‘An excellent story to tell’

Green Bay West High School students will bring an iconic movie turned musical to the stage next weekend with their production of ‘Mean Girls.’

Although many are familiar with the iconic characters and quotes from the movie, Danielle Scherer, pit orchestra director and co-director of the production, said what drew them to the show was the message.

“We chose Mean Girls for this year because there’s an excellent story to tell and telling it from the adolescent perspective, I think, is important,”she said. “There are themes in this show that our students and adolescents in this building face everyday that I think as we grow older, we distance ourselves from.”

But just because someone may be beyond their high school days, that doesn’t mean issues like fitting in and making friends just disappear.

“Some of these themes and experiences also appear in adult life and how we handle them in high school affects how we handle them as adults, too,” Scherer said. “While there is some content in this show that is rather mature, I think it’s important to talk to our kids about it now in school so that we can teach them how to handle it in the future and for our adults to kind of revisit this time of high school… The cliques and the social status and the feelings of not fitting in.”

It’s something the students involved in the production have learned throughout the rehearsal process.

“There’s humanity in everyone,” said Andy Arauz, who plays Damien in the show. “Even though there are extremely cruel people in this world, if you can be a better person sometimes and extend yourself to them, it can be that much more peaceful.”

“Empathy should always be your first choice to anything,” said Cheyanne Dukes, who plays Regina. “You should be empathetic and understand that people have lives, people have insecurities and people also have things that they want to do so badly, like with Cady and how she wants to have friends. Empathy should always be the first thing you bring to the table before you bring any other emotion to understanding another person.”

“To quote the show, ‘All people are people too, no matter what,’” said Ozie Falk, who plays Janice. “Even people like Regina George, people who are mean, people who you think are better than you. They’re all the same. We’re all the same. We’re all in the same boat.”
Schere said she is excited for audiences to see how much work her students have put into bringing this show to life and sharing its important messages.

“I’m excited for them to see the kids’ heart,” Scherer said. “They are putting everything out there in this production and they have poured so much of themselves into this and it’s really apparent on our stage. You can tell that their mark is all over it, which I think is really powerful. I think it’s just a true testament to the kids here and the community that we’ve built in this theater, so I’m really excited for people to see that on full display.”

In addition to tackling tough topics, this production has required the students and staff involved to tackle other challenges as well.

“I think the biggest challenge is doing justice to the fact that people know [the show], so you have to kind of do some of the iconic things in an iconic way,” Scherer said. “It’s also just demanding in set, it’s demanding in costumes and it’s demanding in vocals and pit music. It really requires a lot of demands for all of our kids in different ways, and as a result they’ve grown, which is amazing. But it’s required a lot of effort and practice from everyone.”

“Don’t underestimate it,” Dukes said. “There are a lot of moving parts and there’s a lot of parts that don’t get seen because they’re back behind everything. Know that there’s a lot of work going into this. We’re putting a lot of time from our days and I know our teachers are putting time from their days into this production.”

All that effort has been worth it, though, as opening night is almost here and audiences will soon be able to experience the fast-paced, iconic production.

“Be ready to laugh and be ready to think about some things and just be open to some of the ideas…” Scherer said. “It’s an opportunity to shed light on some of those things and think about the high school experience that some of us are very distant from and what our kids are going through on a day-to-day basis as adolescents.”

“It’s very big, it’s loud, there’s never really a dull moment,” Falk said. “There’s always something happening.”

“It is a blast,” Arauz said. “You’re going to be on the ride with us, just seeing how it goes. People will be watching that iconography you saw in the original movie, but also seeing some kids in the community take a new twist with their personal perspective.”
Find more details about the show and purchase tickets at west.gbaps.org.