NEW YORK--Diverse City Theater Company ("DCT") announced its "Equality Playwrights" Festival season on Saturday, December 3, at 3:00 PM at DCT's office at 100 Park Avenue in New York City. The theater festival, planned for early fall of 2006, begins with the launching of the Equality Playwrights Workshop where playwrights were offered commissions to dramatize one-act plays that explore and examine gender identity issues of the 21st century. Maxine Kern, DCT's Festival Dramaturg, will lead playwrights Joe Byers, Lee Errickson, Stuart Harris and Jorshinelle Taleon-Sonza. Also present at the launching was Festival Producer and Curator, Linda Faigao-Hall; First Draft Fellows 2005-2006 Tom Caplan, Marisa Marquez and Kristine Reyes; DCT's Founder, Artistic & Producing Director, Victor Lirio; and DCT's Producer and Company Manager, Natasha Marco.

Maxine Kern, DCT's Festival Dramaturg commented: "I am very excited about the kind of commitment this theater company [Diverse City Theater] is making to playwrights. I'm noticing a strong corporate structure and commitment to deliver a production which the artists deserve. I am also very glad to be involved in the development of the workshop's unique process, and working with playwrights who bring with them a solid body of work."

The Equality Playwrights Workshop is an intense creative process that began with a public reading of the playwrights' representative work during DCT's Green Room Series Festival 2005 in August & September. The playwrights, selected from several submissions, were offered a commission to write new work. For the next six months, DCT's Festival Dramaturg Maxine Kern will meet with the playwrights for individual sessions, group meetings and development process which include readings and workshops of playwrights' commissioned work. The goal is to complete production-ready one-act plays. The program will culminate in a 3-week theater festival in the fall of 2006 entitled "The Equality Plays."

Faigao-Hall, who has been instrumental in developing and creating the workshop's format, described the process as a "workshop made-in-playwright heaven." She commented: "Production is an integral part of a playwright's development. DCT is making that commitment by granting playwrights commissions to write new plays on a specific theme, and providing them with the time, the space, an expert dramaturg and professional actors and directors to help them in their process."

This year's theme is Gender Identity Issues of the 21st century. The plays will be "sparked" by specific feature articles on the subject provided by Kern and Lirio. The articles range from the serious to the whimsical.

"We believe that the theater is a profound venue to examine social issues. Although the theme is gender identity issues, our primary goal remains presenting character-driven plays that dramatize the human experience and universal issues: life, liberty and happiness. We are grateful for the commitment of Ms. Kern and honored to have four inspired playwrights who will create with us an exciting opportunity to tell amazing stories," said DCT's Founder, Artistic & Producing Director Victor Lirio.

ABOUT DIVERSE CITY THEATER CO.:
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 in the theater arts. Its mission is to commission, develop and produce original plays that explore and examine diversity issues in our national culture 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:

Victor Lirio
212-309-9031
victor@diversecitytheater.org

Linda Faigao-Hall
917-302-2346
kalayaan48@aol.com