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Joel Mast, a member of the church, said he was approached with the idea by Kathryn Hitchcock, a member of the National Alliance of Mental Illness for Clark, Greene and Madison Counties.
โShe had seen the show previously and thought it might be a good idea,โ he said.
The show is performed by Ted Swartz, a playwright from Virginia. Swartz covers a period in his life when one of his business partners struggled with bipolar disorder and committed suicide in 2007. Swartz uses humor and multi-media elemnts in the play to talk about how he was able to deal with the tragedy.
โLots of people have been touched by suicide,โ Mast said. โWe felt like this is something we could do for the community to help them get a little perspective on the issue.โ
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He said the church has been involved with community outreach like hosting the play for the past 40 years. The church was able to bring the play to Springfield and offer free admission thanks to sponsorship from NAMI, other churches and donations from the community.
Before the church started heavily promoting the play, around 70 people had already reserved seating for the show. Mast said he hopes more people will take advantage of the event.
โWe have room for up to 230 people,โ he said.
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Attendees will have to reserve their seating through EventBrite, but there is no cost to attend. Mast said there will be a question and answer session after the play so the audience can connect with Swartz and ask for more information about suicide prevention.
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