Former Governor Mario Cuomo came to the rescue of Diverse City Theater's production of Race Music written by Warren Bodow, the former president of WQXR, when he agreed to lend his RCA 77B broadcast microphone. The vintage microphone was a thank you gift from The New York State Broadcasters Association, for hosting the group's breakfast meeting at the executive mansion in Albany, in 1994.
Actor
Victor Lirio, who directs Race Music, commented: "The 77B microphone is a character in the play. We were worried because it is a rare item and we did not know where we would obtain this important prop piece. We searched all audio houses and prop shops to no avail. We saw later models of the microphone but both Warren and I wanted the 77B, as scripted. This production is grateful to Governor Cuomo and thrilled that his microphone is back in the broadcast business; this time, on stage."
First introduced in 1937, the RCA 77B radio microphone was the first of the iconic pill-shaped design that have become the universal icon for classic microphone recognized throughout the world due to its elegant and dramatic black-and-chrome art deco design.
Race Music is set in a metropolitan Midwestern city in 1999. Lebron Malek, a 26 year-old classical music lover, applies for a radio-announcing position at a classical music radio station but is rejected because he is black. Six characters of varying colors and ancestral origins, struggle to come to terms with the changing racial landscape of our country in pre-Obama 1999.
Race Music features
Chris Ceraso*, Bran
Don Jones*, Kevin Kelleher*, Penelope Lowder*, Teresa Stephenson, and Julia Sun. Performances begin on September 3 thru September 19, 2009 at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row located at 410 West 42nd Street in New York City. Tickets: $18. To purchase tickets, visit www.ticketcentral.com or call 212-279-4200.
* Member of
Actors' Equity Association
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.
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