She Kills Monsters
Sound Designer: Jaden Leverett
Director: Kelli Crump
Scenic Designer: Jeremy Barnett
Costume Designer: Liv Kunkle
Lighting Designer: Kerro Knox 3
Puppet Designer: Colin Franz
Photographer: Chuck Cloud
Concept Statement
She Kills Monsters, by Qui Nguyen, is a production about diving into fantasy to escape reality. The setting takes place in Athens, Ohio in the year 1995, which is years after the main character Agnes dealt with the loss of her sister Tilly and her parents who died in a car crash. The main story starts with Agnes starting a D&D campaign written by her sister, which brings her into this magical adventure of wonder. Throughout the campaign, Agnes learns about Tilly’s sexuality, crippling amount of anxiety that used to be present in her life, and experiences she had in school. In regards to sound in this show, I approached the idea of sound to bring magic to life, provide nostalgia to the time period of 1995, and immerse the different lives of characters to the audience.
For this cue, as one of the monsters of the show rip out one of the character's hearts, Miles, this cue is played to portray Miles dying with a heartbeat that gradually slows down. A fleshy sound effect was also added to beginning of the cue to mimic the sound of taking the heart out of miles as well.
As the main characters are about to face off against the main antagonist Tiamat, this cue was created to enhance the size and sound of a dragon approaching. This not only includes big and heavy footsteps, but also a deep growl and threatening roar.
After the audience is introduced to an intimidating character known as Orcus, this cue is played while he is watching his television. Multiple jingles, songs, and commercials are placed in this cue to really structure the setting as 1995.
As two of the antagonists from the show, the Succubi, are bullying and harassing the main character, Tilly Evans, over her sexuality this cue is played to create a nightmare fueled reality of Tilly's perspective of her bullies. The two bullies's voiceovers are overlapped together while their gradually growing laughter overwhelms the space until it all stops in a sudden ending of silence.
One of the character's that Agnes & her team during her game of Dungeons & Dragons is the Gelatinous Cube. To create this character, our production decided to use lighting and sound to bring this monster to life. For the cue specifically, I edited the sound of Jelly moving and slowed it down to expand on the discomfort that the sound brings.
She Kills Monsters Speaker Plot
For this show, I specifically choose 3 QSC K10 speakers and 3 QSC K8 speakers that were in my theater's inventory. I placed the 3 K10's behind the set and curtain while I placed the remaining 3 K8 speakers underneath the audience risers. I chose the spot for the K8 speakers so that the audience could both hear and feel the music and cues to really immerse them into the show. And as for the 3 K10 speakers, I placed them on tripods behind the set so that I could explore making these speakers louder than the K8's and allow for the overall sound quality to heard from all angles.
Speaker Plot Plan View
