By John Lyle Belden and Wendy Carson

Summit Performance Indianapolis does more than produce great plays. As a community outreach, it presents “This is Different,” an original one-act play, followed by open panel discussion, on living with and looking past the stigma of substance use disorder (SUD).

Quoting Summit: “It is the ninth Community Conversation One-Act produced by Summit and developed in collaboration with Dr. Sally Wasmuth… at the IU Indianapolis School of Health and Human Services… created from local interviews, conducted by Dr. Wasmuth.”

One performance remains, 7 p.m. tonight (June 28) on the main stage of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis. As the production is made possible in part by the City of Indianapolis and the Opioid Settlement Funds through the Indy Arts Council, all tickets are free, but reservations are needed at phoenixtheatre.org.

Told mainly through compelling monologues, the first-person stories collected by Wasmuth were crafted by playwrights Lauren Briggeman, the director and a Summit founder with long experience in drama; and Kelsey Johnson Lyons, who approached the script from her experience as a poet. Briggemen noted that choreographer Mariel Greenlee, formerly a company member with Dance Kaleidoscope, took the initiative in recommending movement used to underscore the performances. Simple yet effective lighting and sound are by Laura Glover and Olivia Lawson; Nico Meisner is stage manager.

The spirit of collaboration is reflected by the cast, each a major local talent: Tracy Herring, Miki Mathioudadkis, Morgan Morton, and Tracy Nakagozi. The source, script, and earnest delivery combine to thoroughly humanize the addicts in recovery that they represent. While additiction is expensive and devastating, they warn, most of all it is “sneaky.” It’s a party – until it’s not. Without excuses or complaint, the women who speak through these four relate their circumstances, their losses, what they salvage, and the human desire to belong, whether among others or just alone in your own yellow house.

You likely know or may even have been someone like these anonymous real souls. Especially if you don’t, it is imperative to understand them. The discussion after the one-hour performance gives plenty of room for exploring what this means to you, and all of us.

The title, “This is Different,” turns out to have a double meaning. It is what that voice within says when it dawns that instead of using a substance, the roles are reversed; then it’s the realization when after all your attempts to get “clean,” you finally see real recovery.

Big thanks to Dove Recovery House for its participation in this production, and to the continued community work of Summit Performance Indianapolis.