by Samuel Shem and Janet Surrey
directed by Ed Faver
During the roaring ’20s, New York stockbroker Bill Wilson rides high on money, fame, and booze until he crashes along with the market. Dr. Bob Smith, a surgeon in Akron, Ohio, and a pillar of the community, has been a secret drunk for thirty years, often going into the operating room hungover and high on sedatives. Through an astonishing series of events involving doctors, ministers, the Oxford Group evangelical movement, and Henrietta Sieberling – a scion of the Goodyear Rubber fortune – Bill and Bob meet on Mother’s Day of 1935 and form a relationship which keeps each other sober. Fired up, they seek out a third drunk to see if their program will work for others.
From bestselling novelist Samuel Shem (working with wife, author and clinical psychologist Janet Surrey) comes this critically acclaimed story of the two men who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous, and of their wives, who founded Al Anon – a richly textured American success story.
CAST
- Bill W. – Kirk White
- Dr. Bob – AJ Liana
- Lois, Bill’s wife – Debbie Miller Nelson
- Anne, Bob’s wife – Dawn Lanoue
- Ensemble – Stephen Mennella, Diane Teichman
WINNER: 2010 Best Play, Regional Drama Festival (British Columbia) & 2007 National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence Performing Arts Award