SOSCA’s ‘Monsters’ Slays the Stage
She Kills Monsters, a dramatic comedy, bases around main character Agnes (Olivia Drury) who struggles in the aftermath of her sister Tilly’s (Lauren Witkowski) death. In scaling the Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) world, Agnes hopes to hold onto her sister through the game.
Agnes fights alongside magical game warriors Lilith (Sophie Nenninger), Kaliope (Audrey Parker), Orcus (Dominic Andraos), and Tilly’s character Tillius to defeat the bosses of Newlandia: Evil Gabbi (Natalie Pearl), Evil Tina (Angela Michenaud), Farrah the Faerie (Meredith Cook), and a five-headed dragon called Tiamat. Navigating the DnD world provides Agnes with the opportunity to connect to Tilly via her character which gives her the closure necessary to move on with her life.
Other characters involved in the journey included Chuck (Riley Byrnes) who helped Agnes play DnD, Agnes’ boyfriend Miles (Andrew Guthary), Agnes’ bestfriend Vera (Kendall Santos), and fellow DnD player Steve (Tristen Partain).
Concerning ticket sales, the first two nights sold out, with approximately sixty tickets purchased; the third show, which was on Sunday, Feb. 24, provided an added opportunity to see the show, a huge delight to all members of the production.
She Kills Monsters featured a variety of precisely-timed sound effects, lighting changes, prop/scene changes and critical transitions between scenes, all essential to the play’s overall caliber. Narrator Rachel Kupfer-Weinstein’s persona served to emphasize the supernatural elements of the play.
In place of the usual Porthole dynamic, the audience was assembled into what Mrs. Sanford defined as a “black box theater.” The more confined, intimate setting provided a “different experience for both the audience and the actors” and “forced the actors to think creatively.”
The play was student-run, directed by senior Lauren Stevens, her first time directing a full-length production.
Despite the technical complexities that she handled, Stevens accredits the success of the production to “all of the designers who worked together throughout the rehearsal process to really bring the show to life.”
As an entirely student-run production, She Kills Monsters showcased a truly collaborative attitude among the students involved which “is something that doesn’t always happen on a high school level.”