We had an incredible turn out this weekend for She Kills Monsters, our fall play!
Our students and wonderful director put in hours upon hours of work into this performance, staying on campus until 8:30 PM and even coming in on their weekends. This show was Lizi Watt’s directorial debut at Crossroads, and she certainly set the bar high!
In the months of preparation for the show, Watt led students in a deep and historically accurate dramaturgical analysis of the play. This process helped students, cast and crew alike, create a deep, authentic world on the stage under tremendous time constraints.
The delineation between cast and crew blurred for this play-making process: thanks to 5th Day, participants in the Fall Play learned about and had a hand in every aspect of the performance no matter their official role – from stage combat, to creative design, costume creation, construction, and more. 5th Day provides a new structure for school theatre – students can do more and learn more about theatre with the 5th Day lab structure, without overwhelming their already packed schedules. This structure also supports our many students who are both athletes and artists.
Like 5th Day, our theatre shows also provides a space for a community of passionate 7th -12th graders to collaborate. Our middle schoolers learn so much from high school mentors, and have the opportunity to participate in a high-school level production. Our high schoolers also benefit from this additional leadership opportunity, as well as compounding their own knowledge when they teach what they’ve learned to younger students. All in all, our theatre program reflects so many our school’s interdisciplinary, community-based values. We can’t wait to see what this group does next with their Winter and Spring productions!
Read on for the official summary of the show:
She Kills Monsters tells the story of high school senior Agnes Evans as she deals with the recent death of her younger sister, Tilly. When Agnes stumbles upon Tilly’s Dungeons & Dragons notebook, she finds herself catapulted into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was her sister’s refuge. The plot takes place in reality and in the game world where Agnes embarks on an action-packed quest to save her sister’s soul, coming face to face with a homicidal fairy, blood thirsty cheerleaders, and a gelatinous cube, and discovering a side of herself she never knew existed. Acclaimed playwright Qui Nguyen’s script offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all, mixing pop-culture savvy humor with themes of overcoming loss and what it means to be queer in the 90s.
“She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers Edition” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
www.concordtheatricals.com