The Opioid Epidemic:
A Shadow that Broke the Light

Our goal is to create a community of stories, so that in this time of isolation we feel a little less alone. If you would like to share your story with us you can do so by submitting it using the form below or by emailing Simpatico Theatre at ashadowthatbrokethelight@gmail.com.

A Shadow That Broke The Light is one of Simpatico Theatre’s SEED Projects. Simpatico is dedicated to providing artists with a variety of developmental opportunities for new work this season with an emphasis on process over product.  The SEED Projects (Simpatico Engages Everyone Digitally) will work to create an environment for the artists involved that deepens their connection to the work and creates unique opportunities to share those experiences with Simpatico audiences. Each SEED Project will ultimately receive a fully staged live production with Simpatico at some point in the future when it is safe for all our artists and audiences to gather together again. We are keeping that timeline open in order to best accommodate the artists involved in each creative process.

Artist Bios:

Christopher Colucci
Wilma: Describe the Night, Passage, When the Rain Stops Falling, Angels in America, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Curse of the Starving Class, The Understudy, Becky Shaw. Pre-pandemic regional theater sound design work includes: Philadelphia Theater Company, Arden Theater, Lantern Theater Company, 1812 Productions,, Walnut Street Theatre, Inis Nua, Gulfshore Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Portland Stage and Weston Theater.. 2016 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. BA in Philosophy/Theology from Eastern University. MA in Philosophy from Western Kentucky University. 8 Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Original Music and Sound Design. 2019 Independence Fellowship in the Arts. Special thanks to Joe Samala and Jorge Cousineau for collaborative excellence and camaraderie. Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cmsound YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/yd89tm64 Instagram: @cmcolucci

Charlie DelMarcelle has been working as a professional actor, director, and theatre educator for over twenty years. He currently resides in Philadelphia where he serves as an educational outreach specialist for the Lantern Theatre Company, Delaware Theatre Company, White Box Theatre, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Charlie is a full-time tenure track professor at West Chester University, where he teaches acting, musical theatre, children’s theatre, and playwrighting. As a performer, Charlie is a multiple Barrymore Award winner, and has appeared at Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre, Theatre Horizon, Delaware Theatre Company, Inis Nua, Lantern Theater, Azuka Theatre, EgoPo Classic Theatre, Commonwealth Classic Theatre, Shakespeare in Clark Park, and Act II Playhouse.

Adam Delmarcelle is an adjunct professor at York College of Pennsylvania, Lebanon Valley College, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and Kutztown University teaching courses in graphic design, printmaking and Visual Communication. He holds a BFA from Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. His work is in the permanent collections of The Cushing Witney Medical Library at Yale University as well as the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Adam DelMarcelle’s prints and social art actions have been made in Pennsylvania, on the front lines of the exploding opioid epidemic, and have functioned to educate and mobilize community response through compelling his viewers to ask better questions and to always be suspect of the information given by those in power. After losing a brother to an opioid overdose, DelMarcelle committed his life to the betterment of his community through his work as an educator and artist. DelMarcelle made national news when he projected “American Cartel” as a large scale building projection on the façade of Purdue Pharma’s corporate headquarters. 

Simpatico Theatre explores stories that celebrate, challenge, and expand our definitions of community and compassion. They stage thought-provoking work that’s grounded in social justice, civil rights, and community service. Their grassroots dedication to bridging communities fuels our work, reveals avenues of advocacy for our audiences, and leads to transformative collaborations in our city.

Allison Heishman (Artistic Director, Simpatico Theatre) is a director and educator who has been a part of the Philadelphia artistic community since 2003. With Azuka Theatre (former Associate Artistic Director): Ready, Steady, Yeti, Go (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), The Arsonists (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), Local Girls (WP), The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence, Skin & Bone (WP), Failure: A Love Story, Hazard County, the terrible girls (WP), Azuka One Acts. Other credits: Tartuffe (Commonwealth Classic), Macbeth (Revolution Shakespeare), Rabbit Hole, Eurydice (Ruhl, Arcadia University), No Reservations (PNAA Productions, WP), Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll (Plays & Players), Pinkalicious, the musical (Walnut Street Theater, Kids’ Series), A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity, Spacewang (Tiny Dynamite, A Play A Pie A Pint, Barnes Foundation). Heishman was the Assistant Director under Blanka Zizka for the Wilma Theater’s productions of Angels in America, parts I and II. She has written and directed for Theatre Programs at the National Constitution Center, where she is the director of Living News, a fast-paced show geared towards middle and high school students that discusses current events and the Constitution. Senior Lecturer at the University of the Arts and Rowan University. Proud alumna of Washington College, Chestertown, MD. 2017 nominee for the F. Otto Haas Barrymore Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist. www.allisonheishman.org