A Night at the Theatre: Part II She Kills Monsters

Shane Olexa, Reporting Journalist

Salesianum Theater has been up and running for a while starting with “Incident at Vichy” in the fall. On Friday March 27th, Salesianum released Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters. In the show, a teen girl, who is obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, is sadly killed in a car accident. Her older sister, Agnes, wants to find out more about her. Tilly was all about Dungeons and Dragons. Agnes just wanted a normal sister. Instead she got a geeky girl who was obsessed with a game. 

Seamus Oliver, who played Chuck, had a lot to say about the show. When asked why he auditioned for SKM, the junior responded, “This year was the first time I could actually audition for a winter show, and SKM would be the first comedy that I had done with SST, so it seemed like a fun way to leave my comfort zone in multiple ways.” Clearly, Seamus is a veteran at SST, but it’s astounding that this was his first winter show at SST.

Seamus also had many highlights that he wanted to share involving SKM. “Other than the amazing performances by the other members of the cast, I think one of my favorite parts was the variety of the sets. The tech crew assembled both green screen and physical sets and they all looked great. In one show they transformed the same space into a school library, a swamp, and a parking lot, which included bringing a car onto the stage for a day of shooting, and their work was definitely a highlight of the show.”

Mr. Bogad, the Director of Arts at Salesianum was asked why he chose “She Kills Monsters” and he responded by saying that the author’s choice to do a Zoom version of the show made it a great choice for SST’s fall show. “That’s what we should do because it’s actually designed to be on Zoom rather than having to force it onto Zoom.”  When asked about challenges while making the show, Mr. Bogad’s answer was short: “It’s movie making, not theater making.” He added that one of the highlights of the show was having the group back together and doing the things that are so meaningful to SST.

We all know the difficulties of wearing a mask in public, but while performing, that’s another story. Seamus said that projecting your voice is key while performing with the mask. As we all know it takes patience to get used to the mask and it certainly isn’t easy to act on top of it. The cast and crew put together a great performance and the school community is grateful for this dedication toward Salesianum theater.