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The benefit West Coast premiere of TFT alum Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, took place on March 3 at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. Directed by Rob Reiner, 8 is about the closing arguments of the federal trial Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenged the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 outlawing gay marriage, and boasted a cast of such high-profile actors as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Jane Lynch, Jamie Lee Curtis, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Chris Colfer and John C. Reilly, among others, for a one-night-only showing in Los Angeles.

Other cast members included Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cleve Jones, Christine Lahti, Matthew Morrison, Rory O’Malley, Yeardley Smith and TFT alum George Takei.

Clooney and Sheen portrayed plaintiffs' lead co-counsel David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, respectively; Lahti and Curtis were plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, a lesbian couple together for 11 years; and Morrison and Bomer were plaintiffs Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, a gay couple together for more than a decade.

Lynch played prominent opponent of marriage equality Maggie Gallagher, co-founder and former chairman of the National Organization for Marriage and Reilly was David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values.

Pitt portrayed United States District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who found Proposition 8 unconstitutional after presiding over the historic twelve-day public trial. Bacon was Charles J. Cooper, the lead attorney for the anti-marriage proponents of Proposition 8. Colfer was Ryan Kendall, who testified about his experiences undergoing "reparative therapy" as a teenager.

Posted: March 19, 2012