Manhattan Repertory Theater Presents To Protect the Poets 8/11-13

Manhattan Repertory Theater's Summerfest 2010 presents the world premiere of To Protect the Poets, a new play by John Doble. The cast of nine includes Patricia Damon, Richard Fiske, Elizabeth Dilley, Cora Poage, Todd Tour'e, Reza Salazar, Keet Davis, Morgan Parpan, and Kiat-Sing Teo. Performances will be held at The Manhattan Repertory Theater, 303 West 42nd Street, 3rd Floor, in New York City on August 11, 12 & 13 at 9pm.

Two detectives stand over the dead body of a young woman who has been raped and murdered. Their investigation leads them to a lonely poetry teacher and her sisters to learn if they saw anything that might shed light on the nearby crime. What happens when a detective and his potential witness fall deeply in love, and she learns that to protect women like herself, the man she loves commits an act that violates her deepest principles? When violence, revenge, justice, and passion collide, our need for love challenges the strength of our principles.

Playwright John Doble states, "To Protect the Poets portrays both timeless and contemporary emotional and social conflicts, paralleled with motifs in classic literature while running the gamut from comedy to pathos. I'd like to think that John Patrick Shanley, and the late August Wilson and Wendy Wasserstein, just some of the playwrights I admire most, would enjoy it."

John Doble (Playwright/Director) - To Protect the Poets (Finalist, National Arts Club new plays contest, 2010; semi-finalist, Reverie Productions Next Generations Playwrights Contest, 2010); The Mayor Who Would Be Sondheim(International Fringe Festival, NYC, 2005; HRC Showcase Theatre, Hudson, NY, 2006. Finalist, Stage 3 Theatre Company Festival of New Plays, Sonora, CA, 2004; Playwrights' Center's New Play Competition, Minneapolis, MN, 2005; TRU Reading Series, NYC, 2005); Blind Date, a one act play (Samuel French Short-Play Festival, NYC, 2004; selected for The Last Frontier Theater Conference, Valdez, AK, 2005); The Mortgage (Pulse Ensemble Theatre Festival of One-Act Comedies, NYC, 2004); Lefty and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, Clemson University, 2004 (nominated for the Pushcart Prize and The Southern Review Short Fiction award).

To Protect the Poets opens Wednesday, August 11 and runs through Friday, August 13 for three performances, each at 9pm.

To Protect the Poets is performed in two acts with one intermission.

More information is available at www.ToProtectThePoets.com.

Tickets are $20.00 and can be purchased by calling 646-329-6588. If a performance has not sold out in advance, tickets are also available in person at the box office one half hour before show time. Please call ahead to reserve.

Michael Palmer is the associate producer of To Protect the Poets. Director: John Doble; Lights/Sound: Bethany Briggs; Stage Manager: Jenn Archuleta; Publicist: Paul Siebold.