The Music and Drama Departments performed “Mean Girls: The Musical” on Thursday, Feb. 6, bringing together students from all grade levels to sing, act and dance. The musical involved extensive preparation, with weekly rehearsals three times a week since September to daily rehearsals as the performance date approached. Junior Shiva Chaganti, who played the school principal Mr. Duvall, notes the improvements made during the show compared to rehearsals.
“I think the show went really well, as we had minimal mistakes,” Chaganti said. ”I didn’t forget my lines, which I was really happy about. A lot of the time, the timing was iffy, just because there’s no real cues in a lot of the songs, but we did a lot of them really, really well today.”
The musical, based on the 2024 musical adaptation of the original movie “Mean Girls,” follows Cady Heron (played by junior Evan Greene) as she navigates the social hierarchy of high school and encounters the Plastics, a clique led by Regina George (played by senior Aayushi Ayalasomayajula). Freshman Luke Mathai, who played Shane Oman, felt the show exceeded his expectations, with minimal areas for improvement.
“I thought that there would be a little bit more fumbles, but overall, we did really good,” Mathai said. “The tech crew was really, really good, the play was well directed and everybody just did their best.”
Mathai especially appreciated how quick the tech crew was with musical cues and moving each background set between scenes. Stagecraft students, including junior and stagehand Rowan Chang, were responsible for set changes and technical elements. One of the dramatic scenes of the show involved stagehands running a bus prop onto the stage — a transition Chang was initially worried about missing. However, with practice, the cue was executed successfully.
“During rehearsals, generally, we just try to focus on getting the cues and hitting all the transitions and making sure that everything is in place for the actors,” Chang said. “I think it went pretty well. We didn’t have any bad transitions –– we had a few drops, but that’s expected.”
While the technical aspects of the show came together behind the scenes, the cast members also experienced personal milestones on stage. For junior Ozzy Christian, who played Damian, Mean Girls marked his first-ever stage production. After watching Mean Girls years ago, he immediately connected with the character and was excited for the chance to bring him to life.
“I was like, ‘That’s literally me!’” Christian said. “Damian’s a very unique and funny character. Overall, we had the best cast ever. Everyone was so sweet, everyone supported each other and made sure that we were all having a good time.”
