first-served basis and are limited to two tickets per person.
"8," a new play chronicling the historic trial in the federal legal challenge to California's Proposition 8 will have its World Premiere on Broadway in a one night-only staged reading to benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER). The play is written by AFER Founding Board Member and Academy Award-winning writer Dustin Lance Black and directed by two-time Tony Award-winning actor and director Joe Mantello. 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 one night only Broadway staged reading stars Bob Balaban, Ellen Barkin, Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, Anthony Edwards, K. Todd Freeman, Morgan Freeman, Jayne Houdyshell, Cheyenne Jackson, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Larry Kramer, Christine Lahti, Ken Leung, John Lithgow, Rory O'Malley, Rob Reiner, Ben Rosenfield, Kate Shindle, Yeardley Smith, Stephen Spinella and Bradley Whitford.
Following the New York debut on September 19th, AFER and Broadway Impact will license "8" to schools and community organizations nationwide in order to spur action, dialogue and understanding. AFER and Broadway Impact will coordinate these staged readings across the country, so that "8" will live on beyond its September premiere.
The story for "8" is framed by the trial's historic closing arguments in June 2010, but features the best arguments and witness testimony presented by both legal teams. Scenes include reenactments of many of the well-documented jaw-dropping moments of trial, such as the admission by the Prop. 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."
AFER prevailed in federal district court when, based on the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Chief Judge Walker concluded that California had no rational basis or vested interest in denying gays and lesbians marriage licenses and thus found Proposition 8 "unconstitutional" on August 4, 2010. It is currently under appeal by the anti-marriage proponents and is being expedited through the court system at a relatively rapid pace.
Unfortunately, the American public was not given a chance to witness the historic trial because the proponents of Proposition 8 launched a number of desperate attempts to forever hide the trial videotapes. Although the trial proceedings were open to the public, and all courtroom testimony and events were thoroughly documented, the trial video most vividly compares the weakness of the proponents' arguments to the well-reasoned, valid and constitutionally-based arguments and evidence put forth by AFER's renowned legal team, plaintiffs and expert witnesses.
The trial videotapes have been kept under seal due to a federal protective order. On August 29th, 2011, AFER's legal team made a strong case for the full and unedited release of the trial recordings at a hearing before Chief Judge Ware at US District Court. While a swift decision is expected from Chief Judge Ware, there is no guarantee that the trial footage will ever be available for the public to see. This is precisely the reason Black wrote "8."
Proceeds from the September 19th reading will go directly to the fight for full federal marriage equality and to support educational efforts on the freedom to marry nationwide.
An article from mediamikes.com
[Source]
Interview with Ryan Cartwright
September 16, 2011 By Mike Gencarelli
Ryan Cartwright is currently playing Gary Bell in Syfy’s hit show “Alphas”. The show is a huge hit and already renewed for a second season. With the show nearing the end of its first season Media Mikes had a chance to chat with Ryan about the show and how he prepared for his character.
Mike Gencarelli: Gary is not only a fun and interesting character but he is also very complex, what do you enjoy most about playing him?
Ryan Cartwright: I enjoy the fact he is not some kind of tokenistic character. Everyone kind of got on board and helped give him a life behind the eyes. It could have been one of those roles that was an embarrassment. It is just really fun to have his sense of humor. He is kind of knows he is cheeky and it is that knowingness behind the eyes that cracks up myself and the cast. You can see them laughing a lot of the times and they keep it in the show. I do like to make Malik (Yoba) and Warren (Christie) laugh. That is good fun.
MG: How did you prepare for the role and do you find the character challenging to play?
