Thank you for joining us as Whitney High School presents She Kills Monsters!
As always, thank you to the cast and crew of the show. A few years ago, I was privileged enough to attend a workshop on directing where most of the class focused on auditions, and the speaker noted that 90% of their success or failure as a director was directly attributable to casting. If you’ve ever been a CEO or had to hire employees, you can relate. It’s as true in entertainment or business as it is in our personal lives. Who we spend our time with makes us who we are. More and more we discover that it almost completely correlates to our level of success or failure in whatever we strive to do. So, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the cast and crew, most of whom are my students, who have dedicated their time and energy not only to this show, but many of them to this theatre program here at Whitney. It is you, the students, who drive this experience. And it is you, who determine my own level of success.
I have to offer genuine thanks to select Whitney High staff, who have served as special counsel for this particular show. Doing this show was more of a risk than some others given its content, language, and the like, but it was through discussion with others about my direction for the show that have allowed it the creative space it needs to be the socially relevant work it is supposed to be. It’s allowed us to make it our way and for the students to perform and experience it the best way they can. Thank you especially to Patrick Gale, Meredith Kane, Scott Collins, and Mallory Ansley for your help and guidance.
Thank you to my parents. I’ll keep repeating this same theme in note after note probably until I’m done doing them. Growing up I used to wonder why some kids could play video games and their parents watch movies midday on a Saturday, and for some reason, we mostly wouldn't? Or couldn’t? You were always working outside in the yard or garage or whatever. Doing things. At least that’s how my mind has constructed it all. Little did I know that it would build a sense in me that living in a three-dimensional world is far more interesting and satisfying than wasting away in a two-dimensional one. I think that is where I find so much joy in this story, because as unfamiliar with D&D as I was at the beginning of this process, I grew to appreciate it’s vitality in that people are with other people, and not only changing imaginary dimensions, but actively moving in rhythm with their biological reality as they pursue whatever fantastic quest they choose. It’s not static. It’s never static. It demands movement. If it were done outside, particularly in a forest or beach somewhere, I might consider playing. Although, I probably have rehearsal, so I can’t.
Special thanks to wife, Mallory, not only for designing the show shirt, setting up ticketing, serving as guide to bounce ideas off of, working as the cast photographer (Visit www.malloryansleyphotography.com), designing audition graphic notices, exposing me to new and superb music, but also for telling me it’s okay after I insist it’s ruined. Whatever series of miracles manifest themselves so this show happens from now until when the show opens, will, as always, be linked to your unwavering support.
Everest, dude. I built a massive ramp for you to run up and down, but it might be too steep for you. I’ll be sure to measure my angles better next time. I hope you can still appreciate it for what it is. It drives the world mad, but you prove to me more and more that learning is done best through unbridled exploration and play, not through some quantifiable mark or trying to achieve some predetermined standard. I will continue to try to find ways to rekindle that childhood imagination for Whitney Theatre Students in the same way I see you do it every day. Thank you for including me with cars and trucks play. Oh, and also, I was thinking you might like the dice hanging cause each might sorta look like a ball?
Luna and Forest, oh my. You are character’s in a story that never ends. Give a pet, get a lick, and we all come back down to earth no matter the highs or lows we might be feeling in the moment. Thank you for your constant, and at times, really demanding and invasive love.
Joshua Ansley
