TRUMBO produced with assistance of People For the American Way
A new theater piece based on the letters of legendary screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo opened an off-Broadway run on September 4, with Nathan Lane starring as Trumbo. Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted, written by the screenwriter’s son Christopher Trumbo and directed by Peter Askin, is a timely reminder of the very real costs of human costs of censorship and intolerance of dissent.
Trumbo refused, along with the rest of the “Hollywood Ten,” to answer questions regarding his political affiliations during his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee. For this, he was fired from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and imprisoned for a year in 1950. After his release, Trumbo, blacklisted and broke, was unable to find work in the United States for years until the blacklist was finally broken. His letters, brilliant, biting, and hilarious, tell the story of a family’s survival and one stubborn artist’s crusade to break the blacklist. Trumbo is a story of an American who took on Congress, Hollywood, and a fearful nation… and won.
Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted is produced with the assistance of People For the American Way, which will receive a portion of the proceeds in support of its efforts to protect constitutional liberties, including the freedom to dissent.
For tickets to the new run of Trumbo, at the Westside Theatre, 407 W. 43rd St., call (212) 239-6200.