On September 18th through the 20th, the theatre class at Tupelo High performed the iconic stage adaptation of the film “Mean Girls.”

With Sadie Ethridge as Cady Heron, Lauren Overstreet as Regina George, Shinji Spragin as Aaron Samuels, Piper Brown as Gretchen Wieners, Ava Devenport as Karen Smith and Addyson Smith as Janis Sarkisians. 

Beginning in the summer with auditions, the group started rehearsing from early August to late September, about 2 to 3 months.

The process of choosing which play the class is going to put together is entirely up to Mr. Miller, the theatre teacher and director of the fall play.

“So when we’re looking at Mean Girls, we have a lot of strong girls who can sing. So we wanted to choose a girl-heavy show.” Miller said

Choosing the play is a task for the director, as well as selecting who would play whom.

“We have an audition process and based on those auditions, we choose the students who we feel best fit the roles,” Milner said.

Another interesting part of putting together a play it’s how the actors and actresses feel. How they develop their character and themselves, and how they can improve as both actors and individuals. 

For example, performing in Mean Girls made Ethridge improve in her acting skills. 

“Even when you are not saying something, you know, your facial expressions matter because you tell a lot to the story,” Ethridge said 

Another example of how a play can also impact the performances of people is Devenport. She said it showed her that  “pushing through your comfort zone, even though it might be uncomfortable, does pay off.” 

Preparing to perform a character can also be a huge challenge.

“Memorizing the lines, you can sort of become the character and feel what the character is going through,” Spragin said 

Everything has its challenges, and putting together a function as big as Mean Girls means dealing with a lot of them. 

For Smith, her biggest challenge was a common one: stage fright. 

“But once the first show was over, all the jitters were gone,” Smith said.

Being an actor can be challenging and often puts you out of your comfort zone. Do actors or actresses feel nervous like the first time they were on stage?

“That never really goes away. I don’t know anybody who’s ever [had stage fright]really go away. It’s always there,” Brown said.

Being constantly out of your comfort zone can be both demanding and exciting, especially if you are new to something. 

So this is the advice Overstreet gives to new people

“Just do it. No matter what anybody says, no matter what you think people will say, no matter what you think people will think, do it if that is what makes you happy.” Overstreet said.