Costume Design: Research/Preparation

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Perkins Costume Design: Research

Summary: Production History

The reviews of the productions in New York, Chicago, and Boston illustrate the effectiveness of relationship over spectacle, character over theatricality. They encouraged me to feel unafraid to make the "cost-saving" choice that may lack the polish and dazzle of professional productions. I didn't want audiences to gasp at a huge 5-headed dragon; I wanted them to cheer for Steve's many entrances, to react to Farrah the Faerie's defeat as a stagehand fires a confetti cannon while another throws a pile of bones onstage. I would argue those have a more lasting effect; the people are remembered more than the monsters. Lastly, it should look like it came from the mind of a 15 year-old geek, using whatever materials she and her fellow adventurers had access to. With that in mind, I cobbled together costume pieces and pulled/rented others. The largest expense was the prop weapons, which I purchased from sites specializing in latex foam weapons for LARP (Live-Action RolePlaying). They looked great and minimized injury from the novice performers.

Summary: Playwright Biography

Qui Nguyen's first English words he learned included a significant amount of profanity, and that comes through in his naturalistic dialogue of his plays, especially the original edition of She Kills Monsters. His friend Chuck would not only inspire the character of Chuck Biggs, but also introduce him to American pop culture, especially all things geek, so She Kills Monsters is a tribute to him and their friend group that would greatly influence his formative years. Like Agnes tragically losing Tilly before they really got to know each other, Nguyen did not reconnect with Chuck the way he wanted to as adults before Chuck's untimely passing.

Nguyen has also proven versatile in adapting his work to a number of different settings, and for that I am thankful. When initially selecting the original edition of the play to produce with my students, I had only previously directed the Virtual Realms edition, and choreographed fights for another school performing the Young Adventurers edition, but I had never read the original version. Honestly, I did not like it as much; some of it was the language, but my primary reason was the relationships did not work for me like they did in other editions. An adult Agnes (and a teacher no less) seeks help from a bunch of her students? The edition we ended up producing was much more relatable for students; it would not have read as well if some of the teenage actors were playing their age, and others played older, not to mention Agnes' adult boyfriend Miles thinks she's cheating on him...with the teenage Chuck. I'm glad Nguyen was creative and collaborative enough to allow his work to evolve in such a way that hundreds of schools have produced it over the last decade.

Summary: Dramaturgy

Some cultural contexts were not explicitly referenced in the play, most notably the "Satanic Panic," but the stigma of geeks vs. jocks bleeds between the worlds of High School and New Landia. D&D, sci-fi/fantasy, gaming, and other such geeky hobbies were the pinnacle of "uncool" in the 90s. She Kills Monsters is a great primer for D&D and covers a number of key details, from hit points to "Critical Roll" to character sheets, even the quirky ability for characters to "forget" how to perform a spell or use an ability. Chuck even name checks Gary Gygax, one of the creators of D&D. Another major theme is characters exploring their gender and sexual identities (although such terminology was not common in the 90s), but the concept of Tilly creating a male character "Tillius" who is in a relationship with the fictional "Lilith" confounded the other characters, who seemed determined to put characters like Tilly and Lily into neat boxes of gay, lesbian, straight, etc., coinciding with the ongoing AIDS epidemic, the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policies, and general discrimination towards LGBTQ+ communities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gantz, Jeffrey. “Company One Gets to Heart of ‘she Kills Monsters’ - The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.Com, The Boston Globe, 19 Apr. 2013, www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2013/04/19/company-one-gets-heart-she-kills-monsters/MKuP61X9Aceaq14GFkELzL/story.html.

Grode, Eric. “The Pains of Evisceration and Unrequited Love.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Nov. 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/theater/reviews/she-kills-monsters-by-qui-nguyen-at-the-flea-review.html.

Jones, Chris. “‘She Kills Monsters’ Conjures D&D Cool.” Chicago Tribune, 4 Mar. 2013, www.chicagotribune.com/ct-ent-0304-garage-rep-review-20130303-column.html.

Milikowsky, Shira. “She Kills Monsters.” Company One Theatre, 9 Oct. 2014, companyone.org/production/she-kills-monsters/.

Nguyen, Qui. “Official Website.” Quinguyen.Com, 2011, quinguyen.com/.

Nguyen, Qui. “She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms.” Concord Theatricals, 2020, www.concordtheatricals.com/p/92815/she-kills-monsters-virtual-realms.

Nguyen, Qui. “She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers Edition.” Concord Theatricals, 2016, www.concordtheatricals.com/p/9764/she-kills-monsters-young-adventurers-edition.

Ross, Robert. “She Kills Monsters.” The Flea Theater, The Flea Theater, 2011, theflea.org/shows/she-kills-monsters/.

Tran, Diep. “How Mom and Dad Met, with Ninjas.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Oct. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/theater/vietgone-qui-nguyen-manhattan-theater-club.html.

Vincentelli, Elisabeth. “Queer Kids, Nerds and Sword Fights: It’s The Hot School Play.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 July 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/theater/she-kills-monsters-qui-nguyen.html.

Vincentelli, Elisabeth. “Qui Nguyen Was Done Writing Plays. His Family Pulled Him Back In.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Nov. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/theater/qui-nguyen-poor-yella-rednecks.html.

Waldron, David. “Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right: Community Formation in Response to a Moral Panic.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 2005, https://web.archive.org/web/20130104131941/http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art9-roleplaying-print.html.