The theater department at Liberty has been working hard on their spring musical. Their production of Mean Girls, a musical, has been highly anticipated following the movie-musical reboot of Mean Girls in 2024.
Madeline Austin (she/her), 12, plays Regina George in Liberty’s production. Austin shares how Liberty’s rendition of the musical differs from the new hit movie.
“The pacing is really different [from the movie] because the whole first act is until the Santa scene where The Plastics are singing, then that scene ends, and then Act Two starts up with Cady all plasticized, and that act is really short,” said Austin.
The hard work that the theater department puts into its productions often goes unnoticed by many students at Liberty.
“Once we load everything in, all of our tech loads in all of our props [and] set pieces into the auditorium. After that, the auditorium is reserved for us, and no one else can use it until we’re done with the show,” said Austin.
Putting on a musical from start to finish takes a few months. There is so much to be done, from building costumes and sets to memorizing lines. The cast and crew typically meet a couple of times every week throughout the process.
“We typically only do a small brush-up during spring break; that’s optional, but other than spring break, we practice Monday through Thursday, and once the show starts to get closer, we will occasionally add Saturday practices as well,” said Austin.
Having fun during practice is easy for Austin and many other cast members. For the seniors, it’s also sentimental.
“It is definitely a little sad just because it is my last year. I’m just really happy and grateful for the role I got this year that I got to end off with, but honestly, it’s all just kind of surreal. I’m not leaving it completely behind because I’m going to college for vocal performance, so I might get to do a little bit of theater, but it’s definitely slowing down a bit,” said Austin.
As this year’s musical comes to a close, Austin encourages anyone interested to join theater.
“Just audition, honestly. Even if you’re unsure or questioning that you can sing well or anything like that, just audition, and whatever happens, just happens. There were so many freshmen that were in choir this year and wanted to audition for the musical but just decided not to, and now they’re regretting that decision,” said Austin.Mean Girls: The Musical will have four performances: April 10, 11, and 12 at seven p.m., and Sunday, April 13 at two p.m. Tickets are $7 for Liberty students, $12 for adults and free for Liberty staff. Tickets are available online at cur8.com/16826/project/130441 or at the door.
