Assignment 5: Shakespeare’s Richard III.
Assignment 5: Shakespeare’s Richard III.
Mr. Munoz is a struggling young actor in Chicago who has battled
alcoholism since approximately the age of 13 years.
“There was a lot of fighting in our house when I was growing up,”
he says. “Entering my middle school years, it just got worse,” he
says. Mr. Munoz’s parents had violent fights. Although they were
both very supportive of him, he cannot remember when they ever
really got along.
Still, Mr. Munoz was able to get through early adolescence as an
honors student and starred on both the debate team and his
school’s drama club. He even starred in an elaborate production of
Shakespeare’s Richard III.
“In our school,” he says, “if you were a drama club kind of kid
instead of an athlete, you really had to prove yourself to be a real
man to avoid getting picked on. I did that by drinking. We had lots
of ways to sneak booze into the places we met, and it was kind of
exciting at first. You’re 15 years old, you’re outside on a starry night
in a big city, you’re with your friends, and there’s plenty of alcohol.
It makes you feel like a big man.”
Unfortunately, his parents never seemed to notice; therefore, Mr.
Munoz never got help or encouragement to stop.
“After high school, my stress—and the reasons I gave myself for
drinking—got worse. Those good grades got me partial

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