Off-Bway Bill W. and Dr. Bob Talkbacks Launch on May 1

 Bill W. and Dr. Bob - a new play about Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith - will begin a series of post-show Talk-Backs, featuring guest appearances by notable figures in the addiction and recovery communities, starting May 1, 2007 when Dr. Patrick Carnes, a leading physician in the field of sexual addiction and recovery and noted author, takes the stage following that evening's performance of the play.  Bill W. and Dr. Bob begins its 4th month in New York at the Off-Broadway theatres, New World Stages (Stage 2 at 340 West 50th Street) in New York.

Dr. Patrick J. Carnes - who will kick off the Bill W. and Dr. Bob Talk-Back series on Tuesday, May 1 -, is a nationally known speaker and physician specializing in sexual addiction and recovery issues. He has authored 15 books, including "Don't Call It Love," "Understanding Sexual Addiction," "Contrary to Love: Helping the Sexual Addict," "The Betrayal Band: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships," "Open Hearts," "Facing the Shadow," "In the Shadows of the Net," and "The Clinical Management of Sex Addictions." Dr. Carnes is the Executive Director of the Gentle Path program at Pine Grove Behavioral Center in Hattlesburg, Mississippi. He is the primary architect of Gentle Path treatment programs for the treatment of sexual and addictive disorders. He also pioneered the founding of the Certified Sex Addiction Therapist program. Dr. Carnes is currently in the midst of a 9 city "Anatomy of Arousal & Bargains with Chaos" workshop tour, where he and other experts in the field of sex addiction provide techniques and skills that will enable therapists to help their clients in the treatment of sex addiction and compulsivity.

The Bill W. and Dr. Bob Talk-Backs with audiences and special guests will continue through the month of May with a post-show discussion scheduled on Thursday, May 17th with noted best-selling medical novelist Samuel Shem (author of "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").

Also in May, the series will feature an evening with Adele Smithers - president of the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation, the only foundation in America dedicated solely to education about and understanding of the disease of alcoholism and Scott Clark - sports director and anchor for WABC-TV Channel 7.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob, by Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey, opened Off-Broadway at New World Stages on March 5 after beginning previews on February 16.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob is, "believed to be the first play to depict the relationship between Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob 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 sold-out engagement earlier this year at New Repertory Theatre in Boston.

The cast from the New Repertory Theatre production repeats their roles for the play's Off-Broadway run: Robert Krakovski as Bill W., Patrick Husted as Dr. Bob, Rachel Harker as Lois Wilson, and Kathleen Doyle as Anne Smith. Also in the cast are Marc Carver and Deanna Dunmyer.