SHE KILLS MONSTERS : Will it be killer?

By Ainiyah Brown

Features and Entertainment Editor  And Lauryne Dawson Features and Entertainment Reporter The below story is by Ainiyah Brown

The drama club is putting on the production’ She Kills Monsters on Oct. 24-26 in the school auditorium. The cast feels that students can sympathize with the themes introduced.

Photo taken by Ainiyah Brown

The play's tone is very lighthearted, but its themes, including bullying, grief, and homophobia, are slightly more mature. 

“The themes are kind of outside the box. It isn't exactly what you'd expect from a high school production,” said Madisen Bond, actress for Vera.

Though the themes are relatively hot topics, the majority of the cast, such as Kwabria German, the actress who plays Tilly Evans, feels that they are important in a high school environment.

“I'm really glad they were portraying this in an entertaining way for the audience because these are things that need to be approached in high school for sure, like bullying, LGBTQ+, just so many different dynamics that go on in high school that are needed to be talked about. And I'm glad that we are performing this so that people can actually be engaged and take something away from this performance,” German says. 

Due to the more mature themes, the characters in the play are more developed. The cast feels a deeper connection to their characters because of that.

“ I do relate to Miles, but not because of how sporty or athletic he is, but how caring he is. Like how he thinks about things before he says things. He's really sincere and he really thinks about stuff. I feel like he's kind of an overthinker, kind of like I am,” Lamari Brock said, as he can relate to his character, Miles.

Another actor enthusiastically added to the factor of relating to their character, saying that they feel as if their character brings out a side of them they thoroughly enjoy playing.

“I feel as if my character, Kaliope, is a representation of my inner whimsiness. It’s fun getting to express that side of myself that not everyone always gets the chance to see,” said Sage Culver, the actor of Kaliope.

Though in its early stages, the cast is very excited to see the production finally come together and perform the show in front of an audience.

Since Sept. 9, they've been hard at work rehearsing. 

“It's going. It's definitely going. It's cute, people are starting to put their costumes together,” Jayden Williams, Miles' understudy, said.

German agrees with her excitement about performing the show, explaining that she cannot wait until she fully develops into her character.

“I feel very excited about the production because it is definitely different from every other role I've had, and I'm just excited to fully develop into Tilly’s character because there's just so many things that go into playing Tilly, and I just can't wait to actually fully grow into her and be able to portray her fully and perform for her,” German said.

With the show dates arriving rather quickly, the production's cast encourages students and staff to tune into the production to be taken on a roller coaster of emotions. The below story is by Lauryne Dawson "Backstage Crew ready for another masterful performance"

By Lauryne DawsonÏ

Features and Entertainment Reporter

The backstage crew is building the set for this year’s play, She Kills Monsters. The play will be at CMHS from Oct. 24 to the 26.

 This year, during our fall play, some of the backstage and stage crew will be building the set. English teacher Julian Rodriguez, the backstage crew coordinator, will help the crew build and assemble the sets.       

“What I’ll say is that this play is a little bit different from the place that I’m used to building, um, because what we’re doing is we’re concentrating primarily on elevation,” backstage crew coordinator and English teacher Mr. Rodriguez said. “We’re actually working on a lot of platforms and placing those platforms together to give the actors a bit more of a heightened kind of feel.”

Due to a time crunch before the play, they will be making the sets digital, and they won’t be real-life sets.

“So the actual sets this time around would be digitized,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve never done a digital set before, so I can’t say what would be, like, my least favorite to work on.”

For the first time, the drama club will be using a digital set for this play. Most would usually be real or jumping at the audience. But for this year, we will be getting a digital set.

“We had to build a living room. We had to build a bedroom in a Victorian setting. So it was a pain,” Rodriguez said. “I had to say that it was the least favorite set that I’ve ever worked on.”

Some of the student backstage crew love the fact that they have a digital set, and they are very excited about the play. They love being on the backstage and stage crew.

“I don’t hate anything so much anymore that I am always worried that we’re gonna run out of time,” Rodriguez said. “That is the biggest, like, concern of mine when doing backstage. It’s just whether or not we’re going to have enough time to put these pieces together.”

Rodriguez said that his priority is to ensure that the sets are built in time for the play and that everything is perfect for their opening night.

“So, like, always we’re about two weeks out now, and I’m stressed,” Rodriguez said, “We always come to this point, this crossroads, and we always make it work.”

Rodriguez said they will always make it work even if they have two weeks left.