1. Location: Within the city of Athens, OH, the play takes place at the high school attended by Agnes, Vera, Miles, Steve, Evil Gabbi, and Evil Tina; The Gap located at an unspecified mall; the RPG gaming shop where Chuck works; the outside of Agnes’ house; and the house where Ronnie & Kelly live. When Chuck & Agnes are playing Dungeons & Dragons, the setting is New Landia, starting at a “mystical beachside,” then traveling to Orcus’ cave, a “magically enchanted forest,” the River of Wetness, Swamps of Mushy, Mountain of Steepness, and finally the Castle of Evil. Geographically, the city of Athens is in southeastern Ohio, closer to West Virginia than any of Ohio’s major cities (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati), with a population of less than 25,000 according to the 2010 Census, only slightly larger than the playwright’s hometown of El Dorado, Arkansas (which is also close to a state line, far removed from any major city). The playwright chose a different location to give a similar, but not identical, experience to his own, and one that was closer to Chicago (the birthplace of Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons).

2. Time/Season: The play takes place during 1996, the spring semester of Agnes Evans’ senior year. The playwright, Qui Nguyen, chose this because he was the characters’ age in the 1990s and a self-identified geek; he includes multiple pop culture references that resonate with the time when Dungeons & Dragons was not “cool.” Stereotypes of the nerd, typically a male, included social ineptness, pedantry, physical weakness, and unattractiveness, characteristics that were targets for ridicule and bullying; Nguyen uses Chuck to personify these awkward attributes in the play. The play is designed to celebrate how these D&D enthusiasts carve out their own unique hobbies and passions through interest in obscure media and texts, and from their marginalized spaces, create devoted communities of fans and artists.

3. Socio-economic/Religious Environment: In the real world, Agnes and the other high school characters appear to be middle class: Chuck works at a gaming store, Vera works at the Gap, and they attend a public school. There is a definite social hierarchy between the cheerleaders/athletes (Miles is also class president) and the gamer geeks like Chuck, Ronnie, Tilly, etc. In the adventure, there are more religious references to demons, hell, etc., a reference to the prevalent “Satanic Panic” from the 1980s. 

The real world in She Kills Monsters feels every bit like the cynical grunge of the mid-1990s. The cheerleader Vera acts decidedly un-cheery; the aroma of crunchy Funyuns and varied salty snacks fill Chuck’s gaming room (likely a basement), and slurping of soft drinks can be heard alongside the rolling of several dice. The playwright wisely included plenty of musical references that pace us solidly in a specific mood and world: Smashing Pumpkins, Ace of Base, Beck, LL Cool J, TLC, and more. The world of the D&D campaign is more mysterious, ethereal, and earthy. Foggy forests, dirty swamps, treacherous mountains, and the stench of monsters like bugbears, gelatinous cubes, demon overlords, and beholders permeate the world of New Landia. 

• Set: The script indicates several real-world locations (The Gap, gaming store, high school) as well as settings throughout New Landia (enchanted forest, Swamps of Mushy, Castle of Evil, etc.); the script also calls for projections, so these could be used to indicate a change in setting. Without any time for any scene changes, will most likely need a unit set to represent multiple locations.

• Lights: The script encourages productions to perform without any blackouts or scene changes. Area lighting and follow spots needed for varied locations; mood lighting required for fight sequences.

• Costume: The most prominent design need is the 5-headed Tiamat puppet, to be operated by student puppeteers or by the actors playing Tilly, Lilith, Kaliope, Orcus, and possibly Vera. Cheerleader and football player uniforms are needed for Agnes, Vera, Miles, Evil Gabbi, and Evil Tina. Monster and fantasy creatures (elves, demons, bugbears, etc) are required as described in the script.

• Props: Weapons needed (swords, staff, shield, axe, club, etc), clothes for folding during Gap scenes, Tilly’s notebook for homespun module.

• Sound: Music cues as indicated in the script (Ace of Base, LL Cool J, Beck, TLC, etc). Sound effects for magic/monster/fight moments.

