For some young people, life can seem like an endless ordeal.

A new multimedia play by En Garde Arts, the company that brought Basetrack Live to Penn State in 2014, juxtaposes projected interviews with real people and actors on stage to tell the stories of teenagers and young adults grappling with addiction, depression, anxiety, and other mental-health issues. The show comes to Eisenhower Auditorium March 15.

“The title refers to a program for psychologically disturbed teenagers and young adults that gathers them in the outdoors for days or weeks of group therapeutic treatment,” writes Charles Isherwood of the New York Times. “But it also speaks to the idea that in contemporary culture, with its often fragmented families and onslaught of social media, kids today are navigating their way into adulthood in a world in which the old signposts have all but been obliterated, and the path has grown thick with thorny emotional underbrush. The result: anxiety, sadness, self-doubt, addiction, and various other hard-to-vanquish demons.”

Wilderness shares the stories of six families, along with their therapists, on journeys to recovery. A folk music score accompanies the performers on stage.

Isherwood calls Wilderness, written by Seth Bockley and Anne Hamburger, “a terrific, moving new multimedia theater piece.”

“A smart ensemble of young actors turns the real-life stories of Hamburger’s research into an endearing constellation of high school kids in distress,” writes Miriam Felton-Dansky for the Village Voice.

“The teens relate these stories in fragments, as they hike, set up camp, attend therapy sessions, and argue with their counselors,” Felton-Dansky writes. “The program is demanding, beginning when the teens are ‘gooned’: kidnapped with their parents’ permission, then flown to a remote part of Utah, where they sleep on the ground and traipse through the backcountry with gear on their shoulders.”

Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State audience and program development director Amy Dupain Vashaw, who attended Wilderness a few months ago during its premiere in New York City, says the show opens up a discussion about teen mental health that needs to be heard and addressed.

“Wilderness serves as an apt metaphor for the families in this story,” she says. “Yes, on the surface, it’s about families making the difficult decision to send their child to a wilderness therapy program, often for an extended period of time. But the parents, too, are in their own kind of wilderness, wandering in search of answers to help their children navigate tough situations.”

As an audience member, Vashaw says, it’s easy to identify with the people in the story.

“Because these stories are derived from real folks who’ve had this experience with wilderness therapy,” she notes, “the play has a sense of immediacy and authenticity.”

Center for the Performing Arts director George Trudeau, who’s also seen Wilderness, says the show is thought-provoking and emotional.

“It’s a powerful work of theater that touches people in profound ways,” he says, “given that most people have either a familial connection to mental-health issues or know of someone — relative, friend, colleague — who does.”

Sandra Zaremba and Richard Brown sponsor the presentation. The William E. McTurk Endowment and the Sidney and Helen S. Friedman Endowment also provide support. Various engagement events are being planned in conjunction with the show. For information or tickets, visit cpa.psu.edu or phone (814) 863-0255.