Valparaiso - Even though Molly said "no" while sober, her tone changed after a few too many tequilas. The next morning Molly's friend told her she had sex with the party's host. The teens did not use condoms.

Actors portrayed a series of scenarios mimicking real life and the behaviors that can lead to death during an HIV/AIDS awareness presentation entitled "What If..." at Valparaiso High School on Monday.

"You know HIV transmission is like a crap shoot," presentation moderator Diane Kondrat of InterAction Theater, Inc., said.

Judgment and condemnation were absent as actors and students interacted. Facts and emotion got across the point. HIV is spreading fastest among teenagers, Kondrat said. Fifty percent of those who are HIV positive do not yet know they are infected. Fifty percent of new HIV cases among females are 13 to 19 years old.

"What they know - the statistics and the figures - has very little affect on their behavior," Kondrat said. "Teaching from the head produces a certain set of results. We teach from the heart."

Students may have learned little new information Monday, but the delivery system spoke louder than teachers or text.

"What I think happens is that the issues become personal," Kondrat said. "They start to see themselves."

The interactive theater presentation encourages kids to ask characters questions about their choices, sexuality and at-risk behavior.

Questions and slang terms, for which students might be reprimanded in the classroom, receive a response of "good question" on the high school auditorium stage.

"They gave real life situations and you usually don't see that," said 16-year-old Laura Pappas. "It helps you pay attention to what they are saying."

Angel McKinney probably won't read an HIV/AIDS fact sheet, she said. But the 16-year-old listened to the program.

"When they do things like this, it makes you think," she said.

The HIV/AIDS Advisory Council sponsors the theater group as part of an outreach program. All juniors will hear the message over the course of three days.

The day following their play, students return to the scene to discuss the social issues with speakers from the Aliveness Project of Northwest Indiana, a not-for-profit organization that promotes AIDS awareness and education.