Two More Weeks to Support Film ‘Facing East’

In this video clip, author Carol Lynn Pearson and director Will Swenson describe the project

 

Donations, Starting at $5, Accepted through December 14

by Hugo Salinas
December 2012

Facing East, Carol Lynn Pearson’s play about a Mormon couple dealing with the suicide of their gay son, is now in pre-production as a feature film. A Kickstarter campaign now underway needs to raise $65,000 by December 14 to make the next steps happen.

“We’re at just under $40,000, but don’t get a penny of it if we don’t reach our goal,” the producers explain. “Time is of the essence.”

Donations from $5 to $10,000 bring donors various gifts.

“For pledging just $35 you get a DVD long before it’s available in retail,” the producers write, “Plus some lucky person gets serenaded by the gorgeous five-times Tony winner, Broadway diva–who is going to play a bit part inFacing East–Audra McDonald.”

The movie will be directed by Audra’s husband Will Swenson, who is well known as an actor and singer and for his support of the LGBT Mormon community.

Facing East was honored by the Association for Mormon Letters as the best Mormon-themed play of 2007 “for its compassion, its even-handed wisdom and its tragic power.”

“Facing East may well be the best thing Carol Lynn Pearson has ever written, at least for the stage” wrote Ivan M. Lincoln in theDeseret Morning News. “It raises plenty of questions and concerns but doesn’t offer any pat answers.”

For more information about the campaign, please visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/1742408579/facing-east. Stories about the campaign have also appeared in The Advocate and Instinct magazine websites.

For more information about the film, visit FacingEasttheFilm.com.