Monday, March 2, 2015
8pm
Norman Lear
in conversation with Jane Lynch
discussing his memoir
Even This I Get to Experience
The Aero Theatre
1328 Montana Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$25 General Admission seat
$35 Reserved Section seat
$50 Reserved Seats (includes Norman Lear’s memoir)
Norman Lear has enjoyed a long career in television and film, and as a political and social activist and philanthropist.
He teamed with director Bud Yorkin to form Tandem Productions, and together they produced several feature films, with Mr. Lear taking on roles as executive producer, writer, and director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1967 for his script for Divorce American Style. In 1970, CBS signed with Tandem to produce All in the Family, which first aired on January 12, 1971 and ran for nine seasons. It earned four Emmy Awards for Best Comedy series as well as the Peabody Award in 1977. All in the Family was followed by a succession of other television hit shows including Maude, Sanford and Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
Concerned about the growing influence of radical religious evangelists, Mr. Lear decided to leave television in 1980 and formed People For the American Way, a non-profit organization designed to speak out for Bill of Rights guarantees and to monitor violations of constitutional freedoms.
Mr. Lear’s business career continued in 1982, when Tandem Productions and his other company, T.A.T. Communications, were folded into Embassy Communications, which was sold in 1985. He then created and is currently chairman of Act III Communications, a multimedia holding company with interests in television, motion pictures, and licensing.
In 1999, President Clinton bestowed the National Medal of Arts on Mr. Lear, noting that “Norman Lear has held up a mirror to American society and changed the way we look at it.” He also has the distinction of being among the first seven television pioneers inducted in 1984 into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
In addition to People for the American Way, Mr. Lear has founded other nonprofit organizations, including the Business Enterprise Trust (1989- 2000), which spotlighted exemplary social innovations in American business; the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication (2000-present), a multidisciplinary research and public policy center dedicated to exploring the convergence of entertainment, commerce and society; and with his wife, Lyn, co-founded the Environmental Media Association (1989-present), to mobilize the entertainment industry to become more environmentally responsible. Visit his website.
In 2001, Lyn and Norman Lear purchased one of the few surviving original copies of the Declaration of Independence. During the decade that they owned it, they shared it with the American people by touring it to all 50 states. As part of this Declaration of Independence Road Trip, he launched Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan youth voter initiative that registered well over four million new young voters in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 elections.
Jane Lynch cut her theatrical teeth at The Second City, Steppenwolf Theatre and in many church basements all over the greater Chicagoland area.
Recent film credits include A.C.O.D, Three Stooges, Wreck-It Ralph, Julie & Julia, Shrek Forever After, The Post Grad Survival Guide, Paul and Brownie Masters. Past film work includes Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration, A Mighty Wind and Best in Show, as well as Role Models, The Rocker, Spring Breakdown, the animated film Space Chimps, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Walk Hard, Talladega Nights, The 40 Year old Virgin, Margaret Cho’s Celeste and Bam Bam, Alan Cumming’s Suffering Man’s Charity, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Sleepover, and Surviving Eden.
Jane can currently be seen in the Ryan Murphy television series Glee on FOX for which she is an Emmy and Golden Globe winner for portraying the iconic television character, Sue Sylvester. Some of her other recent credits include the STARZ series Party Down, Lovespring, a Lifetime original series, Desperate Housewives and Weeds as well as the last season of The L Word opposite Cybill Shepherd. She has recurring roles on Two and a Half Men, Criminal Minds and The New Adventures of Old Christine.
Starting this May, Jane will be featured in the Broadway production of Annie as Miss Hannigan in a limited Broadway run at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theater in New York. She also will be seen hosting NBC’s newest game show hit, Hollywood Game Night, produced by Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner later this summer.