8: The Playwright

Dustin Lance Black won the 2009 original screenwriting Oscar for Milk, a film about San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. It starred Sean Penn, who won as Best Actor.

Black wrote the screenplay for the 2011 film, J. Edgar, about J. Edgar Hoover, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He won two Writers Guild awards for his work on Big Love, a television series about a man with three wives.

Black grew up as a Mormon in Texas. His father was a Mormon missionary. In 2010 he narrated a documentary about the involvement of the Mormons in supporting California’s Proposition 8. 8: The Mormon Proposition won the Best Documentary Award of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Black is a founding member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, and through them licenses these staged readings without royalties. “I’ve built my career around exposing and uncovering ‘the real story,’” Black said. “The goal of ‘8’ is to show the world that marriage equality is a basic constitutional right and that those who would deny this basic freedom from loving, committed couples have only vitriol and baseless hyperbole to fall back on. The facts are on our side and truth always finds the light. We are doing all we can to help speed that process along.”

About the American Foundation for Equal Rights

The American Foundation for Equal Rights is the sole sponsor of the Perry case. After bringing together Theodore B. Olson and David Boies to lead its legal team, AFER successfully advanced the Perry case through Federal District Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals before the case is brought to the United States Supreme Court. The Foundation is committed to achieving full federal marriage equality. www.AFER.org

About Broadway Impact

BROADWAY IMPACT is a non-profit organization of theatre artists and fans mobilized in support of marriage equality. Founded in 2008 by Tony Award-nominated performers Rory O’Malley (Book of Mormon), Gavin Creel (HAIR) and Production Coordinator Jenny Kanelos, BROADWAY IMPACT works to educate and inspire the theatre community into action. Recent initiatives include helping to staff the phone banking efforts in New York State, creating a 3,000 piece letter writing campaign, gaining the funding for 1,400 supporters to attend the National Equality March and producing a rally for over 5,000 attendees in Midtown Manhattan where speakers included, Cynthia Nixon, Audra McDonald, David Hyde Pierce, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Governor David Paterson. BROADWAY IMPACT was awarded the 2009 Human Rights Campaign Community Award. www.BROADWAYIMPACT.com