{"id":40998,"date":"2025-11-14T10:23:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T16:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=40998"},"modified":"2025-11-19T19:58:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T01:58:42","slug":"the-first-play-of-2025-imsa-presents-she-kills-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2025\/11\/14\/the-first-play-of-2025-imsa-presents-she-kills-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Play of 2025: IMSA Presents ‘She Kills Monsters’"},"content":{"rendered":"

On October 31st, the fittingly spooky day of Halloween, IMSA\u2019s Drama Club opened the year with their first show, <\/span>She Kills Monsters<\/span><\/i>, a heartfelt and imaginative play by Qui Nguyen. The story follows Agnes, a young woman coping with the loss of her younger sister, Tilly. While sorting through Tilly\u2019s belongings, Agnes discovers her sister\u2019s Dungeons & Dragons campaign and decides to play through it with the help of a Dungeon Master. Through this fantasy world, Agnes learns more about who her sister was, what she loved, and how she wanted to live.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite its adventurous setting, <\/span>She Kills Monsters<\/span><\/i> explores deeply human emotions\u2014loss, love, and identity\u2014balanced with humor, action, and creativity. The play\u2019s mix of heartfelt moments, fantasy battles, and clever D&D-inspired storytelling kept the audience engaged from beginning to end.<\/span><\/p>\n

The audience was very delighted with the end product of this show. It was a magical experience, with strong themes that people could relate to and interaction between the audience and the crew. Sophomore Jesse Ferguson shared what made the production stand out. \u201cI really liked the jokes and how they connected with the audience,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Dungeon Master kind of narrated the story without actually narrating it, and I thought that was really cool. When they went like, \u2018Boss Level Number One,\u2019 it really felt like a real game.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Many aspects of the production also appealed to the audience. When asked about the performances, Jesse highlighted one scene in particular: \u201cThe moment where Chuck was reading a passage from the main character\u2019s sister\u2019s D&D book, and their lines synced up. I thought that was really cool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, students worked creatively to bring the fantasy elements to life. Senior Amelia Kinney assisted in costume design, saying, \u201cI helped out with costumes\u2014specifically making corsets,” while also noting the challenge of finishing large set pieces under tight time constraints, like the cave. Performing allowed for interactive fun too, as Z Peek recalled, \u201cIt was so funny since we got to go through the audience and do a bit of interacting with them, but also focusing on our own choreography.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rylan Malek highlighted the ingenuity involved in creating props and sets, explaining, \u201cThere are a few things, I guess, from the technical aspect of it \u2026 The other dragon heads were sock puppets, and I loved how creative that was.\u201d The cast and crew worked together, problem-solving and improvising to maintain both the story\u2019s emotion and its spectacle. Moments like Chuck reading from Tilly\u2019s D&D book emphasized emotional beats, letting both performers and audience feel the depth behind the story. Z also added on to the concept of involvement of the group, saying, \u201cI think this year the crew was much more involved than usual, especially because we had more time to prepare. There were only a few last-minute things, like lighting cues, but everyone handled it really well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

All cast, crew, and audience agreed that the experience was rewarding. Rylan said, \u201cmight be biased, but I\u2019d say it breaks the scale\u2014definitely a 10 out of 10. I love how wild and funny it is. I\u2019d love to watch a full version someday.\u201d The aspect of fantasy was a large part of what made the play interesting. Jesse added, \u201cI would definitely recommend it. I\u2019d give it a ten out of ten. I really liked how they incorporated Dungeons & Dragons and how they included relevant topics and conflicts that relate to students and people in general.\u201d The play was awesome, and a lot of people enjoyed it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems like this production was a success! With heartfelt emotion, plenty of exploration, and a magical sprinkle of fantasy, <\/span>She Kills Monsters<\/span><\/i> came to life through IMSA Theater. The students enjoyed being part of the show both onstage and behind the scenes. Along the way, they shared many memorable moments that stood out to them. Setting the standard high for the year, we can\u2019t wait to see what the group will bring alive this winter!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 31st, the fittingly spooky day of Halloween, IMSA\u2019s Drama Club opened the year with their first show, She Kills Monsters, a heartfelt and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1105,"featured_media":40999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1019,2724],"tags":[4538,2029,4006,3188],"coauthors":[4537],"class_list":["post-40998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-imsanews","category-news","tag-acting","tag-drama-club","tag-play","tag-theater"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40998"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41048,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40998\/revisions\/41048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40998"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=40998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}