DCT MAINSTAGE 2008
CRITICS RAVE :
TIME OUT NEW YORK'S "BEST BET!"
"NOON DAY SUN shines brightly!"
"... a production that is first rate in every way."
"NOON DAY SUN is theatre at its transforming best!"
"Seductive ... the story pulls you in ..."

"Medley’s work is rich in figurative language (“Fireflies like gold dust whirling in the night”), but its earthy characters give it weight. Under Victor Lirio’s lyrical direction, Gin Hammond manages to artfully show Zena’s conflict, and not just her artifice; Ron Cephas Jones, using Reuben’s past shame to motor his present determination, gives a performance of fierce honesty. Nearly everyone in Medley’s play is passing in some way or other: Zena’s husband is a Catholic who claims to be Presbyterian, and Reuben’s girlfriend, Pearl, shacks up with him every night despite her oft-declaimed Baptist piety. Black or white, the characters all come in shades of gray. Deftly layering melodrama over a headier look at the invention of identity, NOON DAY SUN shines brightly."
-TIME OUT, Aaron Riccio

"Seductive ... the story pulls you in ... Everyone has to decide whether to be true to his or her real self. Melanie Nicholls-King in the play's best performance."
-NEW YORK TIMES, Neil Genzlinger

"As Victor Lirio sure-handedly directs this stark material, he also ensures the characters are all well-played (and dressed according to society stratum by costume designer Arnulfo Maldonado). Hammond, looking very much the part, has the most to do and does it with the proper coursing anxiety. Jones makes sincerity an almost palpable commodity. McGlone and Newer imbue the Brian-Lloyd scenes into the right kind of boss-underling gamesmanship. Penelope Darcel has fun with the roles of fearful conjure women -- one old school and the other decidedly new school. And perhaps because Nicholls-King has the play's single most powerful speech, about how skin coloration is its own imprisoning factor, she's the evening scene-stealer."
-THEATREMANIA, David Finkle

"I see at least 100 shows a year, but rarely do I walk out of the theatre feeling as uplifted as I did after seeing this provocative, beautifully acted play Monday night. It was the rare experience of seeing a production that is first rate in every way. NOON DAY SUN is theatre at its transforming best.

Cassandra Medley’s play, under the insightful direction of Victor Lirio, is involving from start to finish.

Hammond is compelling as Zena, as is the entire cast … NOON DAY SUN gives human faces and human hearts to the issues of racism and the search for identity. My only regret is that it’s closing Saturday. I strongly urge you to catch this production at The Beckett Theatre in these last few days."
-Retta Blaney, Drama Desk Critic

"Reprising her role as Zena is Gin Hammond (Helen Hayes Award for The Syringa Tree). Not only does she demonstrate that she’s utterly at ease in the part, but she feelingly conveys the honey-pie slush and fierce angst of her character as she evolves into a conscious social person. Hammond creates an indelible image of a fair-skinned black woman who’s “living white,” and reaching for what she’s never had as a poor Negro. Another first-rate performance is turned in by Melanie Nicholls-King, playing a self-effacing Negro and Reuben’s dark-skinned lover. Pearl’s final speech in Act 2 about race is profound, and utterly moving. The talented Ron Cephas Jones (Obie Award Winner), in his bifurcated role as Zena’s first husband and Pearl’s lover, is well-cast in his part. He conveys the sincere quality of a man being handed a second-chance at life, and a first chance at freedom.

NOON DAY SUN is a play, essentially, about “passing” and 'living white,” and the inevitable problems it begets in society. Directed by Victor Lirio, the play couldn’t be better timed in light of the whirlwind of racial discussions surrounding the Obama presidential campaign... It’s surely not too late for us to take a fresh look at race, our own belief systems, and perhaps our hidden prejudice."
-THEATRESCENE.NET, Deirdre Donovan

"NOON DAY SUN SHINES A BRIGHT LIGHT! With Barack Obama running for President of the United States, it is politically and socially resonant to witness a play set in 1957 that deals directly with American racism in a story about a young Black woman passing for White. The changes in our country that have taken place in the last half century come very much to mind in the evocative Cassandra Medley play."

"Elegantly directed by Victor Lirio, all of the characters are richly detailed and three-dimensional. Giving an especially vivid performance is Michael McGlone ... one of this season's early great performances!"
-TALKINBROADWAY.COM, Scott and Barbara Siegel

"... EXTREMELY COMPELLING! At a time when Barak Obama is about to be nominated as the first black candidate for president, passing needs to be given a new dimension if it is to have meaning for Americans in the 21st century. Medley does this in a way that still pays tribute to its regrettable necessity in the lives of too many blacks in the preceding centuries."
-NYTHEATRE-WIRE.COM, Paulanne Simmons

"Director Victor Lirio gets very good performances from a talented cast. Ron Cephas Jones plays Reuben with alternating deep contrition and struggling decency, and Hammond shows the distress just underneath Zena’s apparent confidence, and her budding sense of sexual inequality. And he gets a go-for-broke performance from Melanie Nicholls-King as the fervent and anguished Pearl, who doubts Reuben’s attraction toward her because of her dark skin and sabotages her own chances for happiness."
-OFFOFFONLINE.COM, Edward Karam

“This play profoundly explores and examines the universal resonance of ‘passing,'" said Victor Lirio, DCT's Founder & Artistic Director. "NOON DAY SUN is not just about race ... it is about identity and, ultimately, love. Every character in the play is passing as someone else to hide from an undesirable past. The core circumstance is quite extraordinary. We are thrilled to present NOON DAY SUN as our 2008 mainstage offering and a cast of stellar actors.”

NOON DAY SUN features Helen Hayes Award Winner Gin Hammond* (The Syringa Tree), Obie Award Winner Ron Cephas Jones* (Gem of the Ocean, Jesus Hopped the A Train, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot), Melanie Nicholls-King* (HBO’s The Wire, Relativity), Michael McGlone (Brothers McMullen, The Kill Point), David Newer* (Dinner with Friends) and Penelope Darcel*.

 * appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association

Performance schedule for NOON DAY SUN are as follows:

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 7PM:  Invited Dress
Thursday-Saturday:  August 14 – August 16 @ 8:00PM
Monday-Saturday:  August 18 – August 30 @ 8:00PM
Saturday:  August 30 @ 2:00PM

Producers:  Natasha Marco, Martha Zamirski; Set & Lighting Design:  Maruti Evans; Sound Design:  Elizabeth Rhodes; Costume Design:  Arnulfo Maldonado; Creative Director:  David Derr; Production Stage Manager:  Kathryn “China” Hayzer*; Stage Manager: Nick Tochelli*; Assistant Stage Manager: Nino Spallacci

The Beckett Theatre at THEATRE ROW
410 West 42nd Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues)

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About Diverse City Theater Company

Diverse City Theater Co. Inc., is an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization-run by artist playwrights, directors and actors - that focuses on promoting diversity and multiculturalism in the theater arts. Its mission is to commission, develop and produce powerful and though-provoking original plays that explore and examine diversity issues in our national culture, create multiculturally fluent theater audiences and advocate the non-traditional casting of actors.

Formed in 2003, Diverse City Theater Co., Inc. is based in New York City. For more information, visit the organization's website at www.diversecitytheater.org.