• Narrator describes Agnes’ & Tilly’s contrasting personalities.

• Agnes wishes her sister wasn’t so geeky.

• Tilly dies in a car crash.

• Agnes visits Chuck to show him Tilly’s notebook.

• Agnes decides to play Tilly’s homespun module.

• Agnes conceals her quest from Vera and Miles.

• Chuck begins the game and describes the world of New Landia.

• Agnes meets Tillius the Paladin.

• Chuck introduces the rest of the party: Lilith & Kaliope.

• Kaliope shows the location of Orcus’ cave.

• Tilly outfits Agnes with a weapon, alignment, and Lilith coins her epithet: Agnes the Ass-Hatted.

• Orcus admits he quit being Overlord of the Underworld and traded Tillius’ lost soul to Tiamat.

• Agnes reveals her secret to Vera.

• Bugbears attack Agnes, and she’s critically injured.

• Tillius saves Agnes, who promises to take the quest more seriously.

• Kaliope describes Tiamat as a 5-headed dragon that Tillius failed to defeat, and Tiamat is protected by three Great Guardians.

• Team Tillius destroys Farrah the Faerie.

• Miles attacks Chuck because he thinks Agnes is cheating on him.

• Agnes discovers Tillius & Lilith are lovers and thinks Tilly was secretly a lesbian.

• Agnes and Tillius are bullied by the succubi Evil Tina & Evil Gabbi.

• Chuck explains that this quest was probably a version of Tilly’s diary.

• Agnes discovers the real-life Lily works at The Gap; Lily vehemently denies she was in a relationship with Tilly.

• Chuck warns Agnes that this is deeper than he usually gets in a game.

• Miles confronts Vera, who tells him Agnes’ secret.

• Agnes defeats a shapeshifting gelatinous cube that looks like a doppelganger of Miles.

• Agnes berates the real-life versions of Gabbi & Tina.

• Miles joins Team Tillius, but is immediately killed by Evil Tina & Evil Gabbi.

• Lilith sacrifices herself to save Tillius from the succubi; Lilith cannot be revived, so Agnes quits the game.

• Agnes laments to Vera that she never understood Tilly when she was alive.

• Chuck introduces Agnes to the real-life versions of Orcus & Kaliope.

• Agnes gives Lily a letter that Tilly wrote; Agnes rejoins the quest.

• Team Tillius is revealed to have been monsters in disguise, who join to form Tiamat.

• Agnes defeats Tiamat and reclaims Tillius’ lost soul.

• Narrator describes the near future of our characters.

• The space needs to function fluidly, moving from scene to scene without blackouts, making transitions part of the storytelling.

• This will be produced on a proscenium stage.

• There are 3 primary levels: stage deck, two 3’ platforms SR & SL, joined by a walkway at least 6’6” tall.

• Stage Dimensions: 38’w X 33’d.

• As a proscenium, the audience is on one side of the playing space, front row is about 6’ from the apron; no one is sitting on stage.

• Minimal space is needed for 2-3 person scenes, but regardless of type of stage, the playing space for large battle sequences should be a minimum of 25’ wide and deep, with at least 10-15’ available height.

• The title She Kills Monsters can be interpreted literally as Tilly and/or Agnes slaying the monsters in their quests; metaphorically, this refers to Agnes destroying the monsters & demons of her past, processing her grief after losing her sister.

• “This is your sister’s diary, she just wrote it in geek.” I latched onto this line during my dramaturgical/conceptual phase, and it informed my design choices; I felt that this gave me permission to not feel I had to create something overly complex or “realistic,” but this could feel like the handcrafted imagination of teenage Tilly coming to life on stage. While She Kills Monsters is chiefly an adventure, there’s light-hearted comedy, tense dramatic scenes, and heartbreaking tragedy. Something for everyone!

• Central conflict: When someone close to you — who you never took the time to truly see — is taken from you, is it possible to reclaim their lost soul? Do they even want to be saved? And are you up to the task?

• I want the audience to leave wanting to broaden their horizons, to open their hearts to those around them that they otherwise might have dismissed. Your party can be as weird and wide as you want.

