If you’ve seen students walking around the CFA painted head to toe in red or silver recently, it’s not Armageddon. For the last five weeks, a cast of 12 students has been rehearsing “She Kills Monsters,” a 2011 play by Vietnamese-American playwright Qui Nguyen.

The play centers around the character of Agnes Evans, a 25 year-old English teacher, as she copes with the passing of her younger sister, Tilly. Agnes discovers her sister’s Dungeons & Dragons module and, with the help of Tilly’s friends, navigates the magical world in an effort to feel close to her sister again. Agnes finds herself learning things about her sister she never knew before, grappling with her sister’s sexuality, struggles, and fantasies. “She Kills Monsters” beautifully explores the world of Dungeons & Dragons as a means of battling inner demons both physically and emotionally.

The faculty production has been produced in-person, but will stream online in adherence to the university’s COVID-19 guidelines on May 14 and 15 at 8:00pm, and 16 at 2:00pm. 

“She Kills Monsters” first debuted at the University in 2015 as a student-directed Second Stage production. Now, it will be performed in a very different medium. For one, this version of the play has been adapted and rewritten by Nguyen for Zoom, re-entitling the play “She Kills Monsters: The Virtual Realm.” However, Assistant Professor of the Practice in Theater Edward Torres, the director of  “She Kills Monsters,” said he was tired of Zoom and chose to do the show in an actual theater setting rather than Zoom rooms. In a combination of mediums, this production of “She Kills Monsters” is an in-person production of the play as written for Zoom, recorded for online streaming.

Since the play is performed in-person, the cast underwent an extensive filming process while struggling to navigate COVID-19 restrictions. Assistant stage manager Hadassa Garfein ’24 recounted how they began staging the show using a six-foot-long stick to ensure the proper distance between actors.

Although COVID-19 precautions placed physical distance between the students, several actors and student crew members described the bonding experience of the play. Kiera Moran ’24, who plays the role of warrior/dark elf Kalliope, said she could relate.

“The COVID-19 restrictions and the capacities of the rehearsal rooms meant that it was a lot harder to get to know the cast and so that process of getting closer to them took a lot longer than a normal production,” Moran said. “But the weirdness of having to do the play during COVID-19 made us closer than we would have been otherwise.”

Garfein added that long film hours and rehearsals allowed students to meet each other in what has been a somewhat socially stagnant school year.

“It was nice to meet other people outside of my immediate circle who didn’t know me on campus,” Garfein said.

Abby Meyers ’22, who plays the lead role of Agnes, described the interconnectedness of the show and the pandemic itself.

“It has a lot to do with feeling isolated and with everything going on with COVID-19,” Meyers explained. She relayed that the play was about breaking out of isolation and seeking closeness to someone who is distant.

Torres spoke about society’s dismissal of “nerd culture,” and how in some ways Dungeons & Dragons brings them together, like a chosen family.

“They’re siblings and oftentimes what’s really true about that is we don’t really know our family like we think we do,” Torres said of the two leads, Agnes and Tilly. “So the idea is that the pandemic has brought us closer together while at a distance.”

In a “normal” semester, the play would have been performed in-person for the University community. Over the past year, COVID-19 has forced the theater department to adapt to different circumstances, whether that was performing over Zoom (the spring 2020 production of “Method Gun”), or in outdoor settings (the fall 2020 production of “SLABBER”). With virtual performances, one of the biggest losses is the in-person audiences.

“Theater thrives when there is a community to witness it,” Torres said. “There is an exchange of energy in a story in how it affects the audience emotionally and the actors.”

Theo Dolan ’24, who plays Orcus, a demon of the underworld, said that creating a theater production for a live stream made the acting experience somewhat different.

“My character is kind of comedic so when I was saying supposedly funny lines there would be no laughter because [the cast and crew] couldn’t laugh because it would interfere with the sound,” Dolan said. “So, it was a very different atmosphere from other productions I’ve been in.”

Meyers expressed a similar feeling, explaining that actors are unable to feed off of the crowd in the way that they normally might. However, Meyers shed light on some exciting features that result from streaming the show. She spoke about the accessibility of this form of theater, highlighting what some viewers perceive as formality and “stuffiness” of the realm.

“For people who are not as comfortable in that world, I think that streaming is a really great way for people to ease themselves into enjoying theater,” Meyers said.

Though “She Kills Monsters” was to some extent hindered by the circumstances surrounding its production, it has allowed the play to take creative liberties which most are unable to pursue. Basic CGI and animation will play a role in the production; this technical adaptation perfectly suits the play, as it adheres to the theme of Dungeons & Dragons, allowing for special effects, combat, and scenic locations. These features culminate in a show that is will be unlike anything the University has produced in previous years, in its filming’s scope and scale.

The play remained true to theatrical performance as it filmed all of the scenes straight through without many takes or a huge variety in terms of the different shots. However, Torres said he chose to take a somewhat cinematic approach to the show. 

The cast filmed and rehearsed the scenes individually, tracing the plot in a non-linear way. The play was shot by film students, which Torres described as a nice kickoff to collaboration between the theater department and film department.

Associate Professor of Film Studies Steve Collins, who helped garner a team of film students to partake in the production effort, said that the adverse circumstances of the pandemic has inspired collaboration.

“I think in times of crisis we have to work a little more as a University and less as departments,” Collins said.

Collins said he empathized with the theater department’s need to reinvent how they deliver their medium.

“When that pandemic hit I think that all of us as teachers were very concerned that we couldn’t do our jobs and that the students couldn’t do their jobs,” Collins said. “To provide the kind of education that we try to provide during the pandemic, it really required a lot of cross-departmental help.”

Collins also mentioned that collaboration in the play ended up being a win-win because his students were able to learn from Professor Torres while helping to give the production a real venue.

Unlike in a theater production, the cast has no idea exactly what the final version of the show is going to look like. The production is still in the digital editing stage, working with Assistant Professor of the Practice in Theater Courtney Gaston. Meyers spoke to the strangeness of not having seen the final version of the show yet.

“It’s wild to experience a show that you’re in at the same time as your audience,” Meyers said.

 

Ariana Blaustein can be reached at ablaustein@wesleyan.edu.