Y-Haven residents, Cleveland Public Theatre explore the road to substance use recovery in “12,000 Steps”

Cleveland Public Theatre

Cleveland Public Theatre and Y-Haven are continuing their 23-year partnership in putting on a play featuring residents of Y-Haven. This year's play is called 12,000 Steps, and it's about the road to recovery from substance use disorder and the perseverance needed to move forward. Photo taken by Cameron Fields

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Reese Walker is tapping into himself, for he is an artist.

Walker, 54, is part of an eight-member cast performing the play “12,000 Steps,” a production about the road to recovery from substance use disorder and the perseverance needed to move forward.

The play is the product of a 23-year partnership between Cleveland Public Theatre and Y-Haven, a branch of the Greater Cleveland YMCA that offers temporary housing and treatment for people who are homeless, re-entering the community after incarceration or recovering from opioid use disorder, according to a news release. The production is inspired by the real-life stories of Walker and other Y-Haven residents.

Audiences can watch the play for free at Cleveland Public Theatre on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m., with suggested donations of $5 to support the production. A special benefit performance will be held Nov. 20 at the theatre, and tickets for that showing are $100.

Tickets can be purchased here, and they include an appetizer reception in addition to the performance, the release says. In addition, a free tour performance will be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 21 at Lakewood Congregational Church.

Walker has been a resident at Y-Haven for four months, and he said the experience of putting on the play has been gratifying. He’s excited his family will be in the audience, including his 26-year-old daughter, Brandi, and 7-year-old granddaughter, Alivia.

“This is really something to me personally, it’s an experience I can’t even really describe to you,” Walker said in an interview with cleveland.com. “It’s a feeling of relief. It’s a feeling of freedom, man. To be better, just do better things. Just explore, get into something that I’ve never been into, having fun while I’m doing it.”

Though the cast didn’t go to prestigious arts schools like Juilliard or receive a Tony award, the stories they will share to audiences are authentic and genuine.

Raymond Bobgan, the play’s director and the theatre’s executive artistic director, said he believes everyone is an artist. He enjoys helping people reveal their inner artist.

“It brings up the question of what is quality theater?” Bobgan said in an interview with cleveland.com. “Is quality theater based on the acumen of the people who are performing it or is it based on the experience of the audience? Because I think if someone comes to see this play, they’re going to be as moved and as transformed by anything they’re going to see at Playhouse Square.”

When Walker came to Y-Haven in July, he was coming from the Salvation Army. He said he had been using marijuana and went to the Salvation Army for rehab and therapy. Walker said the Salvation Army permits people to stay there for six months with a two-month grace period, but he knew he would need more time.

Walker decided he didn’t want to stay for the two-month grace period; he wanted to return to treatment. Y-Haven is more of a treatment center, where he can work on getting a sponsor and practicing his steps in the recovery program.

Walker, who has a background as an ordained pastor, has been sober for 11 months. He said his decision to to start the road to recovery came at a point in his life where he wanted a change.

“It was a time in my life where I had to say enough is enough,” Walker said. “And that point came where I made a conscious decision that it was time for me to change. And that was it. It was either die in the streets or surrender and give myself a chance to live right.”

As Walker prepares for the stage, he’s thankful he has the opportunity to share it with others who have walked similar paths.

“We can all identify with one another, no matter (if we’re) Black, white, Chinese or Puerto Rican, we can all identify because we’ve been out there in them trenches getting high, living like this,” Walker said. “But only by God’s grace are we all still here to get another chance.”

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