• Agnes Evans

  1. Superobjective: Agnes wants to learn more about who her late sister was as a way to process her grief.

  2. Actions: Query, Demand, Demean, Impress, Belittle, Destroy, Defend 

  3. Decorum: Agnes is most comfortable around Vera, keeps Miles at a distance, and she’s initially uneasy around Chuck, Tilly, and the other adventurers; she mocks the game at first, but soon grows more accepting as the campaign goes on.

  4. Descriptors: Curious, Mocking, Judgmental, Loyal, Protective, Stubborn

  5. Suffering: Agnes suffers through poor gameplay, almost leading to her defeat, but she relies on her sister and her party to work together to destroy the monsters.

  6. Biographical Sketch: Agnes never made much of an impression on anyone beyond antagonizing her geeky sister, Tilly. Once she became a cheerleader and met her best friend Vera, she became more outgoing and popular, eventually beginning to date quarterback Miles and captaining the varsity cheer squad. This further distanced Agnes from Tilly, and they remained estranged until Tilly’s tragic death.

• Tilly Evans / Tillius

  1. Superobjective: Tilly (in the form of Tillius the Paladin) wants her sister to accept her for the complicated person she was, even after her death.

  2. Actions: Attack, Antagonize, Deceive, Denigrate, Educate, Patronize, Comfort 

  3. Decorum: Tillius wears literal and figurative armor, keeping others at a distance, with the exception of Lilith, with whom she has a passionate romantic relationship. She is only uncharacteristically meek when confronted by the succubi.

  4. Descriptors: Geeky, Stern, Powerful, Wise, Stubborn, Sarcastic, Deadly, Imaginative

  5. Suffering: Tilly suffers most when encountering the bullying succubi, Evil Tina & Evil Gabbi. She is unable to fight back, especially after the succubi slay her beloved Lilith. Tilly’s suffering is only alleviated when her sister defends her from homophobic bullying..

  6. Biographical Sketch: As early as 5th grade, Tilly formed close bonds with the geek community in their small Ohio town, quickly establishing herself as a keen, shrewd, inventive dungeon master in their shared love for D&D and other such geeky interests. Lily was one such close friend; they confided in each other as they both sought to discover their own identity; Tilly’s life was tragically short when she died in a traffic collision.

• Lilith / Lily

  1. Superobjective: Lilith wants to vanquish the monsters in her life, both internal and external.

  2. Actions: Devour, Demean, Disintegrate, Rebuff, Disembowel, Evade

  3. Decorum: In the game, Lilith resembles a jungle cat, stalking her prey and baring her literal and metaphorical fangs. In the real world, Lily is closer to a house cat, largely retreating when approached and trying to hide.

  4. Descriptors: Ravenous, Calculating, Agile, Predatory, Inquisitive, Playful, Vulnerable, 

  5. Suffering: Lilith suffers most when confronted by Agnes while working at The Gap; her sexual identity is something she kept hidden from everyone except Tilly for fear of being discovered and bullied. This is only alleviated when Agnes gives her a letter from Tilly, whose contents are unknown to anyone else.

  6. Biographical Sketch: Lilith entered middle school fearing she would be alone forever. After school one day, she secretly followed a kid named Chuck and discovered he was part of a group playing Dungeons & Dragons. Instead of ostracizing her, this group warmly welcomed her, and she met her absolutely best friend Tilly. Eventually she began playing D&D adventures with the group and sharing deep secrets with Tilly as they grew up into high school. After Tilly died, Lily felt deeply depressed, but wanted to honor Tilly by preparing for her future and got a job at The Gap. She distanced herself from the rest of the party to hide from her pain; eventually Agnes convinces her to rejoin them.

• Chuck Biggs

  1. Superobjective: Chuck wants to convince Agnes to join the D&D party and woo her into a romantic relationship.

  2. Actions: Challenge, Boost, Facilitate, Entertain, Enchant, Please, Inspire

  3. Decorum: As Dungeon Master, Chuck strikes a balance between comfortable surroundings and tenacious gameplay. He’s very relaxed around most people, except when interacting with people he is romantically interested in. He’s proud to lead the party through their adventure as DM, and isn’t afraid to speak his mind when he fears boundaries are being crossed.

