HOW TO BE A RESPECTABLE JUNKIE Comes to CCPL

The Cuyahoga County Public Library proudly presents Dobama Theatre's 2017 award winning production of HOW TO BE A RESPECTABLE JUNKIE on April 19, 2018 at 7pm at the Parma-Snow branch. Staged by Greg Vovos, directed by Nathan Motta and starring Christopher Bohan*. This event is open to the public and tickets are FREE!
* Member of Actors' Equity Association

HOW TO BE A RESPECTABLE JUNKIE received its world premiere at Dobama Theatre in June of 2017. The production received overwhelming critical support from The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Scene Magazine, Chagrin Valley Today, coolcleveland.com, and Talkin Broadway. In August of 2017, HTBRJ was the subject of a feature article in The New York Times that looked at how Ohio playwrights were dealing with the epidemic.

About the play: A heroin addict in his thirties decides he's going to take his life so he no longer has to destroy the lives of those around him. But before doing so, he decides to make a video for heroin users everywhere instructing them on how to be respectable junkies, because even he has grown weary of their behavior. HOW TO BE A RESPECTABLE JUNKIE takes an in-depth look into the troubled soul of a man caught in heroin's deadly grip. Based on real-life events, JUNKIE is at once eye-opening, heartbreaking, full of humor, and ultimately hopeful. **HOW TO BE A RESPECTABLE JUNKIE contains adult language and the depiction of drug use.

Playwright Greg Vovos is a playwright, screenwriter, and director who has worked in Cleveland theatre since returning to his hometown in 1998 after earning his MFA in Playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is a member of Dobama Theatre's Playwrights' Gym, a 2016 Cleveland Public Theatre Nord Playwriting Fellow, and was awarded the 2014 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for his play Complete and Total, which travels to high schools to warn kids about the dangers of heroin and opiate abuse. His work has been produced around the world and is published by Dramatic Publishing and PPT Press, but his most satisfying work has been for the Theatre for Healthy Living program for which he's written 15 plays about issues facing youth today. Greg has taught at several universities and currently teaches playwriting and screenwriting at Case Western Reserve University. He is also a Senior Writer at American Greetings.

Actor Christopher M. Bohan - Chris is a visiting assistant professor of Acting & Movement at Case Western Reserve University and is an Artistic Associate with the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. He is a founding member of Cleveland's longest running improvisational comedy company, Something Dada. He left Cleveland in 2004 to earn his MFA in Performance from Wayne State University, where he had the opportunity to travel to Russia to study at the Moscow Art Theater School. He is a graduate of Saint Ignatius and Lehigh University and a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. Local credits include: Mamai Theater Company - ARCADIA as Bernard Nightengale, Beck Center - THE PITMEN PAINTERS as Oliver Kilbourn, Great Lakes Theater - HAMLET as Reynaldo. Previous Dobama roles include: Sherlock/Watson in THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS, Sam in THE FLICK, Black Stache in PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, Sterling in SLOWGIRL and Curtis in THE LYONS.

AWARDS/RECOGNITION for HOW TO BE A RESPECTABLE JUNKIE

· Best New Play by a Local Playwright -- The Plain Dealer

· Best Tour de Force Two-fer -- Actor Christopher Bohan for his performances in How to be a Respectable Junkie and The Flick -- The Plain Dealer

· Superior Achievement for Nonmusical Production - Cleveland Critics Circle 2017 Theater Awards

· Best Full Production Premiere of a Script by a Local Writer - Cleveland Critics Circle 2017 Theater Awards

· Best Human Beings of the Male Gender Acting Their Socks off at a Single Location: Dobama Theatre - Christopher M. Bohan, The Flick and How to Be a Respectable Junkie

Tickets are FREE, but registration is required. To Register, CLICK HERE or go to: http://attend.cuyahogalibrary.org/event/621196