mycentraljersey.com: NJ opioid epidemic: George Street Playhouse offers musical with message for students in 'Anytown'
9/28/2018
NEW BRUNSWICK – "Anytown" could be anywhere, anytime, anyplace — anyone.
That's the clear, direct and urgent premise in the newest George Street Playhouse's Educational Touring Theatre offering. The musical presentation opens with a high school student on stage contemplating her future and what she thinks is the only thing standing in her way — a college scholarship essay.
Blunt in its honesty, the show reflects the reality that the opioid epidemic is here, it is insidious and it does not discriminate. In "Anytown," the epidemic is a very real "monster" that could come for anyone.
On Tuesday, before a full house of educators, administrators and public health addiction professionals, George Street Playhouse hosted the Spotlight Conference on Opioid Abuse and premiered "Anytown," an original educational musical targeted at a middle and high school student audience. The presentation coincided with the disturbing announcement that the number of drug overdose deaths in the state has continued to rise even as more resources have been poured into the fight against the epidemic.