Sometimes, things just come together perfectly. Just ask Amanda Boyle and Jeanne Tiehen.

The two Kansas University Theatre doctoral candidates are both in their first year of the program and both are getting their first opportunity to direct on campus. It couldn’t have worked out better.

“Neither of us had ever co-directed before,” Boyle says. “We’d both directed and assistant directed, but this was the first time we’d ever worked on a project where we were equally in charge.”

That project is “8,” a play by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who wrote scripts for “Milk” and “J. Edgar.” Boyle and Tiehen, in association with KU’s LGBT Resource Center, will present a staged reading of the play Friday night.

“Luckily, we were really good friends already,” Tiehen says.

“8” tells the story of the lawsuit over California’s Proposition 8, the controversial voter referendum that repealed a state law allowing gay marriage. Two same-sex couples — lesbian partners Sandy Stier and Kristen Perry, and gay partners Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami — sued the state, claiming Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

“The script is comprised of actual testimony from expert witnesses at the trial,” Boyle says. “It’s sort of a documentary onstage.”

Both women are fans of political theater. Tiehen did her master’s thesis on Tim Robbins’ “Dead Man Walking.” Boyle has previously directed “The Laramie Project,” a play about the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

“What I like about this play,” Boyle says, “is that it presents both sides fairly. One of the most dynamic characters is the defense lawyer for the state, who brings in experts to testify that marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman.”

“It offers an interesting perspective on how each side uses (expert witnesses) to make their points,” Tiehen says.

Coming to the play and being chosen to co-direct was another of the many points of the project’s serendipity for Boyle and Tiehen.

“Broadway Impact — the company that holds the rights to the play — contacted our department chair, Michelle Leon,” Boyle says. “They wanted the play to be done in Kansas. At the same time, Michael Detmer of the LGBT Resource Center had it on his desk and wanted to get it produced. So those things just came together at the right time to make it happen.”

“How lucky we were to get something this significant to direct that is happening and is being talked about in this moment,” Tiehen says of the play’s central theme of gay marriage.

But there were other kinds of luck, too. Because the play will be presented as a staged reading, there were only five rehearsals for a cast of 21 characters.

“I really feel lucky to have someone to split all the work with,” Tiehen says.

A talkback with panelists KU Law Professor Richard Levy, Lawrence City Commission candidate Scott Criqui, and Network Q secretary Becca Burns follows the reading. Professor Levy will specifically address the constitutional issues that are bound up in the question of gay marriage, and the panel in general will address how the subject is being discussed in Kansas.

“I hope it will open people’s minds to marriage equality,” Boyle says. “But the play doesn’t force the audience to think that way. It just presents the argument.”

“8” will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday in Room 3139 of Wescoe Hall on the KU campus. The talkback immediately follows. Admission is free.