Interview with the stars of “She Kills Monsters”
The Boulevard Online had the opportunity to interview the four leads of Passaic Prep’s fall production of “She Kills Monsters.” The leads to the play are Jaylie Barret, Daniela Velazquez and Aaliyah Chavez, as well as Amy Marulanda of Passaic Academy for Science and Engineering (PASE).
The Boulevard Online: What are three words that you would use to describe the story line for “She Kills Monsters?”
Jaylie: You know what three words: Full of adventure.
Daniela: Interesting, adventurous, and family-oriented.
Aaliyah: Adventurous, self-discovery that’s two words but, fun, it’s really fun.
Amy: Beautiful, fun, adventurous.
TBO: Are you able to relate to the characters, as a student yourself?
Jaylie: I feel like the characters are really relatable because they are high school students going through, you know, Agnes is in the process of mourning the death of her sister, so it’s relatable to students who have dealt with loss.
Daniela: I think so. They are all teenagers, trying to live through life, you know developing and learning how to love themselves and getting to know what they like, what they don’t like. I think we all face that as teenagers. You know as we’re growing we’ll continue to face that.
Aaliyah: I think, yeah. Definitely relate to kind of my character a bit. For reasons but, I think it’s something that a lot of people can be able to relate to and feel a connection with.
Amy: I mean, to a certain extent, because she is trying to figure out, you know, trying to connect with her dead relative, and we like all deal with some death sometimes. I in some cases try to relate to my past dead relatives into this storyline and feel the character more.
TBO: What are some memorable moments you have experienced during rehearsals for “She Kills Monsters?”
Jaylie: Working on the set, busting my butt to paint everything and get the dragon heads done.
Daniela: We recently did the fighting choreography, I thought that was really fun. I learned a lot about how to make sure you’re comfortable with other people and make other people be comfortable with you, so I really like that.
Aaliyah: Definitely meeting other people, and getting closer to other people has been really fun.
Amy: When we started doing the fight scene, that was pretty fun. I feel like we all started to loosen up. Or when we first were trying on costumes, and music was playing. We all were just jamming, and had a loose-feel environment. Throughout the whole play we had a loose feel environment.
“She Kills Monsters” will run from Thursday through Monday, Nov. 18-21, at the Passaic Preparatory Academy Auditorium. Tickets are on sale for $7.
PHOTOS, above, are by Celine Lantigua.
