FULLERTON : Play Offers Way to Explore Drug Abuse

Students joined with professional actors Wednesday to explore causes of drug abuse in a play performed by the Stop Gap theater group at La Vista Continuation High School.

In the play, called “Under Pressure,” four young actors told the story of Mark, the son of an abusive alcoholic. To escape home pressures, Mark turned to drugs, which his mother eventually discovered.

The 30-minute formal play ended with Mark leaving home to seek refuge at his uncle’s house. The actors then asked for a volunteer to improvise the role of Mark’s uncle. Ron Gates, a 17-year-old junior from Anaheim, volunteered. When Mark’s father came to take him home, Ron calmed the father down and offered to let Mark stay the night.

“I thought it was really well done,” said Dave Anderson, 18, a senior from Fullerton, who volunteered to act as a counselor during another improvised part of the play. “They touched on a lot of things that teen-agers are facing.”

In the counseling skit, Dave told Mark’s alcoholic father that drinking set a dangerous example for his son. “What you’re doing is an escape from the family, and (Mark) could get the idea that drugs could be an escape for him,” Dave said.

“It’s more effective if you get the students to think of the answers,” said actor Mark J. Zufelt, 21, after the play.

Funded by a state gang intervention grant, Stop Gap has appeared at Fullerton high schools this year to perform plays about racism, drug abuse and date rape. About 60 students saw the play, after which Stop Gap actors distributed a resource list of drug hot lines and rehabilitation houses.

When the play ended, a few students talked quietly about their own struggles with drug use. “Where it leads you is not even worth it,” said one student, who described himself as a recovering alcoholic. “It’s real hard to find people to talk to these days--people you can trust,” he said.

“Slowly but surely, I was seeing it kill me,” another student said about his abuse of methamphetamine. The student was finally arrested for drug possession, and now attends Narcotics Anonymous and meets with a parole officer. Quitting drugs was not easy, he said. “It really takes a deep down feeling inside of you. It took me an arrest.’

La Vista Continuation High School accepts students who have fallen behind at other schools. According to Principal Duane Clizbe, the students decide how many classes to take each year, and work to obtain their high school diploma.

Jenny Lucas, 17, a junior who saw the play, said La Vista is a healthy atmosphere for students.

“The teachers and staff are completely supportive,” she said. You can basically walk up to anyone here and say, ‘I’m having a problem, could you help me please?’ They’ll drop what they’re doing.”