American Stage Theatre Company has announced that John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning hit drama, Doubt, will be the final play of the theatre's 30th anniversary season, playing July 24 thru August 16, 2009.

The most lauded play of this century and winner of the Tony Award for "Best Play" and Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Doubt tells the story of a Bronx Catholic school in turmoil during the fall of 1964. Sister Aloysius is an old-school nun who insists that the young and popular Farther Flynn is having an inappropriate relationship with Donald Muller, the school's first black student. Armed with nothing more than a resolute belief in her suspicion and a few circumstantial details, she instigates a relentless campaign to remove the priest, enlisting the help of a subordinate nun and the child's tormented mother. Flynn vehemently denies the allegations, but who is telling the truth? This powerhouse drama will keep audiences guessing until the final curtain.

"We are so excited about being the first professional Tampa Bay theatre to produce Doubt," said Todd Olson, American Stage's producing artistic director. "Is there a more important modern play that we could finish our historic 30th anniversary with?"

American Stage Theatre Company, under agreement with Doubt's publisher, was obligated to not announce the play as part of the theatre's 2008-09 season until after the Asolo Reparatory Theatre in Sarasota finished their production on May 4.

Please call the American Stage Box Office at (727) 823-PLAY (7529) or