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Theater for the Soul Series
Healing Communities through the Art of Performing
THE MATTHEW RISING PROJECT
A CAUTIONARY TALE ABOUT TEENS EXPERIMENTING, THE DARK WEB, LOSS AND THE IMPACT OF THE OPIOID CRISIS ON FAMILY
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A Response to the Opioid Crisis in Connecticut
The Matthew Rising Project started as a fictional, yet painfully realistic story developed in response to the escalating opioid epidemic in Connecticut and beyond. In 2019, award-winning playwright, Sharece M. Sellem, found herself carrying out an informal style opioid education curriculum with residents in public housing facilities once a week for six weeks which led up to a Naloxone training for the residents. She began to think of ways to reach populations that can be easily exposed and exploited. She thought about:
Young children.
Teenagers.
Young mothers.
Single parents.
Families in poverty.
Isolated families.
Families who’ve experienced significant trauma(s).
Families who don’t have time to process grief and loss.
This project is a play, a film of the play, a community discussion, and interactive workshop(s). To learn more about the project, please download the information packet.
Pricing sheet sent upon request.
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Carol Jones shares her collection of eye-opening, heartbreaking, and triumphant poetry and letters. A Connecticut woman who found herself tangled in the complicated web of the public health and justice system, we walk in the museum of her mind and get a small glimpse of her thoughts: artwork, poetry, letters, and articles paint the pages of this book. Recidivism, love, pain, connection, and fragments of memories from childhood through adulthood between the 1950’s-the early 1990’s is made transparent in this moving body of work.
Published & Edited by Vintage Soul Productions LLC
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This book is now available on Amazon.com!
For speaking engagements and business inquiries, please contact: smsellem@vintagesoulproductions.com
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