On Friday and Sunday nights, the Advanced Acting class put on a show unlike anything seen at PHS before. Involving enormous dragon puppets, man-eating slimy green blobs, and several incredibly fierce female characters, the worlds of fantasy and reality came together in She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen.
The story revolves around Agnes Evans, who returns home after her parents and teenage sister are killed in a car accident. Agnes finds her sister Tilly’s “Dungeons and Dragons” module and begins to play, curious about the sister she hardly knew at all.
“I really like how it’s teen-oriented and it’s bringing video games into the theater. Those two things are usually separate,” senior Rachel Frankel said.
The play combines elements of the role-playing video game world with Agnes’s discoveries about who her sister was, frequently interspersed with choreographed fight scenes.
“I thought the staging of the fights was really impressive,” Piedmont parent Steve Ellis said. “It clearly took a lot of time and it seemed very real.”
Ellis, whose son Tyler performed as Dragon Master Chuck Biggs in the show, also found the evolving plot compelling.
“I thought the story was amazing,” Ellis said. “The way that it all unfolded – at the beginning you weren’t really sure what was going on, but then the way it all came together at the end was fantastic.”
The play included characters that had the audience laughing and clapping out loud.
Frankel said her favorite character was the demon Orcas played by senior Ethan Leon.
Along with the jokes and fantasy, the play explored several themes prevalent in teenage pop-culture, taking on a very serious tone in key scenes.
“It’s about acceptance and facing bullies,” Piedmont parent Jennifer Fink said. “My favorite element was the strong women.”