The University of Alabama chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is collecting student essay submissions until Nov. 30 for its third annual Mental Health Monologues event.

Mental Health Monologues is a project that gives students a chance to share their personal experiences with mental illness by submitting anonymous essays. Student actors then perform the essays as monologues in a theatrical setting.

“We want to get positive messages about how people deal with mental illnesses from day to day and what that’s like,” Becca Kastner, a third-year graduate student studying clinical psychology, said.

NAMI’s main goals are to promote education, support and advocacy for mental health issues.

“We do a variety of activities every year to reach those three goals and to reach out to the community,” Kastner said.

The Mental Health Monologues event is the biggest event that NAMI-UA does on campus. This year’s theme is “Erase the Stigma,” and Kastner hopes the event will promote discussion of mental illness among students.

“We hope to turn the monologues into dialogues and make it OK to talk about these issues,” she said.

Abby Jones, a third-year graduate theatre student who serves as artistic director for the event, feels the actors have a greater sense of responsibility because of the real stories they are telling.

“We focus on the daily struggle of mental illness,” she said. “We hope to give people a hope for finding a way to live with that struggle and make peace with it.”

Jones said they try to match each actor with the right essay for them, but not all actors are from the theatre department.

“Everyone that’s doing it is passionate about it, and that’s what’s coming off,” Jones said.

Wyley Shreves, a third-year doctorate student studying clinical psychology, has been an actor for Mental Health Monologues for the past two years. He said the event is a powerful experience for him.

“It’s easy to read about these illnesses in a book, but to hear it in real life is very different,” Shreves said. “There are people all around you living with these issues.”

Shreves said he hopes to bring the humanity to mental illness as he performs.

“Once you know what they go through, you start to see the realism of it,” he said. “I hope to portray that to the audience.”

For more information or to submit an essay, go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/8NJWS2D or contact [email protected].