Shock, amusement and somberness crossed the faces of the audience members as the cast of this year’s Fall Showcase, “She Kills Monsters,” performed only a few feet in front of them. Unlike many other productions that are typically performed in the CPA, “She Kills Monsters” was performed in the drama room.

Sophomore Travis Siegel, who was a supporting actor, said it felt different to perform in the drama room.

“The other [plays] I was in were in the CPA auditorium,” said Siegel. “[The drama room] was [a] much more enclosed space, the audience got much more into it. It was a different relationship between the actor and the audience.”

Director Dré Prizant said the change in the relationship between the actor and the audience made the performance more difficult.

“Onstage you sometimes can’t see [people’s faces], but [in the drama room] you’re right there and that can be very nerve-racking when you’re trying to act completely different and you see your best friend, your mother or your boyfriend,” Prizant said.

Prizant said while rehearsing the actors had to be conscious of the fact that the audience would be able to see everything they were doing.

According to Prizant, an actress was supposed to rip out a heart and eat it. She said the actor could have used a fake heart and pretended that she was chewing in a performance in the CPA. However, since the actress was so close to the audience, she had to use something she could actually chew.

Prizant said she had to be careful with staging, especially with combat fights, because of the proximity to the audience. She had to make sure the actors would not hit anyone in the audience.

Even though the drama room was limited in size, Prizant said it still offered a lot of potential.

“Because it is a black box, there’s a lot of different things you can do,” said Prizant.  “It’s a very malleable space.”

Junior Carmen Alvarez, who played one of the lead roles, said the cast ended up using a variation of different size blocks and two ramps for the set.

Prizant said they relied heavily on lighting to help enhance the smaller set.

“We incorporated a lot [of lighting] because there’s two different worlds,” said Prizant. “I used the lighting…to show and make sure the audience knew they were in the two separate worlds and to distinguish [them].”

However, Alvarez said the simpler set caused some difficulties for the cast.

“[At rehearsal] three kids just totally wiped out on the set,” said Alvarez. “They fell in a little hole.”

Siegel said he had similar experiences with the set.

“During the blackouts, it’s very hard to see, so during one of our rehearsals I fell in an area in which there was no block,” said Siegel. “There were these strips of glow tape that kind of created the illusion that there’s an outline of a box there, so I stepped down, but there was no block, and I gave myself quite a nasty bruise.”

Prizant said she was happy with her decision to perform in the drama room because “it is an intimate piece and [the drama room] really brought the audience in [close].”