MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – It’s called Painless, The Opioid Musical. Inspired by true stories of addiction. It follows three teens in their own voices during a high school assembly on drug addiction. The teens are bored at first, but soon realize they all have connections to this deadly disease. Rhett Hemingway plays one of the teens
“Learning about it and seeing it can really help change these kids’ understanding of what this is and how it affects people, and how it isn’t something that happened to a bad person, but that it could happen to anyone,” said Hemingway. Painless
Painless is the creation of Dr Chad Brummett, a University of Michigan Anesthesiologist, looking for a way to bring awareness of opioid use disorder using the voices of young people.
The importance here is to try to create stories that, while not every song or every musical is going to hit with every child, there’s some portion that hopefully connects with different kids, different parents,” said Brummett.
Along with the stage performance, Painless includes a variety of local resources available to anyone with concerns about opiate use.
“Painless comes with a phenomenal resource pamphlet that all of the students, no matter which school they go to, get, so it’s hoping that kids who are affected by it see themselves in it, and it leads them to get help, either for themselves or their loved ones,” said Dick.
A license to perform Painless: The Opioid Musical is available to any school or nonprofit through the University of Michigan.
