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PRESS RELEASE
BILL W. AND DR. BOB
debuts Off-Broadway at New World Stages (Stage 2)
Previews Feb. 16, opens March 5, 2007
Press contact: Sam Rudy (212) 221-8466
TICKETS ON SALE THURSDAY, OCT. 19!!
Play believed to be the very first about the pioneering founders
and early days of Alcoholics Anonymous
comes to New York following sold-out run in Boston
BILL W. AND DR. BOB - a new play about Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, two hopeless drunks whose sometimes stormy friendship, buffeted by their strong desire to recover from their chronic alcoholism, led to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous - will be given its Off-Broadway premiere with previews beginning February 16, 2007 prior to an official press opening March 5 at New World Stages (Stage 2 at 340 W. 50 St.) in New York City.
Written by Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey, BILL W. AND DR. BOB is believed to be the first play to depict the relationship between Wilson and Smith and the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous, a rich, provocative dramatization of what remains one of the most enduring, if unlikely, success stories in American history.
BILL W. AND DR. BOB is directed by Rick Lombardo, who directed the play's enormously successful, sold-out engagement earlier this year at New Repertory Theatre in Boston.
Tickets to BILL W. AND DR. BOB at New World Stages go on sale Thursday, October 19 through Telecharge (212 239 6200 or www.telecharge.com) or at the theatre box office.
BILL W. AND DR. BOB is the compelling and often humorous story of how Wilson, a failed stockbroker, and Smith, a surgeon, met in 1935. Diagnosed as an incurable alcoholic, Wilson determined that what he needed most was fellowship with other alcoholics after previous attempts at recovery failed him. When Wilson's desire to drink overwhelmed him during a trip to Akron, Ohio, he picked out the name of a clergyman at random and asked if he could give him the name of a local alcoholic to talk to. That search led him to Dr. Bob Smith, a respected surgeon who frequently operated while inebriated.
The stockbroker and the surgeon first met in the living room of Akron matron Henrietta Sieberling on May 12, 1935, talked for six hours straight - the first AA meeting - and history was made. On June 10, Dr. Bob took his last drink and drug - and this is taken as the date of the founding of AA.
When scenes from BILL W. AND DR. BOB were staged on the front lawn of Sieberling's home on AA Founders Day, June 9, 2006, Mrs. Sieberling's son remarked, "I knew those guys, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. They'd come to the house after that first meeting and I used to hear them talk all the time. You really capture them. You did a terrific job bringing them to life, and bringing back that time."
The cast from the New Repertory Theatre production of BILL W. AND DR. BOB will repeat their roles for the play's Off-Broadway run: Robert Krakovski as Bill W., Patrick Husted as Dr. Bob, Rachel Harker as Lois Wilson, Kathleen Doyle as Anne Smith, along with Marc Carver and Deanna Dunmyer.
Stephen Bergman (co-author) was a doctor on the Harvard Medical faculty for thirty years, and, under the pen-name "Samuel Shem," is a playwright and novelist. His plays Room for One Woman and Napoleon's Dinner were produced Off Off Broadway as The Shem Plays) and selected for The Best Short Plays of the Year anthology. Other plays are The Life at Ground Zero (Blackburn Theatre, Gloucester) and Courtenay's Gym (The Boston Shakespeare Company, where he was playwright-in-residence for two seasons). Novels include: The House of God (cited by The Lancet as one of the two most significant medical novels of the 20th century), Fine, and Mount Misery. The novels have sold over two million copies in fifty countries.
Janet Surrey (co-author) is on the faculty and board of the Institute of Meditation and Psychotherapy in Newton, Mass. She is a clinical psychologist in private practice and has taught at the Harvard Medical School, Andover Newton Theological School and the Episcopal Divinity School. She is the author of many books and papers in the area of relational psychology, women's psychological development, spirituality, and addiction. She is a Founding Scholar of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at the Stone Center, Wellesley College, and with her husband co-authored the nonfiction book: "We Have to Talk: Healing Dialogues Between Men and Women.".
BILL W. AND DR. BOB is produced Off-Broadway by Bradford S. Lovette, Dr. Michael and Judith Weinberg, Milton McKenzie, Evelyn Freed and New Repertory Theatre.
