Monday is the traditional "dark" night in theater, the one evening of the week when most actors have the night off (though some love filling their Mondays with readings and benefits and the like). But just in case you can't get enough theater, this Monday, Feb. 8, brings a show and a reading at opposite ends of South Florida's sprawling theater community.
The play-with-a-message is Bill W. and Dr. Bob by Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey. The drama about stockbroker Bill Wilson and surgeon Bob Smith traces the lives of the two founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, and director-star Gary Kimble says he feels a personal connection to the material.
"I myself am a recovering alcoholic. So is the actor who plays Dr. Bob in our production. The two of us traveled the world together performing opposite one another in...My Fair Lady. He was already sober at the time; I was not. I hit bottom shortly after that tour ended," Kimble writes.
His friend, Richard Davis Springle, took Kimble to rehab three times before Kimble got sober 14 years ago. Producers of the show, which is running at the Crest Theatre Feb. 8-10 and Feb. 15-17, are donating a portion of ticket sales to three organizations that assist people in recovery. Performances at the Crest, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, are 7:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 2 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are $29 and $30 evenings, $28 and $35 matinees. Call 561-243-7922 or visit the Crest web site.
(In photo, left to right, are Gary Kimble as Bill Wilson, Ken Johnson as Billy and Richard Davis Springle as Dr. Bob Smith.)
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Also on Monday, you can get into a pre-Valentine's Day romantic mood with a free play-reading event at Arts at St. John's, 4760 Pine Tree Dr., Miami Beach. Six short plays will be read beginning at 7 p.m.: A Test for a Valentine by Dennis Bass, Noteworthy by Allen Provost, Quickmeet by Barbara Fox, Peeling Off the Mask by Maria Schwartz, Internet Dating by Jonathan Rose and Still Crazyby Dee Deringer Piquette.
The actors doing the plays include playwrights Bass, Piquette and Fox, as well as Heather Gallagher, Justin Mellender, Ralphy Love, Joanne Kerbawy and Shelly Cohen. The "Love and Romance" play reading is the first in a themed second-Monday series, with "Mystery" to follow March 8 and "Money" April 12.
Need more info? Call 305-613-2325 or visit the Arts at St. John's site.
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