Halloween has come and gone, but the fun continues at Pleasant Valley Middle School with the Drama Club’s newest creation “Monstermania! Canceled on Spooky Island.”

The play was the creation of 24 middle school students who got together for three weeks in August to hammer out the script. Alexandria Gibb, co-director of the play and a teacher in the gifted program, along with co-director and language arts teacher Amanda Altemose wrote an outline and turned it over to the students to take it from there.

“The level of engagement and creativity of our writers was astonishing,” Gibb said.

The foundation of the play was loosely built off characters in Agatha Christie novel “And Then There Were None,” Gibb said, but with a modern twist.

In “Monstermania! Canceled on Spooky Island,” 10 monsters compete in Survivor-style games on a reality television show where they are all trying not to be canceled. The grand prize isn’t a million dollars, but something seemingly just as great - demonsterization. It’s the opportunity to be human again.

Gibb said, “When our monsters are canceled and lose their chance to become human again, we find that they OK with that. In fact, one by one, they summarily reject returning to their human form and instead embrace their monsterhood. Even our “winners” realize that who they really are is something to be proud of. I think what might have resonated so intensely with our students is the message to be proud of who you are, the way you are. What our students wrote begs our acceptance to be proud of who they are, the way they are. I sure am!”

Comments from sixth graders Lily Sullivan, Ella Rufo and Meghan Worden found the club to be a welcoming, supportive environment.

“Everybody on the cast is really friendly,” Sullivan said.

The girls said that anytime someone made a mistake, no one got upset. Instead, the “mistake” became a part of the script.

Worden said, “They were so welcoming, I felt I could do more.”

And Rufo added, “They make you feel more confident.”

Worden, who plays the part of a ghost named Vale, did take her character to the next level. “I learned how to skateboard for this.” Now, her ghostly character breezes across the stage.

Sixth-grader Sara Correia plays the part of a brain doctor that has coincidentally turned into a zombie. Zombies eat brains.

“I’m obsessed with brains,” Correia said. Her character even carries a spare brain in a fanny pack.

“It’s so funny that I like brains and my (character’s) name Bryann,” she said. “I love my character.”

Gibb said there are many sixth graders involved in the club this year.

“It’s a young cast,” she said.

The cast and crew does also include students in seventh and eighth grades.

One of those students is first time Drama Club performer, eighth-grader Cynthia Page. She has the part of a witch named Winifred.

“I went full out with the character,” Page said. She really dove into her character’s identity. “She fits me. She’s a really sassy individual and I’m a really sassy individual.”

In addition to the actors, writers and stage crew, this show even has some budding songwriters.

Gibb said eighth-grade students Brooke Burke and Catalina Jacovelli wrote the lyrics to an original song they titled “Streetlight to Tomorrow.” Their classmate Christopher Sroke wrote the music, and Burke and classmate Karlie Ciesielski perform the song in the show.

“When I step back and think about everything all the students did to accomplish this show, I am in total awe,” Altemose said.

The students wrote the script for the monsters on the television show, all the dialogue of the children watching the show from their couch after trick-or-treating, plus 30 commercials.

Gibb said they had more than 60 students come out to participate in the Monstermania, so she and Altemose decided to have two different “teams.” Team Black Cat will perform the show at 7 p.m. today and at 2 p.m. Saturday. Team Skelly will perform the show at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday in the middle school gymnasium/multipurpose room.

“They’re excited,” Gibb said. “They’re already talking about writing the next play.”

The program was made possible through a grant from the Pleasant Valley Educational Foundation.