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DUSTIN LANCE BLACK (Playwright, AFER Founding Board Member) is an award-winning screenwriter, director and producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for MILK and was a writer and producer of the acclaimed TV series Big Love. He recently completed his feature directorial debut, Virginia, and penned the screenplay for J. Edgar, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo Dicaprio. Black is also a noted equal rights advocate. He was a leading opponent of Prop. 8 during the 2008 election, was a featured speaker at the 2009 March on Washington, has spoken at scores of colleges across North America and Europe, topped The Advocate magazine's list of "Forty Under 40," and has repeatedly been listed in OUT Magazine's "50 Most Powerful LGBT persons."

STARRED REVIEW: Recorded in front of a live audience in Los Angeles, this full-cast, all-star production of Black's play chronicles the efforts of the American Foundation for Equal Rights to overturn Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment that eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry in California. Directed by Rob Reiner and featuring outstanding performances from the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, John C. Reilly, and Jane Lynch (just to name a few), this audiobook provides an inside look at the historical trial that overturned Prop 8. Among the standout performances are Clooney and Sheen as attorneys David Bois and Theodore B. Olson, respectively, Lynch as the fiery Maggie Gallagher, and Pitt as evenhanded Chief Judge Vaughn Walker. Educational, affecting, funny, and absolutely gripping, this important audiobook should be required listening for all Americans. --Publishers Weekly

STARRED REVIEW: Academy Award-winning screenwriter Black dramatizes the lawsuit filed by the American Foundation for Equal Rights on behalf of numerous gay and lesbian citizens against that state of California following the passage of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment rendering single-sex marriages illegal. The dialog comes directly from court transcripts and interviews with the plaintiffs. Rob Reiner directs a stellar cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon, Martin Sheen, John C. Reilly, Christine Lahti, and Jamie Lee Curtis in this live production recorded in March. The scenes alternate between the courtroom and a married lesbian couple discussing the trial with their children. This is powerful stuff that's handled with finesse and honest emotion by Reiner and his Hollywood heavyweights. Although Clooney and company all deliver top performances, Sheen brings down the house with a three-minute speech that will leave listeners breathless. VERDICT A monumentally important subject presented stylishly by a four-star cast. This superb production deserves a standing ovation. Any listener interested in the subject will be enthralled. --Library Journal

EARPHONES AWARD WINNER: For his intensely emotional play, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (J. EDGAR) draws on actual transcripts of the 2010 trial that examined the unconstitutionality of California's notorious Proposition 8, which eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry. At turns comical and deeply upsetting, the play is beautifully cast from Brad Pitt's subtle Chief Judge Walker to George Clooney's gentlemanly attorney, Boies. Jane Lynch s expert portrayal of Maggie Gallagher (National Organization for Marriage) is downright maddening, and Chris Colfer s reading of Ryan Kendall will make you desperate to go home and hug your kids. But the trial isn't the crux of this story. Instead, it is the portrayals of the Perry family (Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Lahti, Jansen Panettiere, and Bridger Zadina) that are the most authentic, the most tender, the most crucial to understanding why everyone, regardless of political leaning, should hear this stunning production. A.H.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award --Audiofile Magazine