This year, the GL theater department is putting on their production of the 2004 movie, Mean Girls. The cast is in their third month of rehearsal and feels very sure that they are on track for opening night.

“[Ms.] Clark knows what she’s doing, she’s been doing this for several years. I trust that her and Mrs. Petersen did the rehearsal schedule to get us ready on time,” said junior Sabrina Harvey-Cronk.

A new year brings a new group of people: this year production is without many seniors to fill lead roles. Senior show-lead Delayne Hengesbach commented on this by stating, “for a long time we had the same people in upper roles, so watching new people come in and see how they work and working with them is so cool. That’s the best thing about theater, is working with a ton of different people.”

This year’s show has seven lead roles, all of which are double casted. The show has two casts, a gold and a blue cast to help bring more opportunity. Of the 14 leads, eight of them are experiencing their first time as lead characters.

“Every year people graduate and new kids come in and it creates more opportunity for underclassmen and for juniors,” said Harvey-Cronk.

With so many participating seniors in the musical program leaving this past year, spotlight roles have been opened to younger students.

“We have no senior guys, which is kind of odd because normally we have at least three or four senior men,” Hengesbach stated. “The biggest thing with production is letting people have their shot. Because even at callbacks there were people I was like I’ve never heard this person sing or I’ve never seen them act.” Seeing new people have their shot is exciting for the theater program. Hengesbach continues by stating, “it’s super cool because you don’t really get to know these people until you get to see them shine on stage and so definitely with a ton of seniors leaving that’s one of the biggest things.”

Although this is a change for cast and crew, most feel that the show is running much smoother than last year’s production of Little Mermaid.

“I think this [show is] easier because Little Mermaid was a lot of technical blocking, and this one is set in a high school. You know, there’s a lot more generic blocking,” states Hengesbach.

Harvey-Cronk agrees by stating, “they [rehearsals] have gone a lot smoother compared to my sophomore year in Little Mermaid. They’re really fun and we get a lot of work done.”