What starts off as an idea can transform into something much greater. Courtney Long, a senior majoring in speech communications, has immersed herself in an independent study in order to create a play focusing on issues very important to her: depression and suicide.

“On the Edge,” a play that essentially revolves around three characters battling their internal demons, was constructed by Long for a class.

“It started as a project for Advanced Performance Studies,” Long said. “We learned about something called reader’s theater, which is what my play is. Our final project was to have a mini script.”

Long was torn between forming a play based on animals, one of her passions, or a much darker topic pertaining to depression and suicide. In the end, she chose the riskier option and consulted her professor about it.

“Dr. Deleasa Randall-Griffiths told me it would be a really good independent study and I should consider doing it,” Long said.

With her professor’s encouragement, Long decided to utilize the reader’s theater technique in order to put together her script.

According to Long, reader’s theater is the construction of a play through picking a topic and collecting various dialogues from a number of sources. After the sources are found, one must put the selected sentences or words in a coherent order to apply to the chosen topic.

“You can take anything you want and mix it all together-like a huge collage,” Long said.

After extensive investigating, Long selected the play “Next to Normal” and two novels, “Beyond the Chocolate War” and “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” for the majority of her script. Long also gave credit to song lyrics by Paramore, Breaking Benjamin and My Chemical Romance for parts of the dialogue.

Advanced Performance Studies might have given her the push she needed for the project, but Long initially started working on a form of her play as early as April 2010.

“[It was] a shortened version of what I have now as my final for Advanced Performing Studies,” Long said. “Since then I’ve been gathering more resources and adding them to the already existing script.”

Part of what makes reader’s theater such an interesting concept is that a person cannot use his or her own words to create the dialogue. The process of selectively using parts of books, plays or other forms of published work can be quite meticulous.

“I took excerpts that were relevant to me and typed out what I liked and printed them off,” Long said. “Then I would cut them into pieces and put them on the ground and decided who was going to say what and moved it around until it was what I wanted. It was really hard.”

According to Long, the play is broken up into three sets, with each set featuring only two characters. From each of these pairs, one character is suffering from depression and must battle with his or her suicidal thoughts.

“It’s not like your normal theater; it’s a lot different,” Long said.

Characters include Sam, who is paired up with Dr. Zoe Loft in one set, Brooke, who is grouped with Eli in another set, and Caleb, who carries out an entire act by himself. However, his suicidal thoughts will be played by another actor.

Because of this unique concept, Long believes the set featuring Caleb could be the most complex.

“There are two actors [who are] going to depict the same character,” Long said. “Caleb might be like, ‘I’m a good person, I have friends,’ and his thoughts might be interjecting, ‘but they never hang out with you, they don’t really like you.’ This is to show the audience that your thoughts aren’t always under your control; they could just pop up and happen.”

Although Long refrained from revealing too much, she hinted that her play was built off of a foundation of actual depression and suicide facts.

“I use the statistics for the play,” Long said. “Like two out of three people who have depression are female. So in the play, two out of my three characters are females. And when attempting suicide, boys are more likely to succeed.”

Long said that while her play will certainly not be a “fairy tale,” it will ideally be an eye-opening experience.

Along with the extensive process of creating an entire play, Long has a handful of concerns.

“I’m really worried about finding an actor for Caleb,” she said. “A lot of girls audition, more than boys. I have to make sure I have a strong male for that part. If I can’t find the right one, the whole play could flop.”

In addition to casting concerns, Long is aware of the danger in presenting her play to the public.

“It’s a controversial topic, but I’m hoping people will get a message,” Long said.

The inspiration Long felt to engage in such a time-consuming project stemmed from her own personal experiences.

Long admits that she has depression.

“At first I was ashamed of it,” Long said. “But it’s a chemical imbalance and people tend to forget that.”

Part of her motivation in pursuing her independent study comes from the desire to spread awareness about depression and suicide.

“People need to know that it’s not their fault they have depression,” Long said. “You can’t just look at someone with it and think something’s wrong with them.”

Long continued on to express her concern with this growing problem.

“I think more people have depression than what we’d like to think. There are a lot of people who don’t want to admit they have it,” Long said. “People need to be paying attention.”

Through her play, Long aspires to send a message out to both those with depression and those who know someone with it.

“If you have depression, you are hopefully going to learn that you’re not alone, that there is a light at the end,” Long said. “You don’t need to take your life. There are people who care.”

As for those who have a friend or loved one with the mental condition, “don’t give up on them,” Long said.

Casting began yesterday and continues tonight from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Student Center Auditorium. Anyone who is interested but can’t make the audition times can contact Long at [email protected].

The play will be performed April 15, 16 and possibly 17.