By Layla Grant-Simmonds
During the first trimester the production of She Kills Monsters was put on at LREI. This “dramedy” follows Agnes Evans as she comes to terms with the death of her younger sister after her family died in a car crash. When packing up her sister’s things to move into her new home with her boyfriend, Agnes finds her sister Tilly’s Dungeons & Dragons notebook which leads her through a journey of her sister’s made-up world. Tilly used the game to cope with her life and the homophobia she faced while alive. Agnes was able to uncover many of her sister’s fears and dreams that she was not able to find out while she was alive. Joan Jubett, LREI’s theater teacher, put on this production, along with many students across the grades, teachers, and staff. Considering the development of lights, sets, and the amount of time these students dedicated to memorizing lines, the cast and crew together were able to put on a remarkable performance of She Kills Monsters.
This was an exceptional play for much of the cast. Since many members of the cast had previously been involved in LREI productions, they decided to participate in this play. Another reason students wanted to be involved was that they were doing it with their friends. Junior Crosby Jassem was in Our Town and Pippin, two productions put together by the school, yet from her experience, she thought that “this was definitely a much bigger class than anything from last year.” This was unexpected for Jassem because she initially was not sure how it would be perceived: it was not like most plays this school has put on so she was a bit “embarrassed”. In the end, she was taken by surprise by the amount of support and was glad that people enjoyed it.
While freshman Mars was excited about the play idea from the star. Regardless of “never really [being] a major character I always have fun doing it”. Mars felt that this was a great opportunity for him to better himself and really liked the role he ended up getting. He has been in school plays since 7th grade and has been in productions put on by his camp. Overall, Mars was proud of how this turned out as well and had lots of fun
Senior Joshua Garrison has been in the game for a while now: he has been doing plays since kindergarten but started taking it more seriously in sixth grade. He specifically loves being involved in the high school play environment as it is very enjoyable for him, especially with a teacher as good as Joan. Going into the making of this play, practicing was very hard for cast members. There were many after-school rehearsals and weekend rehearsals that sometimes were 6-8 hours long. Still, for Joshua, it was all worth it in the end. Initially, he was not happy about the story they were portraying, but he was sure that after some tweaking and more experience with the script, “I think we were able to make the play into something that I could be proud of”.
Junior Carrie Murphy has been at this for a while as well: she has been doing theater here since freshman year and has been doing theater outside of LREI since elementary school. She knew she would enjoy the play before she signed up because a lot of her friends were doing it. Many members of the cast enjoyed it for this reason: the community of this school makes all of the hard work worth it in the end. In Murphy’s opinion, “the play was a little more contemporary than my experience so I was a little hesitant at first.” Murphy, like most, was a little stand-off-ish about the topic of play. Initially, the play was made to put down queerness but Joan Jubett was able to turn this into a timely piece, which ended up being more politically correct. She was able to address serious issues better than Qui Nguyen, the original writer, did. Another tough part about the making of this play was the technicalities of it: it was very difficult for the people involved to plan out every exact motion and direction of the cast and crew to make it flow. Because of the transitions and fight scenes, there was much more than usual to think about for the members. In the end this was very rewarding for Carrie, she thought that “there was a lot of room for things to go wrong technically but that didn’t really end up happening.” Like others, she is proud and glad that the message about the experience of being a closeted queer teen facing homophobia came across well.
There have been great reviews for this play. English teacher Anna Gonzales and Science teacher Daniel Li both came to see the play. Gonzales specifically wanted to see it because her students and advisees were involved and she thought she would enjoy seeing them take up new roles. She intentionally thought she would be confused while watching the play because she did not know anything about Dungeons & Dragons, to begin with, but it turned out that did not matter at all. On the other hand, Li does play Dungeons & Dragons so that was the main reason why he chose to see this. He “didn’t know how appealing it’d be to everyone else but it seems like e v6yit got a good response.” This play was able to reach different audiences despite its specific topic. Li liked this play so much that he decided it was “probably the best thing our school produces far beyond anything.” In addition, Gonzales stated that the play “was the best that I’ve seen students do here, it was amazing, it was so professional.” Gonzales also enjoyed the set, the lighting, and the sound. All around it was an amazing experience for them.
Junior Betty Fox came to support her friends involved in the play as she heard great reviews and was intrigued by the adult content. The students all worked very hard so she wanted to support the people involved. She claimed that she heard it was funny but did not understand how “intense could be funny, so I was shocked that it was funny.” Along with Garrison and Murphy, she was happy at the end of how the students presented queer experiences in a more insightful way than how the writer initially intended. As well as Gonzales thought that “the lighting was really cool and really enjoyed it.” Overall, the play and the clear work put into it received great reviews.
The school puts together productions yearly and consistently it’s clear a lot of work and time is put in by teachers and students to make them great. These productions are something that brings the whole community together. This play was a special post-quarantine event that marked a new time for the students and faculty of LREI. The dedication, attention to detail, and passion for the arts were clear throughout this production which was apparent to many people who got tickets. If you do not come and see LREI’s next production you are seriously missing out!