On April 4th, I had the pleasure of watching this year’s middle school play, Monsters. Written by our very own Andrew Geha, Monsters is a heartwarming and spooky story centered around four middle schoolers, Willa, Alf, Daisy and Fuzzy, (played by Julia Bourgeacq, Gabriel Loizides, Ava Mirabolfathinejad, and Henry Posilico respectively) and what happens when everyone around them becomes monsters that humorously reflect the modern day struggles middle schoolers face. Armed with fog machines and lightning effects, the show was simply haunting.

From werewolves to mummies, the cast of Monsters slowly transformed before our eyes into creatures of myth and legend. A horde of middle school girls who, entranced by social media and their phones, become a cult of vampires that devotedly follow their leader, Sanguinator16. Willing to do anything for clout, everything one does, the others follow no matter what, including keeping frogs under their (matching) neon red hats. Reminiscent of Frankenstein, other girls, driven by the urge to create the perfect and most beautiful girl, use the science lab and body parts of their classmates to put together and bring to life The Creature who terrorizes other middle schoolers chasing them around. Middle school boys become werewolves as their rowdiness and inability to keep still is amplified until they start to jump onto tables and even howl at the moon. One particularly accident-prone boy, whose main character trait is having a penchant for accepting dares and having broken bones, turns into a mummy. Everyone in the cast did a phenomenal job and was perfect in their roles.

The cast of Monsters was not just made up of talented middle schoolers, but also faculty members. Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Dugan, Mr. Frazer, and Ms. Glavan all did spectacularly on stage playing the parents of the troubled tweens plagued by social media, popularity contests, and the occult. Additionally, The Creature was played beautifully by Ms. Saunders, whose role was to chase children and act undead. Standing head and shoulders above the rest of her cast, the massive stature of The Creature was well represented with this casting choice. 

Monsters is an energetic, spooky, and relevant show that this year’s cast and crew did an excellent job of pulling off.