AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Augusta Players will bring a musical about opioid addiction and recovery to the Kroc Center in Augusta next week, aiming it mostly at middle and high school students.
Painless: The Opioid Musical runs Nov. 3 through Nov. 5. Most performances will take place during the school day for student groups, and the public is invited to a free evening show on Nov. 5. Every performance is free, but guests should reserve tickets for the evening show. More information is available at (706) 726-4707.
Each performance lasts roughly 45 minutes, and area professionals will stay afterward to take questions, and teachers will get materials to help lead classroom talks once the performance ends. Director Roy Lewis describes the production as an educational tool on a subject many people would rather avoid.
The musical grew out of real accounts of substance use disorder and recovery. In 2018, members of Face Addiction Now, a group once known as Families Against Narcotics, shared their experiences, and those stories became the core of the songs. The writer is Jacob Ryan Smith, who had Peter Scattini and Noah Kieserman as collaborators. It premiered in 2019 and began reaching student audiences in 2022.
The theater group is staging the work with The Augusta Pain and Opioid Addiction Initiative, and the free run is paid for with money from Augusta-Richmond County’s opioid abatement trust fund.
The production follows the troupe’s ArtReach run of Anne of Green Gables, which drew hundreds of area students to the Kroc Center on field trips last week, some seeing live theater for the first time.
Section: More Augusta GA events news
Augusta events business profiles
Filed under: Augusta GA Events News