Following its star-filled West Coast premier in March, “8” the Play will make its Nashville premier at the Darkhorse Theater on Monday, May 7. The Rhubarb Theater Company, with license from the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, is proud to present the one-night-only reading that chronicles the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter and AFER Founding Board Member Dustin Lance Black.

“8” is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by AFER to overturn Proposition 8, which stripped gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental freedom to marry.

Director Robyn Berg passionately describes her desire to bring the message of “8” to Nashville audience.

“Love is the most powerful human emotion of all time," she says. "Denying two people the ability to put their love on the same level as someone else seems wrong to me. I know so many same sex couples who exemplify this emotion in its purest form and I strongly believe they deserve the right to file taxes together, visit each other in hospitals, plan a wedding together and so on."

Black, who penned the Academy Award-winning feature film Milk and the new critically acclaimed film J. Edgar, based “8” on the actual words of the trial transcripts, firsthand observations of the courtroom drama and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families.

Rhubarb Theater Company’s staged reading of “8” the Play will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 7, at the Darkhorse Theater, located at 4610 Charlotte Avenue in Nashville. All tickets are $8, with proceeds being donated to the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Following the hour-long staged reading, Rhubarb will host a talkback panel of local experts on civil rights and marriage equality efforts in Tennessee and beyond. Panelists include Tennessee Equality Project’s Chris Sanders, civil rights activist and attorney Maria Salas, ACLU Executive Director Hedy Weinburg, and Out & About Newspaper’s Managing Editor Ben Rock.

To reserve tickets, please email 8nashville@gmail.com. Seating is limited and reservations are strongly recommended for this one-night-only event.