Bill W. and Dr. Bob (2024)

Dr. Danielle Bacibianco directed SVPT’s 2024 Production of Bill W. and Dr. Bob, by Samuel Shem and Janet Surrey, at Sea View Playwrights Theatre, Staten Island, New York.

This production of Samuel Shem’s and Janet Surrey’s Bill W. and Dr. Bob Off-Broadway play, tells the origin story of the two co-founders who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous, and of their wives, who co-founded Al-Anon. During the Roaring 20s, New York stockbroker Bill Wilson begins his journey to rock bottom during the Wall Street Stock Market Crash of ‘29, when he becomes a hopeless drunk. In Akron, Ohio, surgeon Dr. Bob Smith has been a secret drunk for over thirty years, spending most of his time in the operating room, hungover and high on sedatives.

Through a serendipitous string of events, call it “divine connection,” Bill and Dr. Bob meet in 1935, when Bill, with just a few months of sobriety, goes through the phone book desperate to find another drunk to talk to. The men realize that community is survival, and in telling each others’ stories, one day at a time, passing the message to the still suffering alcoholic is the true work of hope. From the scrap heap to a life beyond their wildest dreams, Bill and Dr. Bob created a fellowship and a program that proves to be one of America’s greatest success stories. And because of Bill W. and Dr. Bob, some of you might already be “trudging the Road of Happy Destiny,” with just a little less ragtime.

While this production of Bill W. and Dr. Bob represents 12-Step culture and the origin story of Alcoholics Anonymous, performance of this work does not imply affiliation with nor approval or endorsement from Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., with respect to the Traditions of A.A.