University Theatre concludes its season with the comedic romp into the world of fantasy role-playing games, “She Kills Monsters,” by Qui Nguyen.
“The play is really a celebration of the outsider of all things geeky, as well as a story about loss and letting go and moving on,” said Director and Assistant Professor of Practice Wesley Broulik. “It’s a hero’s journey in a very Joseph Campbell way. Our hero doesn’t necessarily travel to the underworld or to the afterlife like Eurydice, but she travels to this fantasy world to climb a mythical mountain that is a metaphor for other things.”
Performances are April 7-9 and 12-16 at 7:30 p.m. and April 17 at 2 p.m. in the Studio Theatre, located on the first floor of the Temple Building. Tickets are $18 regular, $16 faculty/staff/senior citizen and $12 for students with ID. Tickets are available in advance from the Lied Center Box Office at (402) 472-4747 or (800) 432-3231 or one hour prior to the performance in the Temple Lobby. Tickets are also available online at http://go.unl.edu/theatretix.
“She Kills Monsters” tells the story of Agnes Evans, who is early in her teaching career. Her family a few years earlier was killed in a car accident, including her sister, Tilly, who was 15 years old at the time.
“Her little sister was into Dungeons and Dragons and wrote a module, which is like an adventure,” Broulik said. “Her sister finds it while she is cleaning out the house two years later and decides to play it. And through that, she learns about her sister, evolves as a person and through it, we meet all these fantastic characters. We have bugbears and orks and succubis and dopplegangers and gelatinous cubes.”
These monsters all represent either aspects of Tilly’s life or Agnes’ own life.
“So when you’re slaying a dragon, you have to ask yourself, we all have dragons to slay, what are yours?” Broulik said.
Lindsey Parodi, a sophomore theatre major from Omaha, Nebraska, plays Agnes.
“Since her family died, Agnes has just been kind of going through the motions of life, but not actually living it,” she said. “But I think she’s a great character, and this adventure does a lot of amazing things for her. She is thrown into the fantasy world that she knows nothing about. This gave me some room to really express that quirky and funny side of Agnes.”
She said “She Kills Monsters” is about finding and accepting yourself.
“A lot of the characters have really beautiful arcs as they fully realize who they are and realize that it’s okay to be different and ‘nerdy’ or a ‘geek,’” Parodi said. “I’d say ‘She Kills Monsters’ is about accepting yourself so you can accept the world around you.”
Janae Dunn, a senior theatre major from Gilbert, Arizona, plays Tilly, the little sister of Agnes who has passed away.
“Tilly, like any 15-year old, just wants to feel accepted,” Dunn said. “Throughout the play, Tilly’s journey is more about finding the courage to accept herself despite what others think without apologies. By Agnes playing Tilly’s Dungeons and Dragons module, in a way, Tilly’s spirit is getting a second chance to face the monsters from her life that she couldn’t face when she was alive, plus have the bond with her sister that she always wanted. I love what this show stands for, while still achieving good humor and excitement to balance it all out.”
The show includes “some pretty cool stuff,” Broulik said, as well as 20 pieces of violence and a few minor stunts. Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Ian Borden is coordinating the stunts.
“It’s all about the students,” Broulik said. “Their physical skills are going to be off the charts.”
Parodi said the production is different from any that she has worked on previously.
“It’s just a really big production with lots of fighting, and this is my first time ever doing any stage fighting,” she said. “I love Agnes, because she’s really allowed me to explore so many different planes of acting.”
The show has a fast pace, likely to run just more than 90 minutes.
“It’s going to be lit like a rock and roll show,” Broulik said. “It’s a fast ride and includes some hip-hop dancing and lots of throwbacks with music. I think my favorite is ‘Sabotage’ by the Beastie Boys thrown in there.”
The set is designed by Dani Mader with lighting design by Sheric Hull.
“The set is crazy,” Broulik said. “The actors don’t know they are eight feet in the air in some parts. We’re rehearsing on a flat, taped-up stage. There’s just a lot of creativity up there. The students are doing such an amazing job with it. I just have to play traffic cop and get out of the way.”
Parodi hopes audiences love the show.
“I just want people to love this show as much as I do,” she said. “And as much as it is fun, it also has some really important messages that I think are really relevant to today’s society.”
Broulik played Dungeons and Dragons himself when he was younger and sees the production as a celebration of all things “geeky.”