Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life

Last updated
Every Act of Life
Every Act of Life poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jeff Kaufman
Written by Jeff Kaufman
Produced by Jeff Kaufman
Marcia Ross
Starring F. Murray Abraham
Christine Baranski
Nathan Lane
Angela Lansbury
Audra McDonald
Terrence McNally
Rita Moreno
Chita Rivera
CinematographyJordan Black
Autumn Eakin
Anthony Lucido
Edited byAsher Bingham
Music byLaura Karpman
Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum
Production
company
Floating World Pictures
Distributed by The Orchard
Release date
  • April 23, 2018 (2018-04-23)(Tribeca)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life is a 2018 documentary film about playwright Terrence McNally. It was directed, produced and written by Jeff Kaufman, and produced by Marcia S. Ross. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018. [1] It will be distributed by The Orchard in November 2018. An expanded and illustrated version of the script will be published by Smith and Kraus in October 2018. [2] Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life aired June 14, 2019 on PBS’ “American Masters.” [3]

Contents

Synopsis

Every Act Of Life is a documentary that profiles four-time Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally's six ground-breaking decades in the theatre, the fight for LGBTQ rights, triumph over addiction, the pursuit of love, and inspiration at every age, and the power of the arts to transform society.

The son of an alcoholic beer distributor in southern Texas, Terrence McNally graduated from Columbia in 1960, traveled the world as tutor to John Steinbeck's children (Steinbeck's only advice was, "Don't write for the theater. It will break your heart”); suffered an infamous Broadway flop in 1965 at age 24; and went on to write dozens of groundbreaking plays and musicals about sexuality, homophobia, faith, the power of art, the need to connect, and finding meaning in every moment of life. Six-time Tony-winning actress Audra McDonald said, “Terrence gets to the truth in a way that makes you laugh and cry in all different areas – musical theatre and plays. I defy you to name another playwright who can do that. You cannot tell the history of American theatre without celebrating his life and work.” Attorney and LGBTQ activist Roberta Kaplan said, “Terrence started so early to show Americans who gay people are. He did it before anyone else. He did it better than anyone else.” McNally had long relationships with playwrights Edward Albee and Wendy Wasserstein; lost a lover and many friends to AIDS; stopped drinking through the intervention of Angela Lansbury; helped launch the careers of Nathan Lane, F. Murray Abraham, Audra McDonald, Doris Roberts, Patrick Wilson, and Joe Mantello; was an early champion of marriage equality and faced violent protests for his play Corpus Christi ; survived Stage 3 lung cancer; and married theatre producer Tom Kirdahy.

Terrence's plays, musicals, operas, and screenplays include: And Things That Go Bump in the Night (1964), Next (1969), Bad Habits (1974), The Ritz (1975), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1982), It's Only a Play (1986/2014), Andre's Mother (1990), The Lisbon Traviata (1989), Lips Together, Teeth Apart (1991), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992), A Perfect Ganesh (1993), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994), Master Class (1995), Ragtime (1996), Corpus Christi (1998), Dead Man Walking (2000), The Full Monty (2000), Mothers and Sons (2014), and Anastasia (2017).

Cast

Cast: [4]

Press

Every Act Of Life won the Freedom Award and Best Documentary at FilmOut San Diego, [5] and Best Documentary and the Audience Award at the Connecticut LGBT Film Festival. [6] It has also screened at dozens of other film festivals. The Village Voice review of the film said, “I wasn’t prepared for the emotional release of Every Act of Life (written and directed by Jeff Kaufman), a wonderful documentary on the prolific playwright Terrence McNally. McNally’s life has the sweep of an epic novel, except that the novel’s inevitable movie version could never have as much star power as his life did.” [7] The Hollywood Reporter review said, “Terrence McNally receives a warm salute as a vital voice in the American theater and an LGBT activist who made the personal political. Jeff Kaufman's briskly entertaining film will be met with heartfelt applause from theater-lovers and LGBT audiences.” [8] Every Act of Life had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival (NYC) on April 23, 2018. The premiere included a post-screening discussion moderated by Frank Rich. The panelists included Terrence McNally, Jeff Kaufman, F. Murray Abraham, Tyne Daly, Nathan Lane, and Joe Mantello. [1]

Festivals

Related Research Articles

Terrence McNally American playwright

Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter.