  4. Descriptors: Dedicated, Strategic, Creative, Adaptable, Analytical, Resilient, Enthusiastic

  5. Suffering: Chuck probably suffers the least, compared to the rest of the characters, however he’s tormented and rather jealous of Miles’ relationship with Agnes and panics when Miles confronts him about his and Agnes’ secret D&D campaign.

  6. Biographical Sketch: Chuck shared social studies and art classes with Tilly; he struggled with his grades (and really slacked off with his best friend Ronnie), but Tilly recognized a fellow geek when she saw one and basically told him to get his shit together because she needed people for a D&D team, and he and Ronnie would be a perfect fit. Soon, Ronnie’s supermodel-esque sister Kelly started playing, which turned Chuck into a stuttering mess whenever she was around. Once in high school and friends started getting jobs, Chuck used his D&D connections to become assistant manager at Acropolis Gaming Shop.

• Miles

  1. Superobjective: Miles wants Agnes to commit to a long-term relationship that lasts beyond high school.

  2. Actions: Harangue, Needle, Pursue, Tease, Mock, Urge, Harass

  3. Decorum: Miles’ self-confidence is sky-high and wields seemingly huge amounts of social capital as quarterback and class president. He’s the center of his universe and he acts like it. Never far from the surface, though, is insecurity and anxiety that he tries to conceal at all times, especially around Agnes and Vera.

  4. Descriptors: Ignorant, Loyal, Pompous, Charming, Audacious, Confident, Bold

  5. Suffering: Miles suffers when his relationship status with Agnes is in doubt; he can’t stand the thought of not being her boyfriend and feels powerless to help her through whatever she’s going through a year after her sister’s death. 

  6. Biographical Sketch: Miles has had a privileged life ever since he could remember. His father is a corporate attorney and his mom attends to his every need, and he’s an only child. He was expected to achieve every typical milestone of a 90s high school “big man on campus.” In small-town Ohio, it wasn’t difficult. Agnes caught his eye during a big game, almost costing him a big play. He loves how grounded she is, unlike any of the other cheerleaders, especially Vera, who despises him. He has big plans for him and Agnes after high school.

• Vera

  1. Superobjective: Vera wants Agnes to realize her potential beyond their hometown and ditch her popular boyfriend.

  2. Actions: Mock. Demean, Deride, Castigate, Shrink, Confront

  3. Decorum: Vera is unfiltered; she does not change her attitude for anyone and will absolutely speak her mind in every situation, regardless of the consequences. She doesn’t have time to bullshit anyone or blow smoke. It may come off as cheerless and morose, but if you’re her friend, Vera will protect you more fiercely than anyone.

  4. Descriptors: Rebellious, Opinionated, Vicious, Irreverent, Coarse, Loyal, Fierce, Honest

  5. Suffering: Vera suffers whenever Miles is nearby. She thinks he’s ignorant and pompous; the sooner Agnes breaks up with him, the better she’ll feel. Her suffering is alleviated whenever Vera can solve the problem and not Miles, who she can get to mope away from her.

  6. Biographical Sketch: Vera is more comfortable alone; her unvarnished opinions usually keep people at a distance, and she can usually get her way through persistent arguing. She wants to save money to move away from Athens and Ohio in general, preferably somewhere with plenty of sun, so she got a job at The Gap and she has survived multiple attempts to get her fired, even though she does as little as possible. She’s only been close with Agnes because she is the only person who seems to respect that she “tells it like it is.” 

10-page Sample of Scene Score (Google Docs, click to view)

In a video interview commemorating the tenth anniversary of She Kills Monsters, Qui Nguyen stated the origins of the play came from the 1980s when he met his childhood best friend Chuck Price, the eventual inspiration for Chuck Biggs.

