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‘Uniquely nerdy’ show ‘She Kills Monsters’ headed to GPAC

By Mark Hofmann mhofmann @heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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Monsters, bullies, demon cheerleaders and evil dragons will be on the stage at the Geyer Performing Arts Center this weekend.

“‘She Kills Monsters’ is my absolute favorite play,” said director Jordan Gilbert, who was introduced to the play by her sister. “We went to see it and have since gone to see every local production we possibly could together.”

The play is the best known work of playwright Qui Nguyen and is full of high-energy scenes and off-color humor, drawing a lot of inspiration from anime and nerd culture influences.

“She Kills Monsters” tells the story of Agnes Evans, who stumbles upon the “Dungeons and Dragons” notebook of Tilly, her recently deceased sister. The discovery takes Agnes on an action-packed adventure to uncover more about her geeky sibling than she previously cared to know.

“Agnes journeys into TillyĢƵ fantasy world, fighting monsters, demon cheerleaders and evil dragons with the help of TillyĢƵ friends,” Gilbert said.

The journey helps Agnes learn about her sister, her life, her secrets and ultimately helps her come to terms with TillyĢƵ death.

“It manages to be hilarious, heartfelt, action-packed, larger-than-life and down-to-earth all at once,” Gilbert said.

She said the show is “uniquely nerdy.” It also hits home for her on a personal note as Gilbert said sheĢƵ a bit like Tilly and her sister is a bit like Agnes.

“I think audiences will love the humor,” she said. “Our cast is really funny, and the script is fantastic.”

Gilbert also believes the audience will love the monsters in the show. Constructing them was the most challenging aspect of the unique production.

She said most of the monsters were created by mask templates, which were downloaded and printed on recycled cardboard. The printings were bent and glued to create monsters, a process that took hours.

“I took the process several steps further by using paper mache, paint and lots of artistic details to make them our own,” Gilbert said. “Hundreds of hours of work went into these monsters. The process has been very rewarding, but definitely even more work than I originally expected.”

The show calls for a cast of 10 with several actors playing multiple roles, but Gilbert said their version has a cast of 13 as she found that casting each character in an individual role added opportunities for more actors to participate.

“She Kills Monsters” will be at the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale on Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 17-19 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 20 at 2:30 p.m.

Admission is $12 per person, and tickets can be purchased at geyerpac.com.

Gilbert said the show features some mild adult content including violence, language and LGBTQ topics, and is recommended for audiences 13 and up.

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