by Saie Kim ~
“… Now all I have left is this stupid piece of paper and this stupid made-up adventure about killing a stupid made-up dragon.” – Agnes Evans, She Kills Monsters
Stage Manager Michael Rebarchak, center, has some fun with cast members Lauren McKee, Clara Rose Hanahan and Kaitlyn Whitsell during a break in rehearsal for the Penn State Centre Stage production ‘She Kills Monsters’ at the Playhouse Theatre. The play ran Oct. 8-17. IMAGE: PATRICK MANSELL (news.psu.edu)
The “stupid made-up adventure” Agnes refers to is the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, a game played by her younger sister Tilly, a game Agnes knows nothing about until her sister dies and Agnes finds Tilly’s notebook. Through her sister’s notebook, Agnes stumbles into an adventurous journey that leads her to discover Tilly’s imaginary world and the friends she shared it with.
She Kills Monsters, written by Qui Nguyen, was produced and performed at Penn State University Park this fall by students in the School of Theatre. Every play requires sets and props to be made that will accentuate the story lines and give the audience eye-catching moments, and this play required a wider array of sets and props than most. Bedrooms and high school hallways gave way to magical landscapes populated by fantastical creatures such as the Gelatinous Cube, a giant eyeball, and Tiamat, an enormous five-headed dragon. Characters wield swords, shields, and axes.
I was fortunate enough to experience building sets and preparing props for She Kills Monsters through Penn State’s Theatre Production course (Theater 189). As we entered the Playhouse Theatre for our first class, curtains were dramatically lowered by the operators and vibrant colored lights shined across the stage. My senses were immediately met with the sounds of drilling and the hammering of nails combined with the smell of fresh paint. My job was to splatter paint for dramatic effect on the purple, geometrically-spiky backdrop. My continuous work in painting was surely exhausting; however, envisioning how it would look at the end excited me and spurred me on. Painting the sets wasn’t the only task that we completed; my classmates and I also did some woodworking. It wasn’t an easy process, yet it gave me an unforgettable experience and memory.
From Theatre Production, I not only learned about the process of building the sets, but also learned where the sets and props are stored—in a warehouse located 10 to 15 minutes away from campus. It was quite a magical moment when I saw hundreds of sets and props that were previously used on the stage. The layer of dust on the sets and props showed me how long they were stored for; simultaneously, it gave me a realization of how much effort the team must have put in for the magic to happen.
Preparing She Kills Monsters wasn’t simple, and there were phases where we all felt exhausted. However, watching the play proved to me that it was worth the effort we put in. This course and experience taught me an appreciation for the theatre production team, including the creativity and skills they displayed.
Although She Kills Monsters is over, we have continued to work on sets for other musicals to be produced during the semester, including A Little Night Music shown in November. New plays are always exciting, and building new sets for such occasions is a magical and unique experience. Future plays that Theater 198 will work on will include: The Lucky Boy, Angels in America, and Monty Python’s Spamalot.
Building the sets and seeing what occurs behind the stage helped me understand the amount of effort that plays require to reach the stage of completeness. Join Theatre 189—you will see the beginning stages of true magic.