The musical tradition at AHS is a longstanding community effort that has been ongoing for many years. This year, the musical team is doing a Mean Girls Musical. The musical is based on the popular 2004 film ¨Mean Girls¨. The musical team has just wrapped up their eighth week of rehearsal. Below is a Q&A with the producer and director of this year’s musical, Mark Anderson.
What have you guys done to prepare?
We are currently in our 8th week of rehearsal. In the first six weeks, we rehearsed the show in sections, learning blocking and music. Last week, we started putting the sections together and running entire acts so that everyone could start to get the overall flow of the show and how all the pieces fit together. This week, we added crew to the mix as well. We have also had a couple of Saturday rehearsals to learn choreography and a couple of weekend “paint parties” where cast and crew help paint set pieces.
How much time has been put into preparation for the musical?
As of right now, for auditions, rehearsals, paint parties, and time spent discussing parts or scenes with individual students, etc., I’ve had approximately 72 contact hours with students over the last 8 weeks. That amount will be less (to varying degrees for each of the students, depending on their rehearsal schedule and absences from rehearsal). That number doesn’t account for the time cast members have spent memorizing lines and songs, and that any of us on the creative team have spent prepping blocking, music, or choreography for students to learn. Nor does it include any of the time spent building the set, preparing programs, posters, or doing interviews.
What were the challenges?
Challenges so far have included (1) trying to get everything that needs to be done done, (2) trying to rehearse with people missing for a wide variety of reasons, and (3) not having a vocal music teacher in the building who’s involved in the show that can work with students on music for the show during the school day.
What parts are you especially excited about?
I’m excited about the fact that we currently have more than 40 students involved in the production from around the high school, many of whom are not in choir and/or have not been involved in the musical before. It’s really great to have such a rich variety of students coming together for this show. Part of what Mean Girls is about is the tendency of people (and perhaps especially high school students) to stick in their own little group or clique and not get involved with anyone or anything outside their group. Having students from a wide variety of those groups in this school just emphasizes the point the show is trying to make.
What would you like students to know about the production?
This is a well-written, fun show with great music and a great cast of their peers. Mean Girls is one of the few musicals out there that is actually set in a high school, has predominantly high school characters, and explores what it means to be a high school student. And even though the title is Mean Girls, it’s really about everyone and for everyone, not just girls. Also, I’d like students to know that being in plays and musicals is a great experience because you learn how to work together in groups, to collaborate with and depend on others to achieve your common goal, to explore who you are or could be, and maybe find some parts of yourself or capabilities you have that you didn’t know were there before.
Can you explain why the musical is free on Sunday?
First of all, I would not say that the musical is free on Sunday. I would say that the cost for admission to Sunday’s performance is being covered by the Avery Andersen Foundation. Someone is paying for the tickets, just not the audience members. The reason that the Avery Andersen Foundation is covering admission on Sunday (as they have done for the past few years) is that when Avery was in high school, he loved the musical and was very involved in it. It was important to Avery, so in order to honor him, the Foundation supports the musical. They do this by paying the cost of admission for Sunday’s performance in order to encourage people to come see it and support the students who are involved in it, who love it as much as Avery did.
