Diggs, who appeared in the original cast of Rent, will perform with Andrew Palermo — a childhood friend of his from Rochester — along with the company dre.dance in a dance piece entitled me, myself and lie, which goes up March 30 and 31 at 7 PM.

The festival will also feature readings of a series of new short plays written by playwrights responding to neglected works of American drama from the years 1776-1914. The participating playwrights include Erin Courtney, Les Hunter, Ruth Margraff, Dominic Taylor, Anne Washburn and Gary Winter.

Lynn M. Thomson is organizing the free series, which will go up in three groups: From Sea to Shining Sea: American Landscapes on March 19, Yankee Doodles: From Crackerbarrel Philosophers to Silk Crooks on March 26 and Tall Tales, or Performing Democracy on March 27, all at 7 PM.

The series will also include the multimedia piece Sixteen Stories by Christal Brown and INSPIRIT, plus such dance pieces as Mei-Yin Ng's Cinderella Toe Jam II: Royal Pink, Deganit Shemy's Yod and Pedro Ruiz's Passages of Love - Pasajes de Amor.

Diggs appeared in the original Broadway cast of Rent and Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party Off-Broadway, and has also appeared on Broadway in Wicked, Chicago and Carousel. He has appeared in such films as "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," "Chicago," "Go," "Brown Sugar," "Cake" and "Rent" as well as such television series as "Ally McBeal." Tribeca Performing Arts Center is located at the Borough of Manhattan Community College at 199 Chambers Street. For tickets or more information call (212) 220-1460 or visit www.TribecaPAC.org.