Addicted, a play written and directed by the North Harford School psychologist, Christle Henzel, made its 2018 debut on Thursday, March 1 at the Hawk’s’ Nest. Another show was scheduled at North Harford for the next day, March 2, but was cancelled due to risky weather conditions and a power outage that occured at the school earlier that day.

   According to the actors, the shows and rehearsals have been going very well. “They’ve been going amazing… We have a great director who’s been making the show go swimmingly,” 2017 NH alum Kirsten DiBastiani commented on the performances. She plays an EMT who administers narcan, alongside senior Abby Renzulli.

   In order to make the scene with the EMTs look genuine, both DiBastiani and Renzulli watched a lot of videos and use actual EMT equipment to make the scene look authentic in their performance and in the props they are using.

    The EMTs were new characters introduced into this years’ script, but that was not the only change. The character of Becky was taken from a sad, melancholy character, and made into the comedic relief amongst an otherwise heavy show.  Additionally, the death scene of the heroin addict was completely rewritten, as well as adding two new props: a mattress and a door.

    The tech aspects were improved as well. Annalise Desiatio, a 2016 North Harford Alum, is in charge of all video aspects of the show. Since she started working on the project in 2015, much has changed. “They’ve really become more advanced than what they were before. Before I started it was just pictures and words and things they got off Google but as the years went on we made it more raw with actual footage,” Desiato said.

    2012 Archbishop Curley High School alum Julio Fernandez is currently playing Alex, the heroin addict. This is his first year in the show, after nearly ten years of only acting in film. According to Fernandez (and other actors in the show) it is difficult to portray someone who is heavily addicted to a very dangerous drug. “…You don’t want to seem like you’re trying to offend anyone, like people who are actually struggling with this, you’re just trying to share their story,” Fernandez commented.

  Anthony Phelps, a 2015 North Harford alum who plays the alcoholic’s brother, says that it is not difficult to portray his role because of its prevalence in today’s society.

    “I think this is a really great show that a lot of people need to see. It gives a whole different perspective to what you think about addicts and junkies,” Fernandez commented.