RC: Yeah, when I first read the role I needed to figure out the specifics for the character. There are many different elements to him. Filming-wise, my only challenge is that I have to do an American accent and that was like the easiest part of this show. It was just fascinating going around and researching autism and general neuroscience. It is still something that is not that well understood. It is new and people are still learning about. When early reviews came out for the pilot, I was amazed that, even when it wasn’t in a derogatory way, the only reference was to “Rain Man”. It made me realize and reminded me exactly how little autistic people have been portrayed since then even. It was fascinated and a fair bit of work. I had about a month and a half though to research and figure out the character. It was so well written anyway, so it was just finding that marriage between what was on the page and what I felt comfortable doing. Once he was up and running, after the first few days filming, I got the feeling and he has just been super fun to play.
MG: What do you use for inspiration when you are “scrolling” through the information with your alphas ability?
RC: I have to figure out all those little mannerisms. I think in the script it just said “he waves his hands through the air” and I was like “hold on, hold on”. They were going to be putting in a graphic into this, so I had to figure out a whole system for what I would be visualizing and how my hands would be “controlling” these streams. After I figured it all out, I spoke to the writers and the visual effects guys and made them a little video and drew up a little chart. It was almost like a sign language chart with what the hand mannerisms meant. It was really cool and everything matched. It wasn’t just a random flurry of hands in the air. It can get confusing sometimes when he is having to multitask but like I said it is fine now that he is up and running.
MG: Already just in season one, we have seen Gary change and grow more independent, what can you tell us about this?
RC: This is his first group of people that he has hung around with on a permanent basis that haven’t treated him as a second class citizen. They realize that he has these abilities and it is the first time he is being proud of himself. There is that childish pride and the self confidence is in full bloom. As you can see in the first few episodes, he is kind of petulant. As the series is progressing though, he is maturing and realizing everyone has their own place in the group. He is maturing just from being around these intense situations and seeing people die. I think that he is realizes what a group actually is, which is something that they say with autistic people, they cannot realize the concept of other minds. They know there is other bodies but it is hard for them to see the other people’s intentions, wants and needs. I think he is getting a crash course in that just with his work with the group and it is progressing quite rapidly. He has been through in the deep end.
MG: What can we expect from the upcoming finale of season one?
RC: It is crazy and pretty intense. Gary will not be the same after the event of the finale unfold. It is definitely a bit of a life changer for him in particular.
MG: What has been your favorite episode to shoot in this season and why?
RC: I really enjoyed the episode “Bill and Gary’s Excellent Adventure” with Malik. It was that fun kind of buddy cop…like a bizarre kind of “48 Hours” [laughs]. It was really nice to play out that relationship and we improvised a bit. By that time as well it felt very organic for us to bounce off each other. That one was definitely a fun episode.
MG: How does working on this show for you compare to your other television work i.e. “Bones” and “Mad Men”?
RC: I am super happy that it is of a high caliber because you never know. With “Bones” and “Mad Men”, I was just like an actor for hire. I signed on for one episode and I would be lucky when I got the call to come back. Where as this was a commitment from day one for an extensive period of time. It was more of a risk signing on. I am just super happy that it is a cut above the rest and it is really good. It is nice to be actually proud of the work you are doing and also enjoying being able to watch it. With regards to the acting, I think it was a little bit more work upfront for me, but I do not feel like it is any different that the stuff I have done before in terms of quality. I am very happy with it.
MG: The show was already picked up for a second season, any idea when you start filming?
RC: Oh crickey [laughs], it is weird because when we got the news that it has gone to series and we were bouncing off the wall. It feels like we just got home from this grueling shoot and it is awesome news for sure. But I am like “Wait, wait, let’s not go straight back…let me enjoy some sunshine and my Xbox for a little bit” [laughs]. I am super happy about the news, of course. I am going to guess we are going back to shoot probably late March at the earliest. They have to regroup and plan the new scripts and story lines. I think because it isi also shot up in Toronto that people try there best to avoid the harsher weather up there.
Interview with Ryan Cartwright
September 16, 2011 By Mike Gencarelli
Mike Gencarelli: Gary is not only a fun and interesting character but he is also very complex, what do you enjoy most about playing him?
