Alky: A play about alcohol

by Jerome McDonough

How many thousands of people have been maimed or killed because of a few drinks or due to someone else's drinking? Alky turns the spotlight on alcohol as it affects young adults. Many parents who are horrified at the thought of their children using drugs don't worry a moment about a beer or two now and then. In fact, some kids get their first drink from Mom and Dad. But statistics show that alcohol is the most dangerous drug of all from the standpoint of ruining lives—and taking lives. In Alky, McDonough traces a teenage couple from their first drink to their ... last.

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 1991

About the author

Ten year-old Jerry McDonough played Joe Crowell in his father’s production of Our Town at Amarillo College in 1957, and the whole problem started right there.

McDonough began writing as soon as his life was touched by the work of the master, Thornton Wilder. Throughout his life, he listed Wilder as one of his greatest influences.

McDonough’s plays began appearing in print in the early 1970s but did not really catch fire until nearly a decade later. By 1986, McDonough’s Juvie (carried by Pioneer Drama Service) was named the most popular play in the American Educational Theatre. Over the next several years, as many as four of his shows were listed among the top ten on the same list.

His 40+ published pieces have seen productions in all 50 states, every Canadian province and numerous foreign countries. Dr. Rick Amidon, writing in The English Journal, called McDonough “The Father of Young Adult Drama.” Jerome is listed in Who’s Who in the Theatre and Contemporary Authors.

Remaining in Amarillo, Texas his whole life, Jerome loved his “day job” of more than 25 years as the Theatre Arts teacher at Caprock High School, where many of his shows had their world premiere. He died in December 1999.