{"id":464554,"date":"2026-10-13T07:54:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/464554\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T07:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:54:28","slug":"review-slaying-monsters-and-expectations-in-another-outstanding-mmnt-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/464554\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Slaying monsters and expectations in another outstanding MMNT production"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cShe Kills Monsters\u201d at St. Edward\u2019s Mary Moody Northen Theatre, which ran from Sept. 17-27, featured notable performances and commendable theatrical elements, from set design to stage combat. The show was acclaimed by Broadway World<\/a> and CTX Live Theatre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Directed by Marcus McQuirter, the dramatic fantastical comedy follows \u201ca young woman stepping into her late sister\u2019s Dungeons & Dragons world, battling dragons, mischievous fairies, ogres, and unforgettable monsters while uncovering the truth about the sister she never really knew,\u201d according to the theatre\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Junior BFA acting major Victoria Turner, who portrayed main character Agnes Evans, embodied the emotional growth of a grief-stricken woman entering the life of her late younger sister \u2014 a life she was entirely unfamiliar with. Though her character is dubbed as \u201cordinary\u201d and \u201caverage,\u201d Turner\u2019s performance proved to be anything but.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Agnes faced many challenges throughout the show: dealing with personal suffering following the loss of her entire family in a car accident, relationship issues with her boyfriend and the regret she felt after realizing she only got to know her sister once it was too late. Turner did a commendable job of conveying the character\u2019s nuanced and complicated emotions as she journeyed through grief and acceptance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

St. Edward\u2019s has the only undergraduate program in the nation<\/a> that produces a full mainstage season under a formal agreement with Actors\u2019 Equity Association, a labor union that represents thousands of professional stage actors and stage managers across America. This means that SEU students work alongside professional union actors and stage managers throughout the season.<\/p>\n

The production was narrated by Equity actress Amber Quick, who previously appeared in MMNT\u2019s \u201cNunsense.\u201d She also doubled as Vera, a close friend of Agnes who became a source of wisdom and solace. Quick demonstrated her rich experience in comedic acting, yet also characterizing deep emotion.<\/p>\n

Sophomore BFA acting major Harper Schreiner-Brown, who took on the role of Agnes\u2019 younger sister Tilly Evans, brought to life the exact teenage angst and rebellion the part required.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A geeky 15-year-old who preferred the world of Dungeons and Dragons to reality, Tilly took it upon herself to build a universe where she could live freely as the hero she wanted to be: Tillius the Paladin. Unlike in her hometown of Athens, Ohio, Tilly was able to live openly as a lesbian, even creating a character named Lilith Morningstar that mirrored her real-life crush, Lily, played by senior Chloe Nichols.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other characters in this eccentric world included seductive dark elf Kalliope, played by senior Camilla Escobar, deceiving fairy Farrah, played by senior Silvana Rivera, and comical demon Orcus, played by senior Aldo Hernandez Huerta.<\/p>\n

Particularly, Hernandez Huerta brought constant laughs to the audience with his flirtatious and erotic humor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another stellar performer was junior-year BFA acting major Nomar De La Torre who played high-school gamer Chuck Biggs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

De La Torre personified the stereotypical DND nerd with his intense, overly enthusiastic passion for the game. He assisted Agnes in learning about the world her sister loved so dearly, serving as dungeon master as she entered Tilly\u2019s world of New Landia. He brought comedy and comfort to the crowd with his goofy, dorky nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conversely, cheerleader bullies Tina and Gabbi, who became Evil Tina and Evil Gabbi within the game, transformed from passive aggressive mean girls into blood-thirsty succubi. The two, played by sophomore and junior-year BFA acting majors Kaitlyn Moore and Ava Baker, did exceptional at being intoxicatingly irresistible.<\/p>\n

A standout actor, in my opinion, was sophomore-year BFA acting major Jack Young, who played Agnes\u2019 boyfriend Miles.<\/p>\n

Young nailed the awkward and oblivious disposition of many boyfriends who can\u2019t quite gauge that long-term relationships must eventually lead to a ring. His foolishness, however, was incredibly entertaining to watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackson Childs, a junior-year digital storytelling and content creation major who played the adventurous mage Steve, was undoubtedly a crowd favorite, erupting the audience in applause every time he stepped onstage. His running gag of meeting sudden and humorous deaths each time he appeared was a recurring source of lightheartedness amidst the show\u2019s heavy themes.<\/p>\n

As for the technical elements, the show\u2019s costume design by St. Edward\u2019s professor Susan Branch-Towne was a combination of \u201890s nostalgia and ethereal dream-pop. A particularly remarkable costume was Steve\u2019s, which featured intricate patchwork and a sleeve mechanism that allowed his arm to be yanked off seamlessly. Every costume functionally aided in telling each character\u2019s story and uniquely defining them.<\/p>\n

Though MMNT is a rather small space, the room felt doubled in size with the set design of Theada Haining. From Tilly\u2019s grungy, messy bedroom with rock posters on every surface to the roll-on sets of Vera\u2019s office and the game store, each design was effective, yet not distracting from the acting. Both sides of the stage had vortex-like screens where live shadow projections were shown.<\/p>\n

Constant fight scenes, choreographed by Andrew Heinrich, kept audiences engaged and on the edge of their seats. With sword fights between heroes and beasts as well as staged contact between characters, the fights were well executed and contributed to the high-energy nature of the show.<\/p>\n

Lighting design by Connor Tompkins and sound design by Johann Solo pulled us into the contrasting worlds of Athens and New Landia. Colors and spotlights helped set tone and mood, while gaming sound effects like a \u201cping\u201d for XP gain put the audience in spectator mode.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most time-consuming and praiseworthy technical element, though, was the prop and puppet design led by Kiryat Jearim Castillo. Each terrifying monster was handmade out of simple materials such as cardboard and fabric. Many custom polyhedral dice, a recognizable aspect of DND, were displayed across the set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, MMNT\u2019s production of She Kills Monsters was a heartwarming reminder to cherish your loved ones despite differences and never take the present for granted. Oh, and that Dungeons and Dragons is totally awesome. 5 out of 5 goats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cShe Kills Monsters\u201d at St. Edward\u2019s Mary Moody Northen Theatre, which ran from Sept. 17-27, featured notable performances…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-464554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}