[caption id="attachment_1339" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Chris Ceraso (with the 77B microphone) in Race Music
photo by Carlo Damocles"][/caption]
Cuomo lent his vintage RCA 77B broadcast microphone — a gift from The New York State Broadcasters Association for hosting the group's breakfast meeting at the executive mansion in Albany in 1994 — to the production.

Victor Lirio, who directed the Warren Bodow play, said, "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."

Race Music, according to press notes, "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."

For more information visit www.diversecitytheater.org.