Ryan Cartwright: I enjoy the fact he is not some kind of tokenistic character. Everyone kind of got on board and helped give him a life behind the eyes. It could have been one of those roles that was an embarrassment. It is just really fun to have his sense of humor. He is kind of knows he is cheeky and it is that knowingness behind the eyes that cracks up myself and the cast. You can see them laughing a lot of the times and they keep it in the show. I do like to make Malik (Yoba) and Warren (Christie) laugh. That is good fun.
MG: How did you prepare for the role and do you find the character challenging to play?
MG: What do you use for inspiration when you are “scrolling” through the information with your alphas ability?
RC: I have to figure out all those little mannerisms. I think in the script it just said “he waves his hands through the air” and I was like “hold on, hold on”. They were going to be putting in a graphic into this, so I had to figure out a whole system for what I would be visualizing and how my hands would be “controlling” these streams. After I figured it all out, I spoke to the writers and the visual effects guys and made them a little video and drew up a little chart. It was almost like a sign language chart with what the hand mannerisms meant. It was really cool and everything matched. It wasn’t just a random flurry of hands in the air. It can get confusing sometimes when he is having to multitask but like I said it is fine now that he is up and running.
MG: Already just in season one, we have seen Gary change and grow more independent, what can you tell us about this?
MG: What can we expect from the upcoming finale of season one?
RC: It is crazy and pretty intense. Gary will not be the same after the event of the finale unfold. It is definitely a bit of a life changer for him in particular.
MG: What has been your favorite episode to shoot in this season and why?
RC: I really enjoyed the episode “Bill and Gary’s Excellent Adventure” with Malik. It was that fun kind of buddy cop…like a bizarre kind of “48 Hours” [laughs]. It was really nice to play out that relationship and we improvised a bit. By that time as well it felt very organic for us to bounce off each other. That one was definitely a fun episode.
MG: How does working on this show for you compare to your other television work i.e. “Bones” and “Mad Men”?
MG: The show was already picked up for a second season, any idea when you start filming?
RC: Oh crickey [laughs], it is weird because when we got the news that it has gone to series and we were bouncing off the wall. It feels like we just got home from this grueling shoot and it is awesome news for sure. But I am like “Wait, wait, let’s not go straight back…let me enjoy some sunshine and my Xbox for a little bit” [laughs]. I am super happy about the news, of course. I am going to guess we are going back to shoot probably late March at the earliest. They have to regroup and plan the new scripts and story lines. I think because it isi also shot up in Toronto that people try there best to avoid the harsher weather up there.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Cast from "8"
[Source]
About “8”
“8,” a new play chronicling the historic trial in the federal legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8, written by American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) Founding Board Member and Academy-Award winning writer Dustin Lance Black and directed by Tony Award-winning actor and director Joe Mantello, will have its world premiere on Broadway in an exclusive, one-night-only fundraiser to benefit AFER at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Monday, September 19, 2011.
The production is an unprecedented account of the federal District Court trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case filed by AFER to overturn Prop. 8, which banned the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples in California.
Following the New York debut on September 19, AFER and fellow producer Broadway Impact will license “8” to schools and community organizations nationwide in order to spur action, dialogue and understanding. AFER and Broadway Impact will help produce these staged readings across the country, so that “8” will live on beyond its September premiere. If you represent a local theater interested in staging a production of “8,” email contact@broadwayimpact.com.
CAMPBELL BROWN (Broadcast Journalist) is an award-winning journalist who has covered stories around the globe for CNN and NBC News. Most recently, Brown hosted the primetime nightly news program, “Campbell Brown for CNN.” While at CNN, Brown won accolades for her political coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. Brown was chosen to moderate and direct questions at two of the Presidential Debates during the 2008 election. Prior to CNN, Brown spent 11 years at NBC News where she served as White House Correspondent and primary substitute anchor for Brian Williams on “NBC Nightly News.” Brown also hosted the weekend edition of “The Today Show,” the nation’s top-rated weekend news program. She has interviewed and profiled world political and business leaders, including the last three sitting Presidents. Brown lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.
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