NMH Theater Presents “She Kills Monsters”

The Northfield Mount Hermon Theater Department launches its spring semester with an exploration of identity, family, and fantasy when it presents “She Kills Monsters” by playwright Qui Nguyen. The play runs Feb. 12 to 14 in the Chiles Theater.

Set in 1995, the play follows Agnes as she attempts to understand the life of her deceased younger sister, Tilly, following a tragic car accident that killed Tilly and their parents. As Agnes traverses a Dungeons & Dragons campaign Tilly created before her death, her eyes are opened to her sibling’s struggles with sexual identity and bullying. With the help of Tilly’s friends, Agnes comes to understand more about her sister and her own life.

“The show does a great job of balancing fun with sincerity,” said Amelia Sabetti ’27, who plays Agnes. “This production has challenged us to fully embrace the campiness of the show without losing its heart. That means letting go of self-consciousness and trusting the room.”

The current nostalgia for 1990s pop culture, coupled with the popularity of the television series “Stranger Things,” which heavily references the Dungeons & Dragons world, makes “She Kills Monsters” an especially popular production in high school theater right now, said Theater Director Eddie Yankow ’13.

“The story itself is really kind of timeless, but it’s a period piece at the same time,” he said. “When you have a group of people who play Dungeons & Dragons together on a regular basis, they’ll recognize certain things and feel a kinship with one another, in the same way that folks who come from groups that are historically marginalized find connection with one another. That idea of community is baked into so many different levels of this show.”

Creating a fantasy world within the “real” world of the play presented the cast and crew with a variety of opportunities to get creative. Rather than build an entire set from scratch, the design crew utilized the existing theater space and physical elements from past productions to create an environment in which the cast can toggle easily between the play’s two realities.

“Theater can be kind of a wasteful art form,” Yankow said. “Finding ways to keep it sustainable and recycle is great for environmental reasons, but it’s also great for creativity — like, how can we take something premade and make it special to this show?”

Costume designer Ellie De Lucia focused on creating elements that evoke a medieval fantasy world while also accounting for quick costume changes and mobility during fight scenes.

“I’ve been doing a lot of cosplay techniques; a lot of different textures layered together and more natural colors,” De Lucia said. “I’ve also been watching a lot of ’90s rom-coms for inspiration. Ultimately, it’s how do we shrink it down to the truth of the character without sacrificing the material?”

De Lucia has utilized the talents of workjob students to help pull everything together. “With something like this, I try to cater to the skills that my students already have,” she said. “I have some kids who are awesome at painting, so they’re working on wings and masks; I have another student who loves to work with thicker materials, like adding buckles and hardware to things, so they’ll be doing that.”

For cast members, getting into the heads of their characters has been an exercise in creativity as well. Charlotte Sell ’27, who plays Tilly, enjoyed finding points where her character and her real-life self intersect.

“Before I auditioned, people who had seen the play before told me, ‘You have Tilly energy,’” Sell laughed. “I was definitely the weird art kid in my earlier years, so it’s been interesting to figure out how Tilly and I are similar and also where we’re different.”

Kiro von Stade ’28, who plays several monsters throughout the play, said the challenge for him has been figuring out how to embody a character with limited dialogue.

“I don’t really have lines; I just do a lot of the stage combat,” von Stade said. To help students act out the play’s battle scenes, NMH brought in a coach to teach the fundamentals of stage combat. Learning that has been an exhilarating experience, said von Stade.

“Fight choreography is so different from actual fighting,” he said. “I would say it’s actually harder, because our bodies are built more to fight than to fake it. It’s been super fun getting to see physical combat from a very different angle.”

For a play with many moving parts, creating an atmosphere of trust and togetherness among the cast and crew has been key. To that end, students participated in several group activities to help strengthen bonds, such as creating product pitches for fictitious Dungeons & Dragons-themed products.

“NMH theater is rooted in inclusion, care, and collaboration, and ‘She Kills Monsters’ reflects that,” Sabetti said. “The show’s celebration of geeks, nerds, and outsiders mirrors what NMH strives for as a community: making space for people to belong as who they are.”

That inclusive atmosphere has allowed her to grow as both a performer and a person during her time at NMH, Sabetti added. “When I first came [here], I approached theater in a very guarded, serious way. This show has reminded me how important it is to stay open [and] encouraged me to help create an environment where people feel comfortable being bold and fully themselves.”

Yankow hopes the production of “She Kills Monsters” and the work that went into it will prove transformative for cast members and audience alike.

“Sometimes, with stories, we think in terms of ‘mirrors and windows’: Mirrors show us parts of ourselves reflected back; windows show us insights into worlds outside our experiences,” he said. “What’s great about this show is it’s a lot of both, which makes it a communal and personal experience for theatergoers and theater-makers alike.”

NMH Performing Arts presents “She Kills Monsters,” opening Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 pm, with additional shows on Friday, Feb. 13, at 7:30 pm and Saturday, Feb. 14, at 7 pm. Tickets are free and can be reserved online.

Photos by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography.