NEW YORK, NY - Diverse City Theater Co., a newly formed theater development company that focuses on producing original plays that portray evolving cultural and lifestyle diversity, recently announced its inaugural production of A Woman at Heart, written by Linda Faigao Hall.

A Woman at Heart revisits "Smokey Mountain," the infamous garbage dump outside Manila. Started in the 1950's, it grew to an area of 50 acres rising to 650 feet high. It became a home to an impoverished community of scavengers and their families who made a living by sifting through the waste to recycle whatever could be sold. Although demolished in 1993, it has been replaced by several dumpsites that still exist today. In July 1996, one of them, in the city of Payatas, collapsed killing hundreds of people living at its base. Ironically, this landslide smothered the very people who relied on the mountain of garbage for their livelihood.

The play takes place in the late 1980's and tells the story of two siblings living in the so-called "Smokey." When Anghel, the elder sibling, succumbs to a life-threatening disease, Adelfa, his sister, decides to become a mail-order bride to a Brooklyn man who is willing - at a price - to send money to pay for Anghel's medical expenses.

Award-winning playwright Linda Faigao-Hall examines the legacy of the Marcos administration, whose decades of plunder and inequality deprived hundreds of men and women like Anghel and Adelfa the chance to leave the garbage dump. In this play, poignantly, they trade the garbage dump of Smokey Mountain for something else -- they trade it for an impossible dream.

"I wrote about the horrors of Smokey because such injustices foster in me a strong sense of moral outrage. It's important to explore social issues through art, which often provides the best opportunity to examine the human condition," said Faigao-Hall. "This play illustrates the lives of a family usually ignored by mainstream theater's focus on beauty and wealth. But the family issues are shared by everyone, the universal quest for a better life and the sacrifices that need to be made."

She added: "I'm also painfully aware of the complex ambiguities of the American dream. That's why this play examines those universal ideals but through a unique lens."

"A Woman at Heart" is the English translation of the phrase "pusong babae." Unique to Tagalog, the primary language of the Philipines, it describes a man who possesses virtues traditionally attributed to a woman, like compassion, nurturance and servitude.

Faigao-Hall has been praised for her work in Salad Days, God Sex and Blue Water, Woman from the Other Side of the World, and the award-winning play, Iron Men. Her work has been published and produced throughout the country by groups including East West Players and the Ma-Yi Theatre Company. A Woman at Heart was originally commissioned and later produced by Starfish Theater Works. The play has been revised and expanded for Diverse City Theater during the past year.

A reading of the revised version of A Woman at Heart is scheduled for March 15, 2004 directed by Andrew Eisenman. The cast will feature Obie Award winner Ching Valdes-Aran, Brian Armstrong, Victor Lirio and Luz Lor. The production is planned to open in late summer 2004.

Ching Valdes-Aran won an Obie Award for her performance in Flipzoids. Among her critically-acclaimed stage performances are productions of Dogeaters and The Square at the Public Theatre, Last of the Suns, Erendira and The House of Bernarda Alba.

Diverse City Theater Co. Inc., is an independent theater development company that focuses on developing, commissioning and producing original plays as well as promoting emerging playwrights whose works portray cultural, lifestyle and demographic diversity. Its mission is to promote art and awareness, inclusion, integration, acceptance of individualities and differences, and non-traditional casting.

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.