Local LGBT Community Leaders to Perform In "8: The Play"

The one-night-only Lehigh Valley premier of Dustin Lance Black's "8: The Play" will feature local LGBT community leaders Liz Bradbury, executive director of the Pennsylvania Diversity Network, and Adrian Shanker, president of Equality Pennsylvania, performing in the staged reading.

The performance is set for this Saturday, Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. at the Civic Theatre in Allentown.

The play chronicles the federal court trials to overturn California's Proposition 8, which passed in 2008 as a voter referendum to ban already-legal same-sex marriages in California.  The play was created in part to present actual testimony and the historic case summation to the public to show why lower courts have consistently found Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional.

Shanker, who works for a privately-owned publishing firm located in Easton, and Bradbury both advocated for the allowance of same-sex partner benefits for City of Easton employees, a measure which was approved by city council in 2011.

The performance is also a fundraiser for the Pennsylvania Diversity Network. Tickets are available for $20 online at www.civictheatre.com , or call 610-432-8943.