Playbill | Director’s Notes

Being nerdy is cool now. Back when I was growing up, that wasn’t exactly the case. If you got called a ‘dork’ or  a ‘nerd’, that meant you were an outcast, a loser, on the fringes of any social sphere. You were lucky to find a group of friends that shared the same ‘nerdy’ interests, and you banded together.

I only started playing Dungeons and Dragons within the last 10 years, and I wish I had done it sooner. There are articles and even case studies that detail the benefits of playing a role-playing tabletop game, such as D&D. Games like these have been touted for their extraordinary ability to help us in many ways: everything from learning creative problem solving, bolstering listening skills, empathy and collaboration, to learning how to grow your character and even your imagination. Many players use this and similar games as an escape from reality, for the chance to live as someone else, even briefly; someone with power, strength, dexterity, charisma, magic, and agency. Players get to control this world and how they respond within it. One can become a different version of themselves and create new memories with a team, which can even help heal past negative memories. When players have wild ideas, as long as you roll a high enough number on your set of dice, you get to hear ‘yes’, and if you don’t, you and your team can collectively learn how to problem-solve together. I can attest to all of these incredible discoveries.

She Kills Monsters resonates with me in a multitude of ways. As someone who was bullied for identifying as an outsider in almost every circumstance, it has been difficult to work back through some of this within the context of this show. I see a lot of myself in Tilly, and remember the challenges me and my friends faced growing up.

To me, She Kills Monsters is about finding your true circle of friends, learning how to be unapologetically yourself, and sharing in the healing power of storytelling. This play reminds me that we nerds have ways to find each other, and in doing so, find ourselves.