A FELONY IN BLUE or DEATH BY POKER Premieres at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 10/12

On October 12, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe will premiere a new play by writer/director Daniel Gallant. In A FELONY IN BLUE or DEATH BY POKER, five gang bosses play an annual game of Texas Hold 'Em to determine who will control the city's criminal underworld, but one player plans to kill a rival before the game is through.

Sonia Hebé plays Jamie, a former poker champ who is hired by the five cardplayers to deal and monitor their game. Only once the tournament begins does she realize how high the stakes are, as The Players compete for gang territory, trade routes and firepower. Emotions run high throughout the tournament: former flames Bashtu (Rommell Sermons) and Tamia (Nicol Moeller) now represent two competing criminal families, while caustic capo Ava (Kymberly Tuttle) rages against the nonchalant Bashtu despite the fact that he once saved her life. Senior gangmen Tag (TK Durham) and Svoren (BrIan Keith MacDonald) try to unify their colleagues against menacing rival gangs from across the river, but an anonymous death threat throws the poker tournament into chaos.

A Felony in Blue or Death by Poker is the product of extensive research into the culture of professional poker; author/director Daniel Gallant has created characters that embody the range of strategies and personalities found around the most competitive poker tables in the country. Gallant's previous plays have been published by Vintage Books and Applause Books, and his play Gerald's Method was nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award. He has produced and directed world premieres of plays and monologues by John Guare, Neil LaBute and other notable dramatists. (Daniel's full bio is below.)

A Felony in Blue or Death by Poker opens Wednesday, October 12 and runs Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights through October 29 (12 total performances) at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (236 East 3rd Street, between Avenues B and C in Manhattan). All performances start at 7:30PM. Admission is $15 ($10 for students); tickets and directions are available at www.nuyorican.org or by calling 212-780-9386.