By Lola Cantillon ‘23, Arts and Entertainment Staff Writer

Cover Art Drawn by Silvy Zhou ‘21

Every year, Newark Academy puts on its annual Fall Drama. This year, things had to be a little different due to the coronavirus. Since the play was completely virtual, it gave the actors, directors, and set designers an opportunity to develop their ideas and methods in a unique way. The play, “She Kills Monsters,” written by Qui Nguyen, is about a teenage girl, Agnes (played by Emma MacGregor ‘22), whose sister (played by Haniya Cheema ‘21) passes away in a car accident around a year before the play takes place. The play starts when Agnes finds her sister’s old notebook and realizes that it is a rulebook for a virtual Dungeons and Dragons game. In an attempt to feel close to her deceased sister, Agnes decides to play the game, and she ends up learning a lot about who her sister really was. 

Originally, the play was written for an in-person audience and performance, but due to the pandemic, not only did the fall drama cast have to adapt to the new changes, but the author did as well. Author Qui Nguyen rewrote the play in an entirely virtual format. This might have seemed to take the pressure off the directors in terms of planning for each scene, but there was still substantial rethinking to be done. Emma MacGregor ‘22 shared some struggles that the entire cast faced, such as trying to make the costumes and props visible on a small Zoom frame, while also not being covered by the background. She said, “Some scenes went super smooth when filming, while other scenes took a little longer because there was more interaction in the scene. Doing close contact scenes over Zoom was an obstacle that we definitely faced a lot throughout the filming of it.” Although those scenes may have been difficult to work around, the cast members and directors succeeded in running them smoothly during the live stream. Silvy Zhou ‘21 drew all the backdrops used in the show to add a sense of uniqueness to the performance. Wyatt Shiff ‘22 also handcrafted all of the costumes and props that were used in the play. 

Even though the cast and crew faced many struggles and challenges throughout the process, the all-online component of the show gave many opportunities for improvement among the cast. For example, many scenes were refilmed and polished to perfection. The roughly 9 battle scenes were filmed in person as well, completely masked and socially distanced. Because the play was virtual, the audience and overall turnout of the play could be higher. Relatives and friends from across the world could tune in to watch the show virtually, without having to come all the way to NA.