The limited engagement, presented by Diverse City Theater Company, is scheduled to run through Aug. 30. Victor Lirio, who stepped in for the previously announced Gregory Simmons, directs Cassandra Medley's play, which features Helen Hayes Award winner Gin Hammond, Obie Award winner Ron Cephas Jones, Melanie Nicholls-King, Michael McGlone, David Newer and Penelope Darcel.

Noon Day Sun, according to press notes, concerns "Wendy, whose secret birth name is 'Zena,' [and] is a negro-identified woman who is passing for white. Suddenly, on a 'white hot day in August,' she crosses paths with her black husband from the past."

The production features set and lighting design by Maruti Evans, sound design by Elizabeth Rhodes and costume design by Arnulfo Maldonado. David Derr is the creative director; Kathryn "China" Hayzer is the production stage manager.

The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row is located in Manhattan at 410 West 42nd Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues). For tickets, priced $18, call (212) 279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.

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Diverse City Theater Company Inc. is an independent not-for-profit organization-run by artist playwrights, directors and actors. 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." For more information visit www.diversecitytheater.org.