Panelists to include producer Stephen Byrd (upcoming A Streetcar Named Desire, '08 revival Cat on a Hot Tin Roof); Kamilah Forbes, artistic director of the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival, director (Def Poetry Jam on Broadway); Woodie King Jr., artistic director of New Federal Theatre (What the Wine Sellers Buy, For Colored Girls..., Checkmates); producer Nelle Nugent (Stick Fly, Ghetto Klown, Time Stands Still, ...Nicholas Nickleby); Donna Walker-Kuhne of Walker International Communications; and Melissa Marano, Senior Client Account Executive at aka Promotions (Jerusalem, The MotherF*er With The Hat, Billy Elliot, Stick Fly, A Streetcar Named Desire).

Have we made any significant progress in bringing diversity into commercial theater? Is there an audience to support the work, and how do we tap into that audience? How can we help along the process? Even commercial plays with tremendous crossover appeal, such as "Stick Fly" and "Radio Golf", have not managed to succeed as well as we might hope. How do we build a culturally diverse audience that can truly support works like these? Might cultivating producers of color help generate players who have a vested interest in bringing more culturally diverse works into commercial production? And can we do it without compromising the integrity of diverse voices in order to make them more palatable to the white mainstream?

Doors open at 7:00pm for networking and refreshments, panel starts promptly at 7:30pm. FREE for TRU members; $12 for non-members. Please call for reservations: 212/714-7628; or e-mail TRUnltd@aol.com before 5pm today (Wednesday)

The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, 3rd floor

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