SF Gate - 08/Oct/2012

[Source]

Audience verdict mirrors judge's in '8'

Robert Hurwitt
Updated 4:33 p.m., Monday, October 8, 2012

Holland Taylor stars as Judge Vaughn Walker, with Jonathan Moscone (left) and Sean Dugan in "8."
Photo: Drew Altizer Photography / SF

Proposition 8 lost another round Sunday, this time in the court of public opinion. The venue was American Conservatory Theater, for a staged reading of Dustin Lance Black's play "8," drawn from the transcripts of the 2010 U.S. District Court trial that ruled the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. So the outcome was never in doubt.

Neither was the response of the packed house. That was clear from the prolonged standing ovation when ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff identified a tall, dignified man in the audience as Vaughn Walker, the judge who made the historic ruling. Similar ovations greeted the plaintiffs, also in the house, Sandy Stier, Kristin Perry, Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami.

The case was videotaped, but subsequent rulings have kept the tapes from being released. Black, who won an Oscar for the screenplay for "Milk," wrote the play partly so that the public could finally hear some of "the weak testimony of antimarriage activists."

But it's also a fundraising tool for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), which has sponsored the case known as Perry vs. Schwarzenegger from the beginning and of which Black is a co-founder. "8" premiered last year with a Broadway reading that raised about $1 million, followed by a star-studded outing in Los Angeles. Proceeds from Sunday's reading benefit AFER and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in ACT's programs.

With Holland Taylor of "The Practice" presiding as a gentlemanly, wry Judge Walker, "8" unfolded within the trial's closing arguments, with flashbacks to testimony. As staged by Mark Rucker, the large cast remained onstage for the 90-minute show, serving as a community of witnesses when not testifying.

Small, telling cameos were delivered by Perloff, Assembly Speaker John Pérez, leading gay activists Cleve Jones and Neil Giuliano, and actor Liam Vincent. The plum attorney roles were sharply delivered by former ACT star Gregory Wallace and California Shakespeare Theater head Jonathan Moscone - as anti-8 lawyers Theodore Olson and David Boies - and actor Kevin Rolston, tying himself in knots trying to defend the proposition.

The author performed the affecting testimony of a gay youth subjected to "reversal therapy." Veteran actors Sharon Lockwood and Sean Dugan undertook some of the more benighted antigay witnesses. The plaintiffs were well represented by the likes of local leading lady Marcia Pizzo and "Brothers and Sisters" stars Patricia Wettig and Luke Macfarlane.

As both sides now await the U.S. Supreme Court's decision whether to hear the case, "8" leaves no doubt that it should let the previous anti-8 rulings stand. It's not just the legal issues, but the way it presents the basic human ones. As Macfarlane's Katami says, "Being able to call him my husband, that's definitive."

Robert Hurwitt is The San Francisco Chronicle's theater critic. E-mail: rhurwitt@sfchronicle.com