By MITCH MAERSCH - GM Today Staff 

November 18, 2008

Emily Gardipee (Alice), center, reacts after drinking a soda laced with acid, as Leah Heilman (Chris) and Brandon Lewis (Bill) watch during rehearsal of "Go Ask Alice." >> Click here to view video

WEST BEND - 
Emily Gardipee wanted a more serious role, and a student production committee wanted a serious play.

She got one that will change her forever, and it chose one that has shaken some to tears.

Forget Disney and lose that warm, fuzzy feeling school plays leave with audiences.

"Go Ask Alice" doesn’t have a happily ever after ending. This play chronicles a teen’s drug abuse and its effect on family and friends in 1968.

It hits home with many students. Hard.

Director Tonya Fordham knows it, and she adjusted accordingly.

Fordham had a meeting with cast members and their parents before the play got going. She used two parents to play parents in the play to be more realistic. She required students sign a contract pledging sobriety throughout the play.

Fordham brought in a police officer who can identify drugs someone is taking by observation. She brought in a professional actor for training.

After each performance, professionals and cast members will hold a forum to discuss drug abuse with audience members who are interested.

Administration quickly got behind the play, as did the anti-drug abuse group West Bend ACTS (Area Communities Take a Stand) and the local Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse.

The play’s topic drew a community member to donate thousands of dollars toward the cause.

High school staff was notified students may need extra help in dealing with drug and alcohol issues because of the play.

Some cast members have approached Fordham about their own personal situations. Fordham said she reads most students well enough to know how they feel without them telling her.

"Sometimes the response (with a smile) is, ‘That’s scary, you know me too well.’ At other times there are tears and a shoulder to cry on without judgment, either of them or their situation," Fordham said.

Fordham gets emotional talking about the journeys students are taking to perform the play.

Though she has no personal experience with drug use, Gardipee has one of toughest roles. She plays Alice, who trips out, freaks out and sees the real effect drug abuse can have on the user and those close to her.

After the first time performing the most difficult scenes with the entire cast, one student actor said it was hard for him and the cast not to cry backstage.

Steve Paykel, a father of four in real life who plays Alice’s father, said the final scene shook him.

"It actually makes me sick to my stomach," he said. "It’s scary. It really is. It really puts reality right in front of your eyes."

Gardipee essentially asked for it. After playing a "shallow bimbo" in last year’s "Pride and Prejudice," she said "I wanted to prove I could do something with more depth."

Gardipee has to dig deeper than she ever imagined to play someone her own age of 16. The West Bend West sophomore said she was "sheltered" during grade school at St. Frances Cabrini. Now she attends one the largest high school facilities in the state and sees drug abuse is real.

She has to use her own bad experiences to bring out the emotions in her extreme scenes.

"Right when she (Alice) begins to trip out I realize I’ve been stabbed in the back by a friend," Gardipee said. "It feels, like, real."

Gardipee first rehearsed the difficult scenes with Fordham and one of her scene partners she didn’t know. The two have since become friends.

"Once you get close to these people it’s so much easier to open up," Gardipee said.

Though her role is smaller, East senior Abbey Boehm has her own challenges. Boehm plays the seriously mentally ill Gertrude, who she chose to be schizophrenic because it best fit the script.

"You build friendships fast because you need to ask for advice," she said. "You need to do a lot of growing."

Of 23 roles, Fordham said each is unique, and each student developed each character on his or her own.

Fordham used understudies for the first time. Cast members were willing to give up one performance so each understudy could perform.

"But they have to be as prepared as the original actors," Fordham said.

The unique play received unique help. Marjorie Vukelich, upon reading about the topic in the Daily News, agreed to donate up to $15,000 to the anti-drug program at the high schools. The portion going to the play covers production costs, tickets for eighth-grade students and staff from public and private schools, 450 incentive gift cards and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre workshop.

Vukelich, a local doctor, said the issue relates to her two teen sons, who she said cannot avoid exposure to drugs and alcohol.

"My main goal was just supporting the school - to bring the effects of drug and alcohol to the forefront," she said.

That’s where it should be, said Paykel and Kristen Hardy, who plays Alice’s mom.

"There’s a drug problem. Nobody can deny that," Paykel said.

"But there are too many parents that do stay in denial," Hardy said.

And that is where the play comes in. Students, Paykel said, are "reaching out to their peers" about drugs. He hopes it sparks conversations at home between parents and their children.

That, he said, is "the whole idea of this play."