This disturbing look at teenage drug use is by KT Curran, Director of the SOURCE Teen Theatre, a nationally acclaimed and award-winning theatre for young people in Florida. The SOURCE is a traveling theatre company that creates and performs plays on important issues for teens.

At age fifteen, Cassidy is a promising young dance student with a world of opportunity ahead of her. But Cassidy is also being forced to deal with the sometimes unpleasant changes that come with growing up. One of her friends leaves her behind in an effort to become a cheerleader and join up with the popular crowd while another friend has to come to terms with his homosexuality. Cassidy finds comfort in a new, older boyfriend who introduces her to the drug culture. Soon, things that once seemed important are forgotten, and most of her time is spent in a drug-induced haze on a couch watching cartoons with the boyfriend around whom her life now revolves. But Cassidy's escape from her past comes to a grinding halt when brutal reality forces her to face facts.

The Girl I Used to Be is a play for high school students based on a true story about teenage drug users. The play is meant to be performed by teenagers, so any smoking that appears in the play can be mimed, or done with fake cigarettes. The language is designed to reflect the real speech of high-risk teens involved in heavy drug use. If there are words that are offensive to some audiences, directors have the author's permission to omit certain words or phrases. The scene involving the attempted rape should be staged with the utmost sensitivity and care, only suggesting what is about to happen, not actually showing anything that would compromise the actors or upset the audience.

One act; minimal sets for various events in Cassidy's life; modern clothes.

Other Curran plays: Dear God, Let Me Be Popular, End of Summer, First Time Club, Freshman Year, Secrets

See also: Awareness Plays for Young Adults