If the Guthrie Theater's 50th anniversary season is a party, it's a party to which many people of color and white women feel univited. That is because the season that was unveiled Monday consists mostly of works written and directed by white men.

The noisy firestorm that erupted after the announcement by the nation's largest regional theater continues to gather steam.

On Tuesday, Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs posted an article on the continuing controversy. Entitled "Guthrie Theater's debt to women and diversity." The lenghty piece quotes the Guthrie's mission and unearths some of director Joe Dowling's statements about cultural and gender diversity, his artistic choices, changing demographic trends and quotes theater director Joe Dowling, who has defended his choices in print and on TV.

Last Friday pn TPT, Ch. 2's "Almanac," Dowling said: "The Guthrie is not an organization that lacks diversity," he said.

"It is a very stern task to direct on a stage of our size," Dowling told the Star Tribune last week.

"To suggest that there just aren't talented women and people of color out there this season is appalling," actor Heidi Berg said to MPR. "It isn't as though the Guthrie's not hiring from a national and international pool of talent. While we are accustomed to being told there aren't enough local people qualified to fill positions in the Guthrie season, now we are to believe there aren't enough talented women and people of color in the WORLD."