Bradford S. Lovette (Producer) is one of the founders of The Palm Beach Institute, a 12-step based addiction treatment facility located in Palm Beach County, Florida; Rosewood Women's Center for Eating Disorders, located near Phoenix, Arizona; and A New Journey Eating Disorder Center located in Santa Monica, California.
Dr. Michael and Judith Weinberg (Producers) Michael has been a clinician in the treatment of mental illnesses and addictions for over thirty five years, and held the positions for eight years as the assistant executive director and clinical director of The Meadows, a world recognized inpatient treatment center for addictions. His wife Judi is a registered nurse who has devoted her career to the treatment of Hospice patients.
New Repertory Theatre (Rick Lombardo, artistic director) (Producer) enters its third decade, having established itself as a leading Boston theatre company that produces electrifying, compelling, and poignant productions. New Rep's most acclaimed productions include Topdog/Underdog, Quills, No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs, A Girl's War, Into the Woods, The Threepenny Opera, Sweeney Todd, Waiting for Godot and BILL W. AND DR. BOB, which broke all box office records in the theatre's history in the spring of '06.
Patrick Husted (Dr. Bob Smith) recently co-starred in THE GRAPES OF WRATH at The Intiman Theatre in Seattle. Other theatre credits include Arthur Miller's RESSURECTION BLUES at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia, the 1997 revival of Miller's THE AMERICAN CLOCK at Signature Theatre and the Pulitzer Prize-winning WIT, opposite Kathleen Chalfant.
Robert Krakovski (Bill Wilson) was last seen in Hannah &Martin at San Jose Rep. Other work includes Hartford Stage, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Philadelphia, St. Louis and New Jersey Shakespeare Festivals. Roles include Macbeth, Claudius, Sergius in Arms and the Man, Serge in Morocco with Keir Dullea, and Caswell in Lucky Lucy with Blythe Danner.
Kathleen Doyle (Anne Smith) has appeared on Broadway in the female version of THE ODD COUPLE, SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS, MARY STUART and THE CRUCIBLE. Her Off-Broadway credits include THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE, AVOW and KILT, for which she received a Drama Desk nomination.
Rachel Harker (Lois Wilson) has toured nationally and performed regionally in productions including PRIVATE LIVES, THE ODD COUPLE with Sherman Hemsley, and New Rep's QUILLS and KING LEAR. She appeared in Living Out and Lend Me A Tenor for Lyric Stage Company.
Marc Carver has performed a wide variety of contemporary and classic roles in theatres such as Arkansas Rep, Merrimack Rep, Boston Theatre Works, Portland Stage Company and North Shore Music Theatre.
Deanna Dunmyer's Broadway credits include I Hate Hamlet and Little Women. She has worked at the Geva Theatre, Portland Stage, Alley Theatre and various Shakespeare and summer festivals around the country. In New York she has performed downtown in new plays with Arden Party and Target Margin.
Rick Lombardo (Director) most recently, he adapted and directed Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Other credits include Romeo and Juliet, Into the Woods, Quills; and the world premiere of Approaching Moomtaj, by Michael Weller. He directed the critically-acclaimed La Vie Parisienne for Opera Boston. He is a two-time recipient of the Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theatre Critics Association for Outstanding Director. He is currently directing Actors' Shakespeare Project of Boston's production of Shakespeare's HAMLET at the Strand Theatre.
BILL W. AND DR. BOB has scenic design by Anita Fuchs, costume design by Jane Alois Stein, lighting design by Daniel Meeker, and sound design by Rick Lombardo.
Presentation of BILL W. AND DR. BOB does not imply affiliation with nor approval or endorsement from Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
BILL W. AND DR. BOB will perform Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $66, all seats, all performances. Tickets will be available at Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 (outside NY 800 432 7250), online at www.telecharge.com, and at the New World Stages box office.
Group sales are available though Francine Major, 212-933-0263.
For more information about BILL W. AND DR. BOB, visit the play's website at billwanddrbob.com.
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According to critics in Boston, BILL W. AND DR. BOB is:
"A textured and truthful telling of AA's story.
The play sketches evocative portraits of two complex men without portraying either as an untarnished hero. Inspiring." - Boston Globe
"Deeply humane audience-embracing, intelligent writing,
a leavening of humor and an innate power of biographical storytelling. A remarkable story!" - Variety
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