Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story

Last updated
Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story
Directed by John L'Ecuyer
Written by Michael MacLennan
Produced by Heather Gordon Haldane
Starring Aaron Ashmore
CinematographyGlenn Warner
Edited byMike Lee
Music byGary Koftinoff
Production
company
Distributed by Lifetime Television
Release dates
  • 1 June 2004 (2004-06-01)(Canada)
  • 28 April 2005 (2005-04-28)(U.S.)
Running time
92 min.
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story is a Canadian television film, which aired on CTV in 2004. The film is about Marc Hall, a gay Canadian teenager whose legal fight ( Marc Hall v. Durham Catholic School Board ) to bring a same-sex date to his Catholic high school prom made headlines in 2002.

Contents

Plot

In Inniston, Marc Hall (Aaron Ashmore) is popular and his sexuality relatively well-accepted by his classmates and later his parents. But when he decides to take his boyfriend to the prom as his date, he finds he has stepped over the line straight into the fight of his young life and sends ripples through Canada's media. From just an ordinary teenager, he becomes an icon for LGBT rights across the nation when he discovers he is battling discrimination to date whomever he wants within the spotlight of the nation's media.

Cast

Production

The offices of Toronto-based Tapestry Pictures were vandalised one week before the film's television premiere, and the producers feared the vandalism was linked to its controversial film it was about to release. It was shown on terrestrial TV on CTV on 1 June 2004. [1]

Theatrical adaptation

A musical adaptation of Prom Queen entitled The Louder We Get directed by Lonny Price with songs by Colleen Dauncey and lyrics by Akiva-Romer Segal premiered in January 2020 at Theatre Calgary after a developmental production in September 2018 in London, Ontario. [2] [3] [4] Selections were featured in the 2017 NAMT festival in New York. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calgary Stampede</span> Annual rodeo, exhibition, and festival in Calgary, Canada

The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition, and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over one million visitors per year and features one of the world's largest rodeos, a parade, midway, stage shows, concerts, agricultural competitions, chuckwagon racing, and First Nations exhibitions. In 2008, the Calgary Stampede was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

Sharon Pollock, was a Canadian playwright, actor, and director. She was Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary (1984), Theatre New Brunswick (1988–1990) and Performance Kitchen & The Garry Theatre, the latter which she herself founded in 1992. In 2007, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Pollock was one of Canada's most notable playwrights, and was a major part of the development of what is known today as Canadian Theatre.

Hall v Durham Catholic School Board was a 2002 court case in which Marc Hall, a Canadian teenager, fought a successful legal battle against the Durham Catholic District School Board to bring a same-sex date to his high school prom. The case made Canadian and international headlines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Ashmore</span> Canadian actor

Aaron Richard Ashmore is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles on American television series such as Jimmy Olsen on Smallville, Steve Jinks on Warehouse 13 and Johnny Jaqobis on the Canadian television series Killjoys. He is the identical twin brother of actor Shawn Ashmore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawn Ashmore</span> Canadian actor

Shawn Robert Ashmore is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles as Bobby Drake / Iceman in the X-Men film series, Jake Berenson in the television series Animorphs, Agent Mike Weston in the television drama series The Following, Eric in the horror film The Ruins, Sam Spencer in the ABC series Conviction, Wesley Evers in the ABC series The Rookie, and Lamplighter in the Amazon Prime Video superhero series The Boys. Ashmore also plays the main character, Jack Joyce, in the 2016 video game Quantum Break, as well as Conrad in 2019's Man of Medan. He is the identical twin brother of actor Aaron Ashmore.

Aaron Fricke is an American gay rights activist and author. He was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He is best known for Fricke v. Lynch, a legal case in which he won his first amendment legal right to attend prom and for his autobiography Reflections of a Rock Lobster in which he details growing up gay culminating at that high school dance.

Glenn Slater is an American lyricist for musical theatre. He has collaborated with Alan Menken, Christopher Lennertz, Andrew Lloyd Webber, among other composers. He was nominated for three Tony Awards for Best Original Score for the Broadway version of The Little Mermaid at the 62nd Tony Awards in 2008, Sister Act at the 65th Tony Awards in 2011, and School of Rock at the 70th Tony Awards in 2016.