Chuck introduced him to all things Americana: video games, comic books, B-movies, even playwriting and Dungeons & Dragons: “It was a group of awkward teenagers sitting around a table talking about their fears, their feelings, the things that they love…sex, we talked a lot about sex. It was us growing up: a group of Black, Asian, and one white kid all sharing our unique perspective of the world to each other.”

Chuck & Qui lost touch over the years, except for a chance meeting in 2001; Chuck told him to make a “big noise in the big city so I can hear it” and they can catch up later. Tragically, Chuck died of leukemia shortly after, so Nguyen dedicated She Kills Monsters to his memory and the childhood memories of all their D&D adventures together.

Official Website

New York Times Interviews – 2016  &  2023 

“Queer Kids, Nerds and Sword Fights: It’s the Hot School Play” (NYT)

Wikipedia Article

Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game (RPG) created in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. With an emphasis on storytelling and fantasy, players devise detailed and customizable characters and complete quests that another player narrates and directs in the role of Dungeon Master.

Adventures can be self-written or derived from published adventures, and the roll of different dice determines some of the action. A typical session can last a few hours, and ongoing stories that constitute a “campaign” can last months and even years. According to its rulebook, the game is “infinitely flexible” and relies on improvisation, imagination, and open-endedness.

Once regarded as an activity reserved for “nerdy” social outcasts, its resurgence in popularity has been attributed to changing cultural attitudes about “nerd culture” since the late 1990s.

Source: “Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right” (Journal of Religion and Popular Culture)

The “Satanic Panic” is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today.

In 1985, Patricia Pulling joined forces with psychiatrist Thomas Radecki, director of the National Coalition on Television Violence, to create B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons). Pulling and B.A.D.D. saw role-playing games generally and Dungeons & Dragons specifically as Satanic cult recruitment tools, inducing youth to suicide, murder, and Satanic ritual abuse.

Other alleged recruitment tools included heavy metal music, educators, child care centers, and television. This information was shared at policing and public awareness seminars on crime and the occult, sometimes by active police officers. None of these allegations held up in analysis or in court. In fact, analysis of youth suicide over the period in question found that players of role-playing games actually had a much lower rate of suicide than the average.

The 1990s stand as a pivotal decade for LGBTQ+ politics and representation in the United States. Multiple discriminatory laws limited or erased LGBTQ+ rights, including the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which simultaneously acknowledged and silenced LGBTQ+ members in the military by prohibiting openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from serving while permitting those who were not “out” to remain in the armed forces. In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed, a federal law that declared same-sex marriage to be illegal. The law stood until it was finally overturned in the 2015 Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). The town of Athens, Ohio, did not have its first pride parade until 2018.

The 1990s also saw the reclamation of the word “queer” from its derogatory connotations to denote instead an inclusive, umbrella term for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other nonheteronormative identities. The term gained prominence with Queer Nation, an activist organization founded in 1990 that sprouted from the AIDS/HIV activism of the organization ACTUP. In education, queer theory emerged as a critical discourse on the social constructions of gender and sexuality with notable works such as Teresa de Lauretis’s essay, “Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities” (1991), Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990), and Eve Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet (1990).

She Kills Monsters received its Off-Off-Broadway debut at The Flea Theater in New York City November 4 – December 23, 2011. Directed by Robert Ross Parker, the production was performed by the resident company, The Bats.

The play was presented later at Steppenwolf in Chicago from February 15 — April 21, 2013, directed by Scott Weinstein and performed by the Buzz22 Chicago Company. 

The play reprised at Company One in Boston from April 13 to May 11, 2013, directed by Shira Milikowsky.

In response to requests by schools, Nguyen wrote a version of the play, dubbed She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers Edition, that included less profanity and also changed Agnes into a high school cheerleader. Later, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nguyen wrote a version designed to be performed online, She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms. Changes include depicting the climactic battle through dice-rolling rather than a physical fight, as well as setting the entire play in 2020 and updating its pop culture references accordingly.

Since its debut, it has blossomed into one of America’s most popular shows, with 797 productions between 2013 and 2021. Of those, one was a professional revival, 144 by amateur companies, and 652 on school and college campuses.