Last fall, the company presented a fully-staged production of the controversial Thomas Jefferson historical drama “The Estate” in Stamford and Bridgeport.

“Snow-Pressings” is being presented as a “dramatic concert reading,” with the performers carrying scripts during the show.

“It really draws on his own experiences as a black playwright in the 1970s,” actor Stephen Seidel said of Aranha in a phone interview from his New York City apartment last week.

Seidel joined the Prometheus’ Fire company three years ago and has worked on several shows since then, both new works and classics, such as “Winterset” by Maxwell Anderson.

Last fall, the actor delivered a memorable performance as one of the symbolic “white crows” who bedeviled the pioneering black scientist Thomas Banneker in “The Estate.”

“He is such a great guy,” Seidel said of Aranha.

“He started out as an actor, so he treats us really well,” the performer said of the artistic director of Prometheus’ Fire.

Working on “Snow-Pressings” has been an educational experience, as well as an artistic exercise, said the young actor who arrived in New York City five years ago.”The play is about a time of racial tension, but also a time when black actors started to get a foot in the door,” Seidel noted of Aranha’s autobiographical piece.

“Snow-Pressings” follows a black playwright who is married to a white woman and the white couple they are friends with.

Seidel said he plays “a white guy who is trying to fit into black culture my wife [in the play] seems to have an infatuation with black men.” The sometimes explosive relationship and friendship struggles of the two couples are woven through a portrait of American society in a time of great change.

A play-within-the-play — the piece that the black writer is working on — deals with Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panther Party.

“It has been really interesting to be working on this play about racial and sexual issues during this election year with the possibility of a female or black president being elected,” Seidel said.

Even though the performances Saturday and today have been labeled staged readings, Seidel and the other actors have been digging deep into the material during rehearsals with writer and director Aranha.

“We’ve been putting our time in so that we know where our characters are coming from,” the performer said of rehearsals and research time.

“My role is really that of a catalyst to show a lot of the different issues,” Seidel said of the exploration of male-female and black-white relationships.

“Snow-Pressings” also touches on the explosion of sexually graphic films in the 1970s — when mainstream theaters began exhibiting XXX films such as “Deep Throat” — with scenes showing Seidel’s character becoming addicted to porn.

“The porn [aspect] really brings out the insecurities in the guy I play. The [black writer friend] is grounded and secure and I look up to him in a way,” the actor said.

Aranha uses Seidel’s character to show the emptiness inside so many of the men who get hooked on pornography at the expense of their own personal relationships. Aranha has created a real ensemble feeling for the actors who keep returning to work on Prometheus’ Fire shows, Seidel said.

“We get to know each other and the way we work, which is great and Ray always stands by us as actors.

“He gives direction from the heart, but also from the audience perspective as well. He knows what he wants, but he’s open to suggestion, which is a great combination,” Seidel said.

“Snow-Pressings” will be presented today at 3 p.m. at Stamford’s Rich Forum, 307 Atlantic St.

Tickets are $20, with a $5 discount for senior citizens and students 18 and younger.

For more information, call 561-5024 or go online to www.prometheusfire.org.

Stephen Seidel maintains a website and blog at www.stephenseidel.net.