Sir Thomas Boaz Allen is an English operatic baritone. He is widely admired in the opera world for his voice, the versatility of his repertoire, and his acting—leading many to regard him as one of the best lyric baritones of the late 20th century. In October 2011, he was appointed Chancellor of Durham University, succeeding Bill Bryson.

<i>Zombie Prom</i>

Zombie Prom is an Off-Broadway musical with music by Dana P. Rowe and a book and lyrics by John Dempsey, later adapted into a short film. It was first produced at the Red Barn Theatre, Key West, Florida in 1993. It opened off-Broadway in New York City at the Variety Arts Theatre in 1996. It also opened November 2009 in London with a UK Premiere at the off-West End Landor Theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notre Dame High School (Toronto)</span> Catholic high school in Upper Beaches, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Notre Dame High School is an all-girls Roman Catholic secondary school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This school is a member of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vital-Justin Grandin</span> Catholic bishop

Vital-Justin Grandin was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop known as a key architect of the Canadian Indian residential school system, which has been labeled an instrument of cultural genocide. In June 2021, this led to governments and private businesses to begin removing his name from institutions and infrastructure previously named for him. He served the Church in the western parts of what is now Canada both before and after Confederation. He is also the namesake or co-founder of various small communities and neighbourhoods in what is now Alberta, Canada, especially those of francophone residents.

David Corbett is a Canadian lawyer who gained international acclaim when, in 2002, he argued Marc Hall v. Durham Catholic School Board, a case that pitted the rights of a homosexual couple against the rights of a religious institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Segal Centre for Performing Arts</span>

The Segal Centre for Performing Arts, formerly the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, is a theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 5170 chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

Daryl Cloran is a Canadian theatre director and, currently, the artistic director of the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta. Formally the artistic director of Western Canada Theatre, in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, he took over as the artistic director of Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, AB, Canada, succeeding Bob Baker (director), in September 2016.

<i>Everybodys Talking About Jamie</i> Musical

Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a coming-of-age stage musical with music by Dan Gillespie Sells and book and lyrics by Tom MacRae. The musical is inspired by the 2011 British television documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 directed by Jenny Popplewell. The musical follows and is based upon the true-life story of 16-year-old British schoolboy Jamie Campbell, as he overcomes prejudice and bullying to step out of the darkness and become a drag queen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin Goldner</span> Musical artist

Justin Goldner is an American music producer, songwriter, arranger and session musician based in New York City, originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

<i>The Prom</i> (musical) American Broadway musical

The Prom is a musical with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and a book by Bob Martin and Beguelin, based on an original concept by Jack Viertel. The musical follows four Broadway actors lamenting their days of fame, as they travel to the conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana, to help a lesbian student banned from bringing her girlfriend to high school prom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">73rd Tony Awards</span>

The 73rd Annual Tony Awards were held on June 9, 2019, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2018–19 season. The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and was broadcast live by CBS. James Corden served as host.

<i>Everybodys Talking About Jamie</i> (film) 2021 film

Everybody's Talking About Jamie is a 2021 biographical coming-of-age musical comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Butterell from a screenplay by Tom MacRae based on the stage musical of the same name, which in turn was adapted from the BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 by Jenny Popplewell. The film stars newcomer Max Harwood with Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, Samuel Bottomley, Sharon Horgan, and Richard E. Grant. The story follows and is based upon the true-life story of 16-year-old British schoolboy Jamie Campbell, as he overcomes prejudice and bullying, to step out of the darkness and become a drag queen.

<i>Take Me to Prom</i> 2019 Canadian film

Take Me to Prom is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Andrew Moir and released in 2019. The film traces the evolution of LGBTQ acceptance in society by asking a multigenerational selection of LGBTQ people to recount a story from their high school prom.

References

  1. MacDonald, Gayle (27 May 2004). "Prom Queen offices trashed" . Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  2. Hobson, Louis B. (2020-02-27). "Theatre Calgary show The Louder We Get is making plenty of noise in theatre circles". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  3. "Theatre Calgary's The Louder We Get 'an absolute must-see' musical that will have you humming numbers on your way out the door – TheYYSCENE" . Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  4. BWW News Desk. "Grand Theatre Celebrates PROM QUEEN: THE MUSICAL". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
  5. "Prom Queen | NAMT". NAMT. Retrieved 2018-06-24.