By Taevy Malone, 2028
The BHS Spring Musical this year was unlike any other, with a performance of a High School version of the iconic Mean Girls, which was formerly on Broadway. All cast, crew, and supervisors did an outstanding job with production and acting alike. I spoke with artistic director Ms. Faulstich and pit band director Mr. Grunwald to get some notable backstage details, and some interesting facts about how Mean Girls Broadway turned into Mean Girls BHS.
There were many aspects of the production that were completely unique to others, such as the projections that were displayed on the stage as the play took place. Since the stage projector did not have a typical layout for the pre-made slides, there were custom designed slide projections made by a team of students, Ms. Faulstich and the tech director. They made around 100 different slide projections so that this way, they were able to make them custom to the BHS show specifically, with slides like the burn book and and social media posts being the actual cast. There was even a projection of a skeleton dancing during the song “Sexy”, which was motion captured by Jessica Martin, the choreographer herself.
“We get inspired by broadway and what broadway did but we’re not supposed to copy…so we come up with our own choreography and blocking and we have to make it fit our own stage without all the technology that broadway has.” Says Ms. Faulstich, stating that the backstage crew had to shuffle about 35 rolling set pieces all around the stage and hallways. Sadie King, who played the role of Karen, also applauded the costume crew in their ability to quickly change the cast in between scenes, sometimes impressively working in only 45-115 seconds.
When it came to music, BHS did it differently than a lot of schools. This year, there was an all student pit conducted by Mr. Grunwald, with 6 out of 13 of them freshmen, and 8 out of 13 had never had musical pit experience before. Work started a little bit before Winter break, as Mr. Grunwald hosted auditions and practices so everyone could experience working and playing together. “The thing that I love about the pit orchestra is that you’ll have a kid that plays clarinet that has never been in a rock band before, playing with someone who plays distorted guitar. So the mix is really cool.” Mr. Grunwald remarked. “But when they get into the auditorium and see how the crew is working with the cast and everyone is working for that goal; everyone sort of raises their game and comes together.”
Although the musical has ended, we recommend you support all the productions that the BHS arts department creates by going to next year’s musicals and plays. Although it would be very difficult to personally name every student and supervisor, a huge congratulations goes out to everyone involved who stepped up into leadership and put in the effort to make an amazing production of Mean Girls BHS.
