STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
It’s quite the switch from “Grease,” the sing-and-dance musical the Sun Valley Community School presented just a few months ago.
There’s no music in “She kills Monsters”—just the spoken word. But there are plenty of sword and mace fights, screams and groans
There’s some engaging costumes designed by Sara Gorby, nifty special effects and lighting designed by Director Kevin Wade and even some sound treats crafted by student Brady Giles.
You can catch “She Kills Monsters” at 7 tonight and Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Sun Valley Community School Theater. Tickets are $8 and $12, available online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/36066/production/1150885?performanceId.
This play, which is hugely popular in high schools and colleges, is a comic romp with multiple layers--lots of fun for the young actors to do and fun for the audience, as well.
That said, it’s not a shallow play. It comes with a message about acceptance and the idea that it’s never too late to reach out.
The play follows Agnes, a high school cheerleader who is very much into the pop culture. Agnes is cleaning out the room of her younger sister Tilly, who died a year earlier, when she finds a Dungeon & Dragons scenario that her sister created.
She had never been close to her sister—she always thought she was a geeky nerd. But when she steps into the world that her sister created, she gets to interact with her sister again and with her sister’s tribe. And she comes to understand things about her sister—and herself—that she never realized before.
The play, written by Qui Nguyen, features Katie Gardiner as Agnes and Rose Bicas-Dolgen as Tilly. Charlie Coulter plays the Dungeon Master; Cassius Klingenfuss, Agnes’ boyfriend; Ida Belle Gorby, Kaliope; Lizzy Loving, Lilith; Sydney Lovering, Vera, and Brady Giles, Orcus.
Other cast members include Elyse Duffield, Tyler Salvoni, Phoebe Everett Williams, Aster Pitts, Steve Serva-Gonzales, Paisley Shapiro, Elizabeth Dahlen, Finian Ayliffe, Etienne Blumberg, Riley Siegel, Callan Duke and Lidia Kaminer.