NEW YORK - Diverse City Theater Company announced today the roster of plays for its summer 2005 "Green Room Series," a festival of staged readings featuring original plays that portray social diversity from various cultural perspectives. The series will present three full-length works during August and September 2005. Diverse City Theater, recipient of the Irvin Stern Foundation grant, is an independent not-for-profit theater company based in New York City. The Green Room Series will also present "The Equality Playwrights," an evening of one-act plays that explore gender, demographic and ethnicity issues. The one-act plays will be announced at a later date.

The Green Room Series' impressive roster of award-winning playwrights features:

• "Walking Iron" by Linda Faigao-Hall and directed by Jamie Richards;
• "Sex Diary of an Infidel" by Michael Gurr and directed by Obie Award winner Ching Valdes-Aran; and
• "The Princess of the Lizard Moon" written and directed by Anton Juan.

"Walking Iron" explores homophobia in a working class setting: a gay iron worker outs himself on the construction site and to his straight best friend. Seen from the iron worker gang's perspective, it examines homosexuality from the point of view of sympathetically drawn heterosexual working class men, forced to confront their own feelings about homosexuality, friendship and loyalty.

"No one is a villain, no one is homophobic … just human," said playwright Linda Faigao-Hall.

Originally commissioned by The Working Theater, "Walking Iron" won a National Endowment of the Arts award and grants from New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs and Department of Labor. Faigao-Hall's play, "The Female Heart," was recently produced in association with Ensemble Studio Theatre at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre and was directed by Jamie Richards.

"Sex Diary of an Infidel" is Australian playwright Michael Gurr's multi-award winning play. A complex story of lies, fantasies and shifting realities, the play presents a prize-winning journalist pursuing a story about Australia's involvement in the lucrative and booming sex tours trade in Manila. Gurr occupies a unique place in Australian theatre, a winner of four State and Premiers' Literary Awards for Drama. His plays have been produced throughout Australia and on ABC and BBC radio.

"The Princess of the Lizard Moon," second prize winner of the Onassis International Playwriting Competition, tells the story of a Filipino artist studying in Japan possessed by the ghost of a comfort woman and the memories of a murdered sex-slave, both Filipino like him. The artist's quest for justice takes him on a spectacular journey to a place where ritual, myth and history collide. The story is told through Bunraku, Japanese folklore and story-telling, and Butoh dance.

Dr. Anton Juan is a tenured professor of theatre at the University of Notre Dame and is the Artistic Director of Chariot of Angels in Athens, Greece. A celebrated director and playwright, he's received honors and grants from organizations in France, Greece, Italy, Spain, the United States and the Philippines. He has written six plays, all of which received literary and playwriting awards. His play Taong Grasa (''Asphalt Man'') has been translated into Japanese and recently premiered at the Rinkogun Theatre in Tokyo, Japan. Juan was a scholar of Jack Lang, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Institute of International Education, The Ministry of Culture of Greece, The Fulbright Foundation, and the Asian Cultural Council. He was Knighted by the French Republic Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters and earned the highest honors of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit.

Victor Lirio, artistic & producing director, commented: "I'm drawn to and moved by plays that are character-driven and dramatize contemporary issues through a different lens. The Green Room Series will exhibit just that. These are plays that tackle tough issues- they are often politically incorrect and controversial, but they bring greater insight into the human condition."

The Green Room Series will be presented at Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street (between 10th & 11th Avenues) with the following reading schedule:

• Walking Iron: Monday, August 1st at 7PM
• Sex Diary of an Infidel: Saturday, August 13th at 7PM
• The Equality Playwrights: Monday, September 12th at 7PM
• The Princess of the Lizard Moon: Monday, September 26th at 7PM

The Green Room Series was made possible due, in part, to the generous support of The Irvin Stern Foundation and our partners at The Ensemble Studio Theatre. For reservations, please contact Liz Casasola at 212-309-9018 or e-mail liz@diversecitytheater.org. Suggested donation $10.

ABOUT DIVERSE CITY THEATER CO.:
Diverse City Theater Co. Inc., is an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on promoting diversity in the theater arts. Its mission is to commission, develop and produce original plays that portray social, cultural, lifestyle and demographic diversity, thereby creating multiculturally fluent theater audiences as well as 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.

Contact:
Liz Casasola
212-309-9018
liz@diversecitytheater.org