This play is incredibly powerful...a sure-fire winner with students and parents alike. Mr. McDonough is consistently the best playwright for teenagers. His voice with drama is exceptional...but he doesn't stop there! His comedies are even better! Check them out -- FAUGH, Rumors, Arrivals -- Incredible comedy from a dramtic master.

Jerome Mcdonough's Addict is, by far, my favorite play ever written. I have extensive theatrical experience and last Spring I chose Addict as my student-directed one-act in a theatre class. I adapted it to a black-box performance, added a theme song--"the freshman" by The Verve Pipe and rehearsed for two months. I've never received such an amazing reaction from an audience nor my friends, family and teachers who saw the performance (which was free of charge). I adore Jerome McDonough for writting a script so incredible that I am now a respected dramatist with the aspiration of directing more plays in the adult life ahead of me. Those around me finally have faith in what I am capable of becoming. I wish to not only direct more plays by McDonough and other playwrites, but I, too, wish to become a writer. Addict has inspired me to want to write my own plays that touch the hearts and awaken the souls of audiences, thespians, and directors everywhere. I also recommend Alky, Juvie, Hoods, The Lottery, and all of the other McDonough masterpieces which I've yet to enjoy.

Though this book is almost 20 years old, there is still plenty of content within the book that modern-day teenagers and others can relate to. This is a play about various teenagers from different backgrounds and why they are in Juvenile Hall. The types of characters range from a metnally challenged young boy to gangster kids from the streets. The one thing that sticks out most in my mind is how guilty and sincerely remorseful some of the characters are and others appear to have no heart at all. This is a play with simple blocking and can be done either very simply or as complicated as a technical director wishes to make it. The issues this play deals with makes it an appropriate play that every highschool could and should do.

I have to say that this play is so extremely powerful that it's hard to express what I really want to say into words. I performed this play my Junior year of high school and even to this day, it has been my favorite play that I have done. There is not one person who can not relate with the many conflicts that are introduced in this play. It is a brilliant piece of work, I only hope that more people can experience this play.

This is an excellent play selection for a Junior High drama class. I would reccomend it to drama teachers who are looking for a play with a lot of parts, or who are trying to give a strong message against alchohol. Jerome McDonough does a wonderful job in producing an effective dramatic piece with an awesome selection of characters. A play that will make your audience stop and think.

I just returned from watching this one-act play performed by my nephews' high school drama club, and I must admit, it brought tears to my eyes. My brother, who had seen it performed 3 times, was still totally bewildered by it, and wanted the opinion of an English Major(yours truly). Interestingly, after the play I asked the Drama coach who wrote the play and he said, "Oh! Don't ask me that! I don't remember off hand, but he's written some other good stuff, like a play called Limbo." Thanks to good old Amazon.com I was able to find the author. The play is set in an asylum inhabited by relatively normal people who are being pressured by influences to become helpless invalids - that being the goal of the Asylum. There are short interludes where characters deal with things like religion, nature, peer pressure, all of which serve to drive the inmates towards anguish and despair. Seeing this play performed by teenagers I think gives this play a special effect, and I look forward to reading it to try and form my own interpretation of the written play.

I am a high school drama teacher who chose to do the play BUTTERFLY by J.McDounough this year for our competition peice. We are a struggling, growing department and this was the first serious play that I had attempted with these students. I had someone to help with the dance sequences. It was a huge success. We thoroughly enjoyed doing the play. It was very hard work for my students but definitely worth the effort.