By Catherine Arne, programming coordinator, Family Life Services

On December 4, 2005, Family Life Services, in partnership with the Kutztown University Theatre Department, New Life Lutheran Church in New Tripoli, and Union Evangelical Lutheran Church in Schnecksville, unveiled a “dramatically” different offering from their standard programming fare: an unscripted, interactive performance on addiction.

The program was the brainchild of Terry Lieb, Director of Family Life Services, who believed an interactive drama could be a powerful vehicle for educating youth and their parents about the dangers of addictions in a way the traditional lecture format couldn’t. “There’s a world of difference in hearing about something and seeing it firsthand,” echoed FLS Counselor Kathi Eichman, who spearheaded the project along with Sal Tuccio, FLS’s Drug and Alcohol Coordinator. “And having the chance to interact expands the experience even further.”

Last spring, FLS approached Roxane Rix, Assistant Professor of Theatre at KU, with the idea and she was immediately intrigued with the creative challenges it presented. “I had some experience with unscripted projects, so I felt prepared to take it on,” she says. She invited the intermediate and advanced acting students in her fall Acting Studio class to create characters and scenarios exploring various addictions. Having the students develop their own material instead of performing someone else’s words instantly set the project apart and gave the students an immediate personal investment in it.

In order to create realistic dialogue and behavior, their first step was to research addictions. The learning curve was steep. “The most surprising thing to me and everyone else was that addictions are not just drugs and alcohol,” says Anthony Dalton, a sophomore theatre minor who wound up playing a workaholic father. “We tend to forget about addictions to things like work or video games or image, which aren’t as visible, but are just as damaging.”

Despite the large number of addictions and their surface diversity, though, the group discovered that addictions actually shared a common denominator. “I think we found in all of the addictions an avoidance of intimacy, ultimately leading to the destruction of any kind of intimacy,” Roxane explains. “The addiction becomes a substitute for genuine human interaction.”

Anthony witnessed this breakdown of intimacy personally when his character-development research took him beyond books and the Internet. “I realized some of my friends’ fathers are workaholics and I began to study them. When I was having dinner at one friends’ house, his father had two cell phones at the table and then, after one call, he left in the middle of the meal to go back to work. So when my character does that in the play, it’s no exaggeration. It’s straight from reality.” It was sobering for Anthony to think of the father-son bonding experiences his friend had missed out on, and he admits it also made him reexamine what kind of father he wants to be in the future.

Roxane saw this kind of growth in all her students. “They learned addiction from the inside out,” she says. “Not only were their skills and confidence as performers enhanced, but they also became more sensitive as people.” In particular, they became more empathetic toward their own addicted characters during the process. “At first they were very critical of their characters, but over time, they grew into them,” Roxane explains. Anthony admits he began to sympathize with his workaholic character after he found himself obsessively doing homework for hours straight before realizing he was still in character. “It was exhausting,” he recalls. “I can’t imagine living like that.”

Once the vignettes, one of a family and the other of a college dorm, took shape, the class began trying them out on audiences. After each vignette, the actors would take questions from the audience, first in character, then out of character. “The Q&A at the end really challenged me as an actor,” Anthony says. “That’s where I stopped acting and became the character.” That’s also when the actors starting getting feedback on their work. “The students were tremendously moved that while their characters’ behavior sometimes seemed extreme or overdramatic to them, the audience recognized and related to the characters,” says Roxane.

Two observers of the early performances were Rev. Jami Possinger of Union Lutheran Church and Rev. Scott Lingenfelter of New Life Lutheran Church. “We were just blown away,” says Jami. “We looked at each other and said, we need to do this in our congregations. After all, there is a piece of all of us in the dramas. Whether or not we are alcoholics or ‘serious’ addicts, we all have obsessions and addictions. Our kids are living with it and seeing it. This gives us a forum to talk about it, particularly the dysfunctions that aren’t as obvious.”

The pastors worked with FLS and the KU players to present the vignettes in a format that was both appropriate and emotionally safe for the viewers. It was determined that the KU players would present each vignette and Q&A to senior high students and their parents separately, so that each group would feel comfortable, and, in addition to the pastors, FLS counselors would be on hand for anyone who needed support.

On the evening of the event, Jami and Scott opened with prayer, bringing a spiritual bent to the material. “We wanted to reinforce that the church is here to help, not to judge,” says Jami. “We want to be part of the solution and let them know that God is in the middle of whatever problem they are dealing with, including addiction.”

The response was phenomenal. The exchanges in the Q&A sessions were lively and the questions thoughtful. Even students who thankfully had no significant exposure to addictions up to this point realized that they would likely brush up against it when they went to college. “I think the dramas will have long-term ramifications,” Jami says. “When they do have that experience, this will be a frame of reference for them, and a way to talk to their parents about it.” For others, the drama hit closer to home. Several parents and teens saw themselves or someone close to them in the characters, and the experience served as a needed wake-up call.

One such mother and daughter was Linda and Lindsay Reiter. “We went in knowing we had a problem,” Linda explains. “But seeing it played out hit me very hard.” Sixteen-year-old Lindsay had been battling anorexia and bulimia for over a year and, unable to find an eating disorder specialist in the area, they weren’t making any progress against the disease. “Lindsay’s counselor was just keeping her head above water,” Linda recalls. “It was touch and go. Lindsay’s weight was so low we had to check in every week with the doctor. We didn’t know where to turn.”

Both Linda and Lindsay were overwhelmed by what they saw on stage. “I saw myself so much in the obsessive exercising and the anger,” says Lindsay. “I could relate to that.” After the performance, Linda and Lindsay separately sought the FLS counselors, who were able to connect the Reiters with an expert with 30 years experience in food abuse issues. Soon Lindsay was in care and at her most recent visit with her physician, she was told she was doing so well that she didn’t need to come in again for six weeks.

“ The problem isn’t solved, but we’re headed in the right direction now. I think everything happens for a reason and we were put next to someone who could make a referral to someone who knows what they are dealing with,” says Linda. “I consider it divine intervention.”