By Shivali Shah, Co-Editor-in-Chief
The River Hill stage turned hot pink for the River Hill Theatre Department’s final show of the year: Mean Girls.
Based on the Paramount Pictures film, Mean Girls High School Version follows Cady Heron as she navigates the ruthless jungle of high school. River Hill took the production to the stage on Friday, April 17th and Saturday, April 18th, showcasing months of hard work from cast and crew.
While the musical was already iconic, River Hill puts its own ‘spin’ on the show through its set design. To depict the changing scenes of the show, the River Hill Theatre Arts Crew created spinning turnstiles, with each side of the triangular prisms painted with either a wall lined with pink lockers, a chalkboard covered in equations or a mall storefront. “Our set looked really good,” brags senior Charlie Bishop. “The crew was amazing with that, the way that it would turn was so cool. It’s an intricate show, but everyone has to work together to make it come to life.”
Bishop, who played the lead role of Cady Heron during the Saturday performance and appeared in the ensemble on Friday, describes the role as particularly challenging, “Cady was difficult for me because she’s such a big character who changes over the whole show. You really have to dig deep and figure out what you can do to show the audience that change because it’s so significant and important to the trials and lessons we learn from the show.”
In addition to learning their characters, the cast struggled to keep up with the songs and choreography while juggling the theatre department’s busy schedule. “It was really hard with the Addams [Family production] right in the middle of Mean Girls, because we would learn things and then over time your memory starts to fade and you have to relearn things.”
“There were a lot of rehearsals, and I was expected to be there every single day,” explains senior Annika Borowski, a member of the ensemble. “At first [the rehearsals] went till 5 p.m., which was manageable, but then it went till 7 p.m. and later and later. Doing that and keeping up with schoolwork [was difficult].”
Despite these challenges, cast and crew alike agreed that the theater community made the experience worthwhile. “We had a really good community this year,” Bishop explains. “Backstage, everyone was hyping each other up and making sure people had everything they needed.”
Borowski agrees, saying, “It was fun, [especially] hanging out with people and getting to learn new things from them.”
Overall, River Hill’s cast and crew are incredibly proud of their final show of the year. Bishop expresses both nostalgia and excitement for what the River Hill Theatre Arts has next, saying, “I’m going to miss the shows, they were always a really big part of my life. I’m happy to have put the show on with everyone, and I’m excited that it went out into the world to bring new people into the theater, because that’s the amazing part of theater: it’s a cycle, you need to bring new people in, and it’s always changing.”