Corpus Christi is an experimental play by Terrence McNally dramatizing the story of Jesus and the Apostles, ultimately depicting Jesus and the Apostles as gay men living in modern-day Texas. It "follows a group of gay men who re-enact Christ's spiritual journey." Written in 1997 and first staged in New York in 1998, The portrayal of Jesus and the Apostles as gay men focuses Corpus Christi as a play that queers the narrative of Jesus and His Apostles. Corpus Christi is not only unique because of its narrative of Jesus’ life but also because of the way it tells the narrative. McNally arranges the narrative through anachronisms that represent Roman occupation.

Thomas Myles Steinbeck was a screenwriter, photographer, and journalist. He published numerous works of fiction, including short stories and novels. He was the elder son of American novelist John Steinbeck.

<i>Lips Together, Teeth Apart</i>

Lips Together, Teeth Apart is a play by American playwright Terrence McNally. The play, which premiered Off-Broadway in 1991, concerns two straight couples who spend a weekend in a gay community.

<i>Master Class</i> Play written by Terrence McNally

Master Class is a 1995 play by American playwright Terrence McNally, presented as a fictional master class by opera singer Maria Callas near the end of her life, in the 1970s. The play features incidental vocal music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Vincenzo Bellini. The play opened on Broadway in 1995, with stars Zoe Caldwell and Audra McDonald winning Tony Awards.

<i>Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune</i>

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is a two-character play by Terrence McNally that was first performed off-Broadway in 1987.

The Fountain Theatre is a theatre in Los Angeles. Along with its programming of live theatre, it's also the foremost producer of flamenco on the West Coast.

<i>Love! Valour! Compassion!</i> (film) 1997 American film

Love! Valour! Compassion! is a 1997 film directed by Joe Mantello and written by Terrence McNally, adapted from McNally's play of the same name. It revolves around eight gay men who gather for three summer weekends at a lakeside house in Dutchess County, New York, where they relax, reflect, and plan for survival in an era plagued by AIDS.

Theater of War is a 2008 documentary film directed by John Walter. The film uses the rehearsal process of a play production as a lens through which to investigate German playwright Bertolt Brecht's ideas on theater, politics, and war. The chosen production is a 2006 staging of Mother Courage and Her Children staged by The Public Theater in New York's Central Park, the production starred Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, and was helmed by George C. Wolfe.

Bringing It All Back Home is a one-act play by Terrence McNally. It is a biting satire of a middle-class family and their reaction to losing a son in Vietnam.

Zach Theatre

ZACH Theatre is a professional theatre company located in Austin, Texas, as well as its associated complex of theatre facilities. The company is the oldest continuously active theatre company in Texas, and one of the ten oldest in the country.

PJ Raval is a queer first-generation Filipino-American filmmaker known for his documentary films about underrepresented subcultures and identities within the LGBTQ+ community. Raval is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Robert Giard Fellow, a member of the Producers Guild of America, and the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences. Raval was named one of Filmmaker's 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2006 and was a featured creator in the 2010 Out 100. Today, he lives in Texas and is an associate professor of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the Moody College of Communication in the University of Texas at Austin.

TLVFest or the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Tel Aviv, Israel. The festival is focused on LGBT themed film from around the world.

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Michael Stever American film director, producer, cinematographer, screenwriter, singer, dancer and actor

Michael Stever is an American film director and editor, cinematographer, producer, writer and actor who's known for his work on Super Force, Broadway: The Golden Age By The Legends Who Were There, Every Act of Life and his debut documentary short films, Saturday Nightmares: The Ultimate Horror Expo! and Resurrecting Carrie.

Tom Kirdahy

Thomas Joseph Kirdahy is an American Tony and Olivier Award-winning theatrical producer, lawyer, and activist.

Lethal Lesbian Israels only lesbian film festival

Lethal Lesbian is Israel's only lesbian film festival. The festival has been held annually since 2008, and screens independent short, documentary and feature films from Israel and abroad.

Jeff Kaufman is an American film producer, director, writer, and illustrator. Kaufman produced, wrote, and directed the documentaries Every Act of Life,The State of Marriage,Father Joseph,The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America,Brush With Life: The Art of Being Edward Biberman, and Education Under Fire. He also directed and produced episodes for Unsolved History, a Discovery Channel documentary television series, and the Discovery Channel special WTC 9/11: Stories from the Ruins. His other documentary films include 40 Million, which featured Nasrin Sotoudeh and other Iranian women's rights activists.

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References

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