Theater Flashcards Summary

Flashcards covering plot, characters, themes, and design elements for The Thanksgiving Play, Chill, and She Kills Monsters

The Thanksgiving Play - Central Premise

A group of white artists tries to create a culturally sensitive Thanksgiving play for schoolchildren-without any Indigenous voices-leading to absurd and ironic results.

Logan in The Thanksgiving Play

A high-strung drama teacher desperate to be inclusive and politically correct; struggles between doing the right thing and looking good.

Jaxton in The Thanksgiving Play

Logan's boyfriend, a yoga-loving, self-proclaimed "woke" man who is more interested in performance than substance.

Caden in The Thanksgiving Play

An awkward history teacher obsessed with accuracy and facts, but out of touch socially.

Alicia in The Thanksgiving Play

An actress mistakenly hired for being "ethnically ambiguous"; uninterested in politics, she unintentionally exposes the others' pretensions.

Major themes in The Thanksgiving Play

Performative allyship, erasure of Indigenous voices, white liberal guilt, tension between intention and impact, and theatre as a tool for both representation and misrepresentation.

Key scenic/design notes for The Thanksgiving Play

A multipurpose school setting, chaotic or mismatched costumes, lighting shifts for absurdity, and exaggerated props underscore satire.

Chill - Setting and Structure

Two acts set ten years apart in the same suburban backyard-2001 (high school graduation) and 2011 (reunion).

Chill - Main Characters

Ethan (idealistic writer), Stu (financially successful but emotionally distant), Alli (artistic and distant in Act II), and Jenn (domesticated and grounded).

Chill Act I

The friends dream big and reveal hidden tensions as they prepare to graduate high school in 2001.

Chill Act II

The same friends reunite in 2011 and confront how much (or how little) their lives have aligned with their youthful dreams.

Major themes of Chill

The evolution of friendship, nostalgia vs. reality, the tension between ambition and adulthood, and the quiet disappointment of growing up.

Title Chill Metaphorically Represents

The emotional distance, loss of connection, and numbing disillusionment that settles into adulthood.

Design choices that support the themes of Chill

A realistic backyard set that subtly ages; costumes evolve to reflect characters' life paths; lighting can grow colder to reflect emotional changes over time.

She Kills Monsters Plot

Agnes discovers her late sister Tilly's Dungeons & Dragons notebook and enters a fantasy world to better understand her sister's life and death.

Tilly in She Kills Monsters

Agnes' younger sister; a D&D enthusiast who died young and created a fantasy world as a form of self-expression and escape.

Role of fantasy in She Kills Monsters

Fantasy allows characters to explore identity, grief, and connection through role-play and metaphor.

Key themes of She Kills Monsters

Grief, sisterhood, acceptance, identity (especially LGBTQ+), and the power of imagination.

Notable design and staging elements in She Kills Monsters

Highly physical staging, fast-paced fantasy sequences, creative costuming, pop culture references, and minimal but flexible set pieces.

How does the play blend genres? She Kills Monsters

It fuses comedy, fantasy, and emotional realism, combining epic battles with moments of tenderness and self-discovery.