Donna M. Carbone's SHELL OF A MAN to be Presented in Palm Beach Gardens

Donna M. Carbone, a freelance writer/teacher/journalist living in Palm Beach Gardens is being honored by Harbourside Place and Another Broken Egg Café with a dinner theater presentation of her play, Shell of a Man, on Thursday evening, September 1st.

According to Carbone, Shell of a Man is based on the life of an actual Vietnam veteran and focuses on the effects of his 40 plus year battle with PTSD. Her goal is to personalize this much talked about but barely understood condition in order to raise awareness of the need for better healthcare for our men and women in uniform.

The play will feature three actors who are students at the Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre - Ewan Leslie as Robert Logan, Jeanne Tidwell as Adriana Fleming and Lee Marlow as Dawn Peters.

In a recent interview, Carbone explained how Shell of a Man came to be written. "In 2011 I published two columns supporting better healthcare for veterans. A Vietnam vet wrote to me, expressing his thanks and beginning what was to become a much cherished and, often, painful friendship. He calls himself Robert L. We've never met. His face is but a ghostly image in an old photograph he sent to me. I hear his voice only through the emails we exchange. I believe that distance and the anonymity of the internet allowed Robert to share his life with me in a way few others have heard. What he said forced me to accept that, despite being well-read, I knew nothing about what a black man endured being raised in the Jim Crow south or the effects of having served in a war zone. Although Shell of a Man is told through the life of one man, it is in actuality the story of many men."

Shell of a Man was presented as a staged reading at the Dallas Convention Center last April where it was warmly received. Carbone incorporated suggestions from that audience into the presentation that will take place at Harbourside. This time the play will be presented as a workshop performance, which is the second step in the production process, and will include another talk back with the audience at the end of the show.

The dinner portion of the evening will begin at 5:00 pm and will include a fixed price menu with a selection of two main courses. The meal will include a glass of wine and/or a cold beverage. The cost for both the dinner and the show is $30.00. The play will begin at 7:00 pm. Seating is limited. Tickets can be ordered by calling 561 385-1584.

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