Mean Girls: High School Version

The International Thespian Festival (ITF) main stage hosts the most outstanding productions in school theatre. In 2023, Mean Girls: High School Version will be performed by Thespian Troupe 6896 from J. J. Pearce High School (Texas).

Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savannah, but nothing prepared her for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. How will this naïve newbie rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming, but ruthless Regina George. When Cady and her friends devise a “revenge party” to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a queen bee without getting stung. Adapted from Tina Fey’s hit 2004 film, Mean Girls took Broadway by storm and will leave you seeing stars.

Here’s a peek behind the curtain with director Heather Biddle. (At the time of this posting, you can still register for ITF and see this production live and in-person!)

DRAMATICS: Why this show right now? What considerations were made in the selection process?

BIDDLE: The story in Mean Girls: High School Version is important to be told right now because we live in a society where people feel protected to say whatever they want online. We have forgotten that behind the screens are real people with real feelings. Mean Girls might not only be about social media its perils, but it plays into the larger message very clearly: that everyone is dealing with something. We never truly know what is going on with others.

DRAMATICS: Finish this sentence. You wouldn’t know it but…

BIDDLE: If you’re thinking of producing this show at your school, we highly recommend using Broadway Media for the projections. Their products make it so easy – you could do the entire show with only a cyc and some tables. Scene changes are seamless and Broadway Media makes it so easy for your audience to imagine that they are in the world of the show. Borrow rolling tables and desks from your school’s cafeteria and your set budget it minimal!

Additionally, costumes for this show are so simple, if you have any parents who are collectors, I can guarantee they have all the costumes you will need. Bonus points for chunky belts, Doc Martens, and tank tops over t-shirts.

DRAMATICS: Tell us about the unique creative process you had during the rehearsal period.

BIDDLE: We are without a theatre for the next 18 months, so we blocked the entire show in other areas of the school, like a locker room, a gym, a hallway, and other non-theatrical spaces. We rented the Allen Performing Arts Center for our performances, and because of these challenges, tech week was only the third time we had been on a real stage during our entire rehearsal process.

We would be remiss not to thank to our wonderful friends at Richardson High School (our district neighbor school) for letting us use their theatre a few times before our tech rehearsals began. The lesson we learned is this: You do not need to have a traditional stage if the story is good. The story and your company will make it all work! ♦

Patty Craft is content manager for Dramatics.org.