Drama 2 and Advanced Drama are participating in an “Assassin” Activity in which the students create an alternate personality and are assigned another classmate to “kill” in a creative way. To “kill” someone, the students use various tools, such as a banana or Nerf gun, Vaseline as fake poison, or toy knives.
Once students are assigned someone to “kill” by Mr. Donohoe, they can only attack that specific person. “He gives you a folder and you have to go out and kill the person in the folder, but there are a lot of rules like you have a certain number of witnesses and it has to be a very clever way of doing it,” said sophomore Lauren Raff. In addition, once an assassin kills their assigned target, they must then take on the target of the person they’ve killed.
If a student breaks a rule, they are punished with an “open season” in which anyone from the class can “kill” them. “If I were to die first, I would be really disappointed. A participant of the game last year told me she was always paranoid and was on the edge all of the time because you never know. If you are in a room with one person from drama, you don’t know if they have you,” said Raff.
The students choose fake names and can create alliances with other players. “Mine is Lindsey Johansen. I have two allies, Julia Durski and Tenshi Lucasey. I don’t want to side with too many people,” said Raff.
The participants also create catchphrases, backstories and have a preferred method of killing. “My backstory is I am having a pillow fight and people were hitting me with pillows so then I kill them with my pillow and have no friends except my pillow. My catchphrase is “Pillow Fight” before I kill someone. The weapon of choice, mine being pillows, is our character’s preferred weapon, but most people will kill their person with something else on a list that you can select off of,” said Raff.
“For a certain period of time in class, they can talk to ‘Dark Cowboy’ who is running this whole thing, and they can get weapons and ask questions, but there is usually other stuff going on in class,” said Donohoe. Dark Cowboy is Donohoe’s alter-ego for the game.
According to the Raff, it is frightening to have someone hunting her and she always has to watch her back. “You can also go to people’s houses, but you can’t break in and enter. It is super creepy and complicated. I am hanging out with my friend in drama so I am going to make a pact with him that he can’t kill me that day. You just need to trust each other,” she said.
Sophomore Sarah Santaguida enjoys the game, despite the constant anxiety it fosters. “The game is really scary and stressful, but it is also super fun. I have already been able to assassinate two targets which is exciting,” said Santaguida.
“The project is really fun. You are someone else and not yourself. Sometimes Mr. Donohoe is saying to take off your mask because that is hard to do but it sometimes it is more fun to put one on and be someone else. My favorite part of the project is how casual it is,” said Raff.
According to Donohoe, the game is just for fun and is only worth a few points which are earned through participation. “Some of the students are really into it, some are afraid, and some don’t seem to understand what is going on,” said Donohoe.
The game will continue until there are just a few students left alive… figuratively.
