Western Kentucky University’s Department of Theatre & Dance is channeling a passion for a different kind of role-playing for a show this week.

“She Kills Monsters,” a dramatic comedy that local teenagers will perform under the guidance of WKU students in a collaboration with Public Theatre of Kentucky, will play from Thursday to Sunday at the Phoenix Theatre.

Carol Jordan, the show’s director, said “She Kills Monsters” revolves around Agnes, a high school student dealing with her sister’s death and learning about her sister Tilly by playing through a Dungeons & Dragons setting her sister created.

“It’s a Dungeons & Dragons fantasy adventure,” Jordan said. “It involves a young woman whose sister was killed in a car accident and then discovers her D&D module and decides to play it to get to know her sister better.”

“She Kills Monsters” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday, according to ptkbg.org.

Tickets can be purchased ahead of time at ptkbg.org. Adult tickets are $10. Tickets for children, seniors, military and students are $8.

The show involves jumping back and forth between the real world – specifically, 1995 in Athens, Ohio – and the setting of Tilly’s role-playing module, Jordan said. Throughout the show, Agnes shifts from dealing with other high school students to fighting wraiths, kobolds, bugbears and other creatures the D&D faithful will recognize with Tilly’s in-game avatar as her guide at a moment’s notice.

“It does play with this idea of her being in the real world and then going into the fantasy world,” Jordan said.

Morgan Aldridge, a WKU student involved in the show as an assistant director and stage manager, said the show uses D&D as a narrative device for exploring real issues like a family member’s death.

“It’s really a show about learning about living with our differences and living with loss,” she said.

Aldridge said the show isn’t specifically for people with experience with D&D and that those who’ve never played the game won’t have any trouble following the narrative.

“We have all fallen in love with the show,” she said. “You don’t need to know anything about Dungeons & Dragons going in.”

Aldridge and a few of Jordan’s other students have been working with 13- to 18-year-olds since September to make the show a reality, Jordan said.

“A lot of these characters are teens and they have to deal with fitting in and relationships and that’s something they can very much relate to,” she said.

Jordan said that because of some profanity and innuendo, she wouldn’t recommend the show for children under 12.

The Department of Theatre & Dance is also giving the public a chance to see “Hair,” the rock musical about the counterculture of the 1960s.

Though the department began performing the show last week, there are still a few performances left.

This week, “Hair” will be staged at the Russell Miller Theatre in the Fine Arts Center at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are available at wku.showare.com for $18.86 and $15.09 for seniors and students, though these prices are $20 and $16, respectively, when tax is added.

Michelle Dvoskin, the show’s director, said she wanted to put on a production of “Hair” because 2018 marks the show’s 50th anniversary and because she finds it particularly relevant today.

“I actually teach this in musical theater history and in the last few years, it’s been speaking to my students,” she said.

With the show exploring concepts like race, gender and “what it means to be patriotic,” many of Dvoskin’s students felt “Hair” still had a lot to say even 50 years after its debut, she said.

“At it’s core, it’s a show about young people trying to find authenticity and hope in a world that is often very hostile,” she said.

According to wku.showare.com, “Hair” is recommended for mature audiences.

– Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.