Riverside City College Theatre Arts presents She Kills Monsters, a dramedy that takes Agnes on a fantasy Dungeons and Dragon's quest to get to know her little sister, Tilly, who has recently died but left behind a homegrown module that allow Agnes to discover more about her sister than she ever thought she would. The play opens April 26 at 7:00pm and runs through the weekend at the Black Box theatre behind the Landis Auditorium in Riverside, CA.

Before you dismiss this play because you don't know or like Dungeons and Dragons, you will still enjoy this play without any prior Dungeons and Dragons knowledge as Agnes', Sarah Ottinger, exploration of her recently deceased sister Tilly's, Alina Ares, life through a detailed story she left behind that shares her loves, struggles, and passions and allows Agnes to get to know her sister in a way she never could while Tilly was alive.

Chuck, Nolan Guarneros, serves as Agnes' "Dungeon Master" or guide through Tilly's story, and the way the play meshes the elements of role playing characters through the storytelling is masterfully handled. Guarneros is fantastic as a the mid-90's high school D&D geek who excitedly takes on the role to guide Agnes through the story, especially when Agnes gets too deep into the story at times and Chuck has to reel her back into reality.

Each of the characters in the party end up representing people in Tilly's real life, and as Agnes gets to know each of them in the progress of the story, she begins to get a broader picture of Tilly's life in school, and the struggles she faced exploring her sexuality, and bullying, and the close-knit ties of friendship & love that extended into her fantasy role-playing life.

One of the more difficult parts of the play involve two of the "bosses" in the D&D quest, Evil Gabby, Alexandria Dominguez, and Evil Tina, Keanna Pye, who represent two cheerleaders from Tilly's real life high school, who bully her because of their perception of her sexuality, and are nearly undefeatable in the fantasy quest.

Agnes learns about her self, and her relationships too, as she takes this journey, and her boyfriend Miles, Joe Castillo, plays a part in Tilly's story. Sarah Ottinger as Agnes does a great job of playing the confused "newb" to D&D and finding her place in the game as well as navigating the real world with this newfound information about her sister, and Castillo as Miles brings a ton of humor to the boyfriend who can't seem to understand why his girlfriend is "role-playing" with high school kids.

Alina Ares, as Tilly, was the stand-out for me in the show. Ares really shows a ton of a range, playing essentially a fictional character within a fictional character, and brings the ideas of role-playing to life as she seemlessly maneuvers between the paladin of her quest, and the sister Agnes is longing to know.

Fans of Dungeons and Dragons will appreciate how well thought out the costuming and story direction is done. One aspect that really impressed was how the characters who were fully fleshed out were so real for Agnes that she is able to recognize them in real life, and "NPC" characters that served as a challenges for the party to overcome where just in gray body suits and a mask, representative of characters in the quest that we don't need to know details about. Also how sometimes characters failures and successes are based simply on the roll of the die.

Directed by Jason Buuck, theatre professor at Riverside City College, and MFA graduate from California State University, Fullerton, who has brought plays such as Diviners and Peter and the Starcatcher to life in the Black Box theatre at RCC, and shows once again his ability to create amazing and intimate experiences on the smaller stage. Overall, the cast and crew show an incredible level of professionalism and artistry in a story that you won't want to miss. The small theatre has limited seating so get your tickets at the RCC Box Office soon before they are all gone.