Diggs, Mackie & Pasquale Set for A Soldier's Play at Second Stage

Taye Diggs, Anthony Mackie and Steven Pasquale will headline the fall Second Stage production of Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play. Teagle F. Bougere, Michael Genet and Dorian Missick are also set to star.

A Soldier's Play takes the audience into the heart of a murder investigation on a Louisiana Army base during World War Two. The victim is a brutal, self-hating black soldier, Sergeant Vernon Waters. The investigator sent by the Army is, for that era, a rarity: a black officer Diggs, who must square off against Waters' white commander Pasquale. Who killed Waters finally comes to light. As for why--that answer is complicated.

Diggs was part of the original cast of Rent and is currently reprising his role for the film version, which is due to be released on November 11. He has also been seen on Broadway in Chicago and Wicked and off-Broadway in The Wild Party. Diggs made his film debut in 1998 opposite Angela Bassett in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. His other movies credits include Chicago, Malibu's Most Wanted, Basic, Brown Sugar, Equilibrium, The Best Man, The Way of the Gun, House on Haunted Hill, The Wood and Go. Last season he played the title character in the acclaimed UPN series Kevin Hill, which will not be back for another season.

Mackie has appeared on Broadway in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Drowning Crow. His off-Broadway credits include Up Against the Wind, Talk and the recent McReele. Mackie also has a rising film career, having starred in the Spike Lee film She Hate Me. His other film credits include Million Dollar Baby, 8 Mile, Hollywood Homicide, The Manchurian Candidate and Haven.

Pasquale is currently appearing on the TV series Rescue Me. He recently starred in Fat Pig off-Broadway. His other off-Broadway credits include The Spitfire Grill, Spinning Into Butter, The Wild Party and A Man of No Importance. Pasquale has also appeared in the national tours of Miss Saigon and West Side Story and one of the pre-Broadway mountings of The Light in the Piazza.

Bougere appeared on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun. His off-Broadway credits include A Last Dance For Sybill, The Winter's Tale, A Fair Country, Antony and Cleopatra, Space and Henry V. He has also appeared in The Tempest and Blue/Orange regionally.

Genet's regional theater credits include Hamlet and A Few Good Men. He has appeared in the films She Hate Me with Mackie, The 25th Hour, One Fine Day and Let It Be Me.

Missick is currently filming Lucky Number Slevin with Ben Kingsley, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu, and recently concluded filming Freedomland with Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore. His other film credits include The Manchurian Candidate, Two Weeks Notice, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, Undermind and Shaft.

A Soldier's Play, directed by Jo Bonney, is scheduled to begin performances off-Broadway on September 20.