Prop 8 is Subject of Stage Performance at Rutgers-Camden

CAMDEN — A cast of Rutgers–Camden students, faculty, and alumni are making the case for marriage equality during a staged reading of 8, a play chronicling the historic trial and federal constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8.

The free performance will occur on Sunday, Oct. 14 at 5 p.m. in the Black Box Theater in the Fine Arts Building on the Rutgers–Camden campus. It is being presented by Rutgers–Camden’s LGBTQ Alliance and OUTlaws student groups and the Rutgers–Camden Department of Fine Arts.

Written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, 8 is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by the American Foundation for Equal Rights to overturn Proposition 8, which stripped gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental freedom to marry.

Black, who penned the feature films Milk and J. Edgar, based 8 on actual trial transcripts, first-hand observations of the courtroom, and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families.

The Rutgers–Camden cast includes 21 actors and the performance is being directed by Kenneth Elliot, an assistant professor of theater at Rutgers–Camden.

A Q&A session with David M. Rosenblum, legal director for Philadelphia’s Mazzoni Center and an advocate for LGBT issues, will be held after the Rutgers–Camden performance to discuss the fight for marriage equality in New Jersey.

Tickets can be reserved by calling (856) 225-6176 or by emailing mariabu@camden.rutgers.edu. Admission is free.

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