A Dramatic Difference : Stop-Gap Theater Company Sets Stage for Improvising Therapeutic Recovery

Leslie is no stranger to drama.

She’s acted on stage with the West Coast Actor’s Ensemble in Hollywood and earned a degree in theater from Pomona College.

She’s also a self-described master at creating high drama in her own life.

Leslie, 29, began drinking vodka and smoking marijuana at age 15 and eventually added prescription drugs such as Prozac and Xanax to her mix of madness. In late June, despondent and convinced that she was going crazy, Leslie swallowed a fistful of Tylenol 3 with codeine and took a razor to her wrists.

But the drama that Leslie is acting out at the moment is unlike any ever experienced by her or the other women at New Directions, a residential recovery center for chemically dependent women in Costa Mesa.

Leslie is sitting in front of the group of 13 other recovering alcoholics and drug addicts with actress Jane Galloway, a therapeutic drama facilitator from Stop-Gap, a Santa Ana-based nonprofit theater company that has been presenting interactive, improvisational drama sessions at New Directions every Wednesday morning for the past eight years.

Galloway is portraying Lucy, a recovering addict facing a tough challenge. Although she has completed her recovery program, she doesn’t feel prepared to take care of her two children. She’s planning to ask Katie, played by Leslie, whether she’d be willing to keep the kids for another week or two.

The problem is that Katie is having trouble in her marriage and is feeling pressured. She wants to be a supportive friend but is feeling depleted and isn’t sure how much she has left to give.

As the unscripted conversation between the two women unfolds, all eyes are focused on the pair. No one, including Galloway or Leslie, knows from one second to the next where the conversation is going, and the moment is ripe with dramatic tension. As soon as Lucy begins shutting down emotionally and getting defensive, Stop-Gap executive director Don Laffoon shouts, “Freeze.” He turns to the group--his “directors”--and asks them what they see.

“Lucy’s mouth is saying one thing and her body language is saying another,” notes Rachel, 26, who came to New Directions from Los Angeles to beat her addiction to rock cocaine.

“She’s really sending mixed messages,” agrees Diana, 21, of Orange. “On one hand, she really wants Katie to help her out because she doesn’t feel ready. But a part of her is afraid that the kids are going to forget her and get too attached to Katie.”

For the next 15 minutes, the women discuss the conversation they’ve just witnessed. While some sit silently, taking it all in, others brainstorm enthusiastically, offering ideas as to how Lucy might have approached the situation differently and what she might have said.

It’s called therapeutic drama, or drama therapy, and Penny Anderson, program director of New Directions, says its power to stimulate thought and unlock hearts and minds is nothing less than remarkable.

“It’s such a creative, non-threatening way for women to practice setting boundaries and to learn to take risks,” Anderson says. “It’s also a terrific way to explore different communication styles and to become aware of some of the common communication traps we all fall into.”

At the beginning of each Stop-Gap session at New Directions, the participants are encouraged to offer suggestions for role play scenarios by anonymously filling out note cards.

“Let’s say one of the women is anxious about talking with a family member she’s afraid may have lost faith in her,” Anderson says. “If she writes that down, she’ll have a chance to either act out the conversation with a Stop-Gap facilitator or to observe others. It’s a safe way of learning to deal with issues.”

Stop-Gap’s Don Laffoon sees the therapeutic drama sessions as “a dress rehearsal for life.”

“It’s what I call ‘Life in my face.’ Pure and simple, that’s what we offer. Most of us look at our lives like this,” Laffoon says, holding his open palm an inch or two in front of his face. “When you’re this close to something, you lose focus. Sometimes you have to back off a little to regain perspective.

“That’s what therapeutic drama empowers people to do.”

Leslie, who lived in Venice before entering recovery, admits that she was unimpressed when she first heard that drama therapy was a mandatory component of the New Directions treatment program.

“At first, I thought ‘I’m gonna know everything they do up there,’ ” she says. “But I was wrong. The improvisations surprise you every minute because they’re so real and unpredictable. Things happen during the role-plays that you don’t expect, just like in real life.”

Galloway has appeared on Broadway in the musical “Little Johnny Jones.” She was in the original New York cast of “Vanities” with Kathy Bates and won an L.A. Drama Critic’s Circle Award for her work in Craig Lucas’ “Blue Window.” She’s been in movies with Richard Dreyfuss and Meryl Streep, done guest shots on TV shows such as “Murphy Brown,” “Empty Nest” and “St. Elsewhere,” and starred in a pilot called “Baby on Board.”

But Galloway, 42, says that many of her most powerful--and empowering--theatrical experiences have occurred during the past year through her work as a therapeutic drama facilitator with Stop-Gap.

“I see light bulbs going on every day,” says Galloway, who lives in Long Beach. “I know that the work we’re doing is impacting people’s lives in a very powerful, positive way. Drama gets through to people in ways that talking doesn’t. It cuts to the chase and touches them much more directly.”

Stop-Gap, funded by grants and private donations, presents weekly therapeutic drama sessions at New Directions and 14 other Los Angeles and Orange County locations, including three shelters for battered women, the Orangewood Children’s Home, Phoenix House (an adolescent drug treatment facility) and the Garden Grove Senior Adult Day Care Center.

Galloway, who facilitates six to 12 hourly Stop-Gap sessions a week, says she thrives on the diversity of audiences that the Stop-Gap reaches.

“In the morning, I may be doing an improvisational skit at a children’s hospital about a young cancer patient who’s self-conscious about going back to school because she has no hair. That afternoon, I might be at a home for the frail elderly, playing the part of a daughter who’s suspects her elderly mother is being abused by another family member.”

While the scenarios differ from day to day and group to group, Galloway says the “special populations” Stop-Gap works with are more similar than they are different.

“Whether you’re talking about battered women in shelters or Cambodian refugees or kids who’ve been sexually molested, you’re dealing with issues such as fear, trust, truth and acceptance,” she says. “What we do is provide an approach that enables people to see greater possibilities and to use new skills in ways that will improve their lives.”

Leslie, who has gone 74 days without drugs or alcohol, is doing just that. She says her exposure to Stop-Gap’s drama therapy has not only taught her how powerful theater can be but has provided a valuable perspective on her life and the changes she’s chosen to make.

“The Stop-Gap sessions made me so embarrassed about how dramatic my life had become and how overly dramatic my acting was,” she says.

“What goes on in those sessions between the facilitator and the women is so real and honest. It’s some of the best acting I’ve ever seen, and most of the women have never even been in front of a group of people before.”

Leslie officially completed her New Horizons 28-day recovery program two weeks ago and continues to live at the Costa Mesa facility as part of an intermediate living program. She’s working as a short-order cook at a nearby cafe and is “getting back into life” one day at a time.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be here,” Leslie says. “I can stay up to five months, and I just might. It doesn’t cost that much more than rent anywhere else, and it’s a safe place that helps me stay sober.”

Eventually, Leslie says, she’d like to return to Los Angeles and the theater. For starters, she’d like to get involved as a Stop-Gap volunteer.

“A few weeks ago, Stop-Gap did a showcase of some of its plays and a demonstration of drama therapy at South Coast Repertory,” Leslie recalls. “They invited me to participate. It was the first time I’d been on stage since I got sober, and it was really incredible. It was the first time I’d ever felt that honest on stage. It was a little scary, but I learned a lot from the drama therapy and the Stop-Gap people. And after all I’ve been through, it just didn’t seem right to fake it anymore.”