Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Gets an Industry Reading

DEI Productions is proud to present its premiere reading of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, an original play by actor and writer Shiv Pai. The reading will be held at the Alliance of Resident Theatre in New York City on March 16 at 6:30 pm in The Great Room, inviting over 40 industry and community members to view and comment on the play’s first reading. After the 100-minute show, audience members are invited to a talk-back.

The play, an office comedy following a group of ragtag employees in an oil company’s failing DEI department, is produced by graduates from NYU Tisch School of the Arts Lola Arenas, Nicholas Milan and Shiv Pai. The employees, who are scrambling after an MLK day media meltdown, are played by Naomi Townsend, Rafael Bryant, Merlinda Akindele, Nicholas Milan, Lola Arenas, Shiv Pai, Genevieve Maiden, Diego Guevara (Clockwise Top L-R).

Underneath its own satire—slipshod yoga sessions intended to ease office tensions and problematic brainstorms for AAPI month office celebrations—the play prods at the fallacy of DEI initiative and its intentions.

“It’s a satire that pokes fun at the acronym,” said Pai, who wrote the play during election season in 2024. “It’s an examination of what DEI was meant to be, and how we kind of lost the plot.”

Pai said that the Veep-style play is also a glance into an age where Gen Z workers enter the working world struggling to reconcile their corporate positions with the hyper-politics they’ve grown up subscribing to.

“This play came naturally, it’s our reality,” said Pai.

For invitation consideration and more information about the play, email diversityequityplay@gmail.com.