'8,' Dustin Lance Black's Prop. 8 Play, Available In Full On YouTube (VIDEO)

Dustin Lance Black's traveling Prop. 8 play, "8," landed at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles Saturday night with its star-heavy cast, including the newly announced Brad Pitt (there's a "Se7en" joke here somewhere), George Clooney, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Martin Sheen, John C. Reilly and too many more to name. The play, which is a reading of the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial -- the case the American Foundation for Equal Rights filed with the federal district court to overturn the bill preventing gay and lesbian couples from marrying in California -- was also livestreamed on YouTube. According to the AP, director Rob Reiner said the livestream attracted 200,000 viewers.

For those of you who were not sitting at home in front of your computers on a Saturday night, you can watch the full, one-night-only performance here this week (Reiner predicts about a million of you will do so). Pitt takes the judge's seat as United States District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, while Clooney and Sheen play plaintiffs’ lead co-counsel David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, respectively. If only there were a market for star-studded C-Span trial recasts, we'd all probably be much more well-informed.

Find a reading of "8" near you here. And if you're interested in staging a reading of "8," find out more here.

WATCH:

Comments

[crcarr]

09:58 PM on 03/06/2012

Can't believe they showed the pro Prop 8 ad. Guess they thought we needed a dose of hate speech.

[Common Sense 69]

03:07 PM on 03/06/2012

The people of California have spoken, and with a democracy, majority rules. Therefore, give it a rest clooney and pitt. clooney + pitt = many movies and zero oscars - karma is a beautiful thing.

[bng1959]

03:51 PM on 03/06/2012

First of all the rights of a minority should never be voted on by the general public.
That said recent polls show if voted on now 59% of CA folks are in favor of same-sex marriage. The thing about prop 8 is if the Mormons had not spent millions of dollars on ads it would not have pass anyway.
It is just a matter of time really. I may not live to be able to marry my partner in TX but the fact we have 8 maybe 9 state that have already made gay marriage legal says all that need to be said. It is inevitable

[Common Sense 69]

04:12 PM on 03/06/2012

why not? does the general public not have a say in a democracy? may a federal ban thwart your chosen lifestyle

[hplhenry]

04:52 PM on 03/06/2012

The United States of America is a rebuplic not a democracy. The word democracy does not appear even a single time in the Declaration of Independce or the Constitution. If we were truly a democracy, the majority of your neighbors would get together, decide they don't like you and don't want you living near them anymore. They could then legally force you from your residence and take it.

[Jim Allaire]

01:33 PM on 03/06/2012

My gosh all the big names in Hollywood are clamoring to this cause faster than they tried to get access to ground zero after 9/11

[JocasseeJo]

03:26 PM on 03/06/2012

The older ole Georgie gets the gayer he looks.

[bravetexaswmn]

01:22 PM on 03/06/2012

Bravo to everyone involved. Enjoyed it immensely!

[hamfister]

12:14 PM on 03/06/2012

So, the ad that YouTube places on this anti-Prop 8 video is...a pro-Prop 8 commercial?

[ztown]

03:44 PM on 03/06/2012

It's part of the play...

[rlpl02]

08:09 AM on 03/06/2012

Outstanding

[Left with Nothing]

06:37 AM on 03/06/2012

When I was 7 I had a dog that I loved. Why was it not OK for me to marry her? It's alright, I'm over her now.

[Balancement]

11:27 AM on 03/06/2012

Time to retire this old, exhausted right-wing meme, don't you think? Animals are not able to give informed consent to any contract. Now, do please try to come up with something original, won't you? If you can't, I would suggest you cease posting.

[staziaw]

04:00 PM on 03/06/2012

Thank you, Balancement ... you took the words out of my mouth!

[ztown]

03:52 PM on 03/06/2012

Probably because you were 7, a dog can't give consent, and this statement is a pathetic excuse for an argument against marriage equality.

[CharlieSC]

11:58 PM on 03/05/2012

No longer able to watch "8" on youtube or anywhere else. Was it taken down? I missed it.

[LeeBessToad]

03:29 AM on 03/06/2012

Nope, it's up there. Just watched it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlUG8F9uVgM

[tidalwave4455]

07:38 PM on 03/05/2012

210,000 youtube viewers watched it live. Another 70,000 by noon, Monday 5 March!

[Milli Mondragon]

06:03 PM on 03/05/2012

I wanted to cry :(

[LL1234]

03:31 PM on 03/05/2012

Wow, a mother told her gay son that she wish she had an abortion (which of course Christians don't believe in) rather than have a gay son. Hmmmmmmm.........now Kirk Cameron, don't you think that is detrimental to a child to tell them something like that? Real loving and supportive! I thought one was supposed to love their children unconditionally?

[SteveDenver]

03:45 PM on 03/05/2012

My boyfriend in college had two brothers in jail and a sister with two kids (by different guys, didn't marry either one) living with mom. When he came out to his mom, he had to move in with me because she threw him out, screaming at him that he was going to hell (between all the curse words). Religion is for the birds.

[LL1234]

08:10 AM on 03/06/2012

Sure is! It was OK for the daughter to have two kids with two different men out of wedlock just because it was heterosexual? Yeah, religion has a lot of logic! All the hatred and hypocrity behind religion makes it impossible for me to care about any religion.

[Medicine13ear]

03:26 AM on 03/08/2012

The more I know "Good Christians," the more I love my gay people!

Already a fan -- love your microbio!

[Andrea Stutz]

03:18 PM on 03/05/2012

hmmm,I support gay marriage because I believe it falls under the right to pursue happiness,,does gay marriage kill anyone,no. Does it harm anyone,no.We can learn a lot about love from gay relationships ,it is based purely on love and want to be with that person,it is obviously not based on convenience it's not convenient to fight to be able to marry the one you love and to be hated because of it. How can we as a society put so many restrictions on another and tell them who they are allowed to love. Everyones is born alone and will die alone ,no one should have the right to live your life for you or tell you what to do with your life. If those people who spent so much time telling everyone how to live, spent half as much time improving themselves the world would be such a better place.

[SteveDenver]

03:45 PM on 03/05/2012

Awesome! I gotta fan and fave you for this.

[Andrea Stutz]

05:02 PM on 03/05/2012

I am passionate that we should stick to the heart of the matter,someone's right to say that they love someone else.If we banned gay marriage then what is next,,this world is getting so messed up and it seems like people are getting dumber.

[LL1234]

03:14 PM on 03/05/2012

I grew up watching Martin Sheen on some Sunday morning religious show, glad to see he supports this!

[topgun0208]

12:56 PM on 03/05/2012

I'am so glad we got to here what happend in the court. It only get better let here it for Equal Eqaul Eqaul EqaulEqwua lEqaul Eqaul Eqaul

[dono]

12:50 PM on 03/05/2012

I think a lot of good can be gained by watching this play. To see the argument against marriage for everyone is to see no argument at all...