‘Great’ Minds Think (and Sing) About Drug Abuse

It’s easy to see why Opera Pacific’s Kevin Crysler might have been nervous when the company’s educational outreach arm decided to mount a show about drug abuse for junior high and high school audiences.

“I remember the anti-drug programs we attended in high school as being very extremist, [with] lots of scare tactics,” said Crysler, who created “The Not So Great Escape” with composer David “Cat” Cohen and choreographer Mignonne Profant. Affecting a prissy voice, he mimicked a cautionary schoolmarm: “ ‘Now, boys and girls, remember: If you smoke pot, you’ll die. . . .’

“But then you see a little of the world and realize that the message was totally overblown,” he continued. “We want to deliver a message that is credible to the kids now and will still have some merit when they grow up.”

In “The Not So Great Escape,” which has been touring local schools since fall 1995 and will be presented to the public Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, the emphasis is on credibility--and accuracy.

No pot smokers turning into wild-eyed, green-faced demons in this show.

Crysler and his collaborators worked with substance-abuse education specialists to learn what drugs kids are most likely to experiment with and in what progression. The show’s designers keep a close watch on teen styles and update the costumes so the characters’ looks will stay current.

The story centers on Joe Perfect, the only son of the Perfect family, who tires of the demands of his image-conscious parents and sister and ponders drug use as an escape.

On cue (this is musical theater, after all), a smooth-talking, muscle-shirted dealer materializes from a dark alley, with a seductive girl sidekick, and encourages Joe to “party with me / set yourself free.”

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Enter the mystical Houdini, who uses his crystal ball to show Joe what his life will be like if he accepts the dealers’ invitation. The picture--colored by deceit, a desperate attempt to come clean and the boy’s grim fate--isn’t pretty.

“You can’t teach a kid not to take drugs just by singing and dancing,” Crysler said. “But you can make an impact if the show gives him something to react to.”

In fact, he said, inspiring open dialogue about drug use is the real goal of “Escape.”

It’s something of a stretch for the Overture Company of Opera Pacific. Until last fall, the troupe had targeted kids in kindergarten through sixth grades with shows addressing such topics as conservation, multiculturalism and health.

One of the most popular, “The Night Harry Stopped Smoking,” featured seriocomic discussions between the title character and his major organs, which schooled Harry and the audience on the dangers of tobacco.

“We’ve done well over 1,100 performances of ‘Harry,’ and the younger kids always love it,” Crysler said. “But frankly, an anti-smoking message for a primary-grade audience is a pretty easy sell; practically every third-grader you meet will go, ‘Cigarettes--yuck!’ ”

But, as Crysler notes, the attitude and temptations often change when the child gets a little older.

“By sixth, seventh and eighth grade, a lot of kids are now facing the decision about whether or not to smoke pot” or try harder stuff, Crysler said. “They’re getting to that point when they want to experiment with other things, so we felt we needed a show that was harder-hitting.”

The five adult cast members, some of whom sing in Opera Pacific’s current production of “Rigoletto,” plan to stay onstage after the show to lead an audience discussion, as they do in the school presentations.

Its effectiveness, he said, was proved to him in a comment made by a 17-year-old inmate after a performance at a Riverside juvenile detention center.

“I asked this kid what he thought, and he looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘Can you take this to the school my littler brother goes to?’ ”

* What: Opera Pacific presents “The Not So Great Escape.”

* When: 10 a.m. Saturday.

* Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive.

* Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Jamboree and drive south. Turn left on Campus Drive. The theater is near the corner of Campus Drive and Bridge Road.

* Wherewithal: $6.

* Where to call: (714) 854-4646.