She Kills Monsters is a production hosted by the Apopka Drama Department. This play was phenomenal, with the show dates being April 6th and 7th, it really showed the hard work that many of the Drama Club students put into this wonderful production. The show was about “the story of Agnes Evans and her little sister Tilly who had recently died in a car crash. As a way of coping with her sister’s death Agnes embarks on a D&D journey (which was an activity Tilly commonly enjoyed) and learns more about herself and her little sister than she could have ever imagined,” says Junior Anna LaMay who played the main character Agnes Evans. Some themes that are presented in the play were “grief, love, LGBTQ+, friendship, etc.” , mentions Anna. As mentioned before, many worked hard to prepare for this play, Anna had “been practicing really hard” so she is able to “deliver the best performance possible.” Having to prepare like this and having this incredible mindset must result in some stress, right? Anna brought up how she felt with the upcoming show: “I feel a mixture of both. Generally the weeks leading up to the show are filled with stress and excitement, opening night is filled with butterflies, and closing night is filled with relief.”

We may watch a play and admire the actors, but there are plenty of background aspects we don’t necessarily think of. For example, sound and lighting are a significant part of the show. We have had two plays this year here at Apopka, the first one being Arsenic and Old Lace. This show was very weak on the tech side of things, there were many lights that were used for the same scenes, and hardly any sound cues. However, She Kills Monsters is a huge upgrade from that, with plenty of different colored lights to “wow” the crowd and popular 90s music you may recognize. Katelyn Allison, a Senior here at APK and one of the stage managers, has some expertise in this tech field. Katelyn gave us some insight to how heavy this show was with tech: “This show was incredibly tech-heavy, there was a lot that went into it. We had two new departments added, tech-wise. We had puppetry and video projection, both of which we had never done before in the show, and I think it was handled wonderfully, besides a few mishaps in management.” Difficulties always seem to make their way around. Katelyn may have also experienced some difficulties however she felt, “my departments went surprisingly smoothly, compared to everyone else. There was always a good sense of direction, I think my department of lighting is really physically strenuous.” Some of the physical factors of lighting include, “a lot of climbing up and down, there’s a lot of handling, at times, heavy equipment, and moving things around, but also having to be gentle with everything you work with.” This may sound somewhat difficult, but one of the main challenges Katelyn had to face was “learning how to work with everything, and needing to prepare my technicians for when I leave, making sure they are comfortable with taking over this department.” Once Katelyn leaves she is required to pass down her position to an underclassman so that can then carry on with the position until they graduate.

This play really appeals to high school audiences; it tells jokes regarding the internet and really keeps the audience engaged. Mr. Morphew, director of the play and theater teacher here at Apopka, felt the play had many deeper meanings such as, “self reflection and the journey that we all take, but it is also about empathy and the show speaks about how people judge other people. Understanding what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes.” Morphew brings up these meanings that go beyond the writing, but what goes beyond the show in a director’s eyes? There are challenges in all aspects of theater, Morphew mentioned “casting was interesting because we’re at a point where we have a lot of new people in our department, that was the first thing I ran into. But, it’s not just about casting people in the roles, it’s also about how you think people will work together as a cast and also with their characters.” Another difficulty faced was “scheduling.” Having to work around high schoolers work schedules and things they may be doing outside of school can be difficult. However, that didn’t stop the cast from preparing for this incredible show. “The cast has been working extremely hard, they got off book very quickly, which I was pleasantly surprised about, for some, with just not having done this before. Seeing them grow from the moment we sit in a circle and read the script together to where we are now and in performances it’s just amazing to see that happen,” says Morphew, speaking on how hard the cast has worked, spending almost 3 months working on this play. As you may tell if you went to go see the show, the cast and crews hard work really paid off, the show was fantastic, from the puppetry and lights to the phenomenal cast and performance.

Picture taken of the cast and crew.