When Lara Hicks, sophomore theatre major, signed up for a directing class this semester, she was given an unexpected opportunity to confront her past.

“When the professor told us we had to write a play I immediately went into panic mode,” she said.

Hicks’ professor told her to write out a monologue and they worked on expanding the monologue into a one-act play. “Sex, Alcohol and Control” was the result.

“Alcoholism is something I’ve dealt with the majority of my adult life,” Hicks said.

“I didn’t start out writing a public service message, but if that’s what people get out of it, then I’m all for it. Waking up in a stranger’s bed and not knowing where I was is how I started the play and that is what just came out of it.”

Hicks has not had a drink since she attended a Halloween party last year.

“I went to some parties when I came back to school,” she said. “I’m not placing blame because I don’t do that. It was entirely me who chose to go out and start doing it again.

“It was just one too many times of me waking up and not remembering things and I enjoy having fun entirely too much not to remember it.”

The crowd reacted positively to “Sex, Alcohol and Control’s” opening.

“It’s a very real topic that is very relevant in today’s society,” said Matt Lennhart, freshman business major. “It focused on a serious topic, but had sparse humor. The acting was extremely convincing. It told a story-pulled you in.”

Hicks is a single mother of five.

“I have one daughter and four boys,” she said. “Alixi, Nathan, Isaiah, and then I have 7-year-old twins Zachariah and Geoffrey.

Born in Ames, Iowa, she moved to a ranch outside of Welch, Okla. After graduating, she moved to Joplin. She has stayed in this area ever since, but, by any means, life has not been a bed of roses.