Outfest: 'Every Act of Life' celebrates acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally

Jeff Kaufman film explores career of openly-gay Broadway great 

Playwright and librettist Terrence McNally may be the quintessential "man of the theater." 

He has won four Tony Awards -- two for his plays Master Class (1996) and Love! Valour! Compassion! (1995), and two for writing the books to the musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993) and Ragtime (1998) -- over the course of a career that began in the 1960s. 

But outside the sphere of Broadway, his work is much better known than the man himself. The new documentary Every Act of Life corrects that, introducing McNally to people who may have seen Frankie and Johnny, for instance -- the 1991 movie that starred Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer -- but not realized McNally wrote the film's screenplay based on his play Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. 

Jeff Kaufman directed Every Act of Life, which is playing at the Outfest film festival in Los Angeles this Sunday (July 15) and the following Sunday, July 22. It explores not only McNally's theater work but his life as a gay man growing up in Texas in the 1950s and his relationship with fellow gay playwright Edward Albee and friendship with author John Steinbeck, among other luminaries. Nonfictionfilm.com editor Matt Carey spoke with Kaufman and producer Marcia Ross Thursday night on the Outfest opening night red carpet.