The Players' Ring to Open Season with Mike Kimball's DUCK AND COVER

The Players" Ring opens its 2015-16 season with "Duck and Cover. " A "Father Knows Best" family, happily sheltered in 1962 suburbia, tries to maintain their innocence during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the arrival of eccentric jazz trumpeter Uncle Bunny and his African-American musical partner. "Duck and Cover" runs at the Players' Ring, 105 Marcy Street, Portsmouth, NH from September 4th through the 20th with shows at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays, Sept 6th and 13th; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept 20th. Tickets are $15 general admission, with discounts for members, seniors, and students. For reservations or information, call 603-436-8123 or visit www.PlayersRing.org.

"Duck and Cover," is an award-winning play by York playwright/novelist Michael Kimball, who received the 2014 John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award (New England Theatre Conference) for the play, which was also named "Best Play" at the 2013 Northern Writes Festival (Bangor, ME) and has just been nominated for 8 Desert Star Theatre Awards in Palm Springs, CA, including "Outstanding Comedy."

The September production will mark the play's second appearance in Portsmouth. The play premiered at the West End Theatre in the winter of 2013 to widespread popular and critical acclaim. "A GEM," raved one audience member. "Light and Dark. Witty, Funny, Heartbreaking. You'll be so glad if you see it." Others were similar in their praise: "Hilarious & touching." "Totally evokes the early 60s historically and personally!!" "A delicious mix of drama, history and humor," the Portsmouth Herald wrote. "Smart, witty, heartwarming and incisively written. Truly engaging."

Seacoast audiences who've seen Kimball's other work (The Secret of Comedy, Best Enemies, Ghosts of Ocean House, and Santa Come Home,) will recognize the writer's comedic style, about which the Boston Globe once wrote, "Some of Michael Kimball's humor is black and some of it is blue, and he shoots it at us at a whiz-bang slapstick pace that leaves us alternately laughing, squirming and gasping for breath." Stephen King similarly observed that "Kimball is humane enough to capture our hearts and wicked enough to make us laugh our asses off."

"Duck and Cover," directed by acclaimed actor/director Leslie Pasternack, features a dynamic ensemble cast of familiar faces from the Portsmouth, Newburyport and Boston stages: Kim Holliday, Shawn Crapo, David Sullivan, Michael Stailey, Alan White, and Jim Manclark.

About the Players Ring: Since 1992, the mission of The Players' Ring has been to promote the efforts of local artists through the production of original works, while providing an affordable theatre space to local production companies. "The Ring" provides an environment where artists can thrive, grow, take risks and make daring choices