Theatre students share Sobering Thoughts on alcohol

As she sat in the auditorium of Columbus Alternative High School on Feb. 29, 10th-grader Christa Mackey giggled while chatting with her friends, enjoying a few minutes of free time before her next class.

She turned serious, though, when talking about the message of Sobering Thoughts, a play she had just watched with about 100 of her classmates.

"I liked how they explained how alcohol affects your judgment, motor skills and can lead to death. It makes you think, 'This is true. It really can happen,'" she said.

By Kevin Fitzsimons

Undergraduate theatre students Mark Rhodes, Ken Troklus, Eleni Papaleonardos and Lindsay Casella perform a scene from Sobering Thoughts, an outreach play presented at high schools.

Her friend, fellow sophomore Tiffani Reid, agreed. She liked that the performance was by young actors -- four undergraduate Ohio State theatre students.

"I would believe this more than someone older telling me about alcohol because they're in it now," Reid said. "Older people tell us, but you can't take it as seriously because things have changed a lot since they were young."

The Department of Theatre and OSU Student Wellness Center are co-sponsoring the presentation of Sobering Thoughts at area high schools throughout winter quarter. The 40-minute play, written by Jason Kravits, is directed by Department of Theatre lecturer Bruce Hermann, and performed by seniors Lindsay Casella and Eleni Papaleonardos, junior Mark Rhodes and freshman Ken Troklus. Senior Edna Mae Berkey is the tour manager.

"It's a simple story: the story of a party gone bad. Amy's parents go out of town and she invites a few friends over," Hermann said.

The play presents the four high school students' interactions with one another as the evening gets later and the drinking gets heavier. Using a mixture of comedy, music and drama, the actors pull the audience into the story before zinging them at the end with the death of a character and a recitation of hard facts about the danger of alcohol.

The show's goal is to relay a message of responsibility with alcohol without preaching to the audience.

"All of them are going to show up one day at a party and it will be like this one," Hermann said. "We want to tell them they have a choice. If indeed they make the choice to put alcohol into their systems, from that point on any choices they make will be impaired. We want them to be informed."

The performance always includes a question-and-answer session. Questions for the actors at CAHS on Feb. 29 ranged from asking what the warning signs are for alcohol poisoning to asking the actors why they wanted to perform in this play.

When Troklus asked how many students had been to a party like the one they had just observed, the hands of most students in the auditorium shot up immediately.

That's a typical response, Hermann said. "It's usually 90 to 95 percent of them raising their hands. They face a lot of peer pressure. We want to reinforce the idea that it's cool to make a decision not to do this."

The Ohio State students auditioned for the show in the department's general season audition. The five students received credit for their participation through a class that met twice a week.

"The great thing artistically is they never know what kind of venue they'll be performing in," Hermann said. "Sometimes we're in a state-of-the-art theater. Other times we're in a cafeteria or a library. The kids really have to be performers and work with the space and with the different audiences."

The Ohio State students all said they enjoy the interaction with each new audience and the challenge to connect with them.

"It's good to address an issue and to make it more real," Papaleonardos said. "Especially the talk-back portion, when we're trying to answer questions accurately without being flippant. It's lots of fun."

The play's set is minimal, basically consisting of a few stools and chairs that get shifted around the stage from scene to scene and the use of a few simple props. Rock songs and jazz music play a strong role in setting each scene. "We have a brand new sound system we travel with, which has really been a great addition to the tour," Hermann said.

Sobering Thoughts was initially commissioned by Sue Ott Rowlands, associate professor of theatre at Ohio State, when she was the associate artistic director of Round House Theatre in Silver Spring, Md. Rowlands developed the play with Jason Kravits and it toured to schools in the Washington, D.C., area from 1993 to 1996.

At CAHS, the students in the audience seemed to enjoy the performance, laughing at the many comedic moments, clapping and cheering during a game show segment, and even swaying in their seats when Rhodes played a guitar and sang "The Hangover Blues."

Rowlands thinks the show's audiences have responded positively to the show and its message because of the way it is presented. "It speaks honestly to the kids and doesn't talk down to them. It doesn't say, 'Don't drink.' It says, 'If you choose to drink, be educated about your choices.' "

Ohio State started presenting educational outreach performances last year. Last winter, students performed Rock n Roll Shakespeare to 20 local schools. This fall, they performed Roasted Shoes for middle school students and Toasted Tootsies for elementary students. Hermann has directed all the tours thus far.

Besides the touring venues, Sobering Thoughts was performed on Feb. 6 in Mount Hall on campus. Forty area high school teachers came to see the show and participate in a day of presentations by Ohio State's Wellness Center and Columbus alcohol awareness groups.

"The possibilities are just endless for what we can take out to the schools," Hermann said. The department plans to continue the touring productions next year, although no decisions have been made yet as to what the performances will be.

Beyond the social message the performances impart to their audiences, Hermann said there is another benefit. "I want to go into the schools and let school-age kids have the experience of live theater: It's not just movies and television. If we can introduce them early to theater, then maybe we can help develop a lifelong interest in it."

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