Estancia High’s ‘Mean Girls’ is set to play on a surrogate stage, but new digs are underway

Estancia High School’s Drama Department will bring the music next week, when it opens a production of “Mean Girls”— the first spring musical to be staged since 2019 — in Costa Mesa High School’s performing arts complex.

The show debuts Thursday at 7 p.m. with repeat evening performances on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday.

For many of the players, rehearsals for the show marked their first time performing in a much larger venue than the one at their home school, which has been promised a commensurate theater for the last two decades.

But for a handful of underclassmen, it won’t be the last. Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials are nearly ready to break ground on a $42-million complex at Estancia anticipated to be completed by the end of next year. Construction staging at the site began earlier this month.

Members of Estancia High’s Drama Department rehearse a scene Tuesday for the upcoming production of “Mean Girls” at the Costa Mesa High School theater.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Once finished, the complex will include a 350-seat main theater, about 100 more seats than the current theater, a black box theater along with classrooms, a dressing room and staging areas.

“We’re really excited, especially seeing it being closed off now, like it’s coming, it’s actually happening,” said Estancia instructor and drama director Amber Marroquin. “It will be a big transition whenever it comes, but it’s something I think we’ll be ready for.”

In the 2021-22 school year, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on, enrollment in the Drama Department dwindled to about seven students. But now, with 28 enrolled, productions can move forward with students working both on stage and behind the scenes.

Drama director and instructor Amber Marroquin Tuesday stages a scene for “Mean Girls.” the first musical produced by the Estancia High Drama Department since 2019.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

During a rehearsal Tuesday, the 25-member cast ran through lines, practicing songs and choreography from the 2017 Broadway hit that recently became available for reproduction.

“It’s a cult classic for this generation,” said Marroquin, explaining “Mean Girls” offers a lot of solid roles for women. “The rights came out in October, and I felt like it was a sign. We’re one of the first schools in Orange County to do the show.”

With music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin, the Broadway version of “Mean Girls” is based on the 2004 film from comedian Tina Fey about Cady Heron, a girl raised in Africa by scientists who finds herself forced to choose between friend groups in a cut-throat high school environment not unlike the African Serengeti.

In Estancia’s version, Helena Solomonian plays Cady, while the girls’ clique called “the Plastics” is rounded out by Liv Mabilog as uber mean girl Regina George and Aleyda Casillas and Keila Mendez in the roles of Karen Smith and Gretchen Wieners, respectively.

Estancia students Asher Dennee, from left, Helena Solomonian and Jayden Emmitt, rehearse a scene from “Mean Girls” Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Jayden Emmitt plays Janis Sarkisian, who befriends Cady before her acquisition by the Plastics. In the male leads, popular guy Aaron Samuels will be portrayed by Morgen Montagna, while student Asher Dennee will play the role of relative outcast Damian Hubbard.

Performing alongside the high school cast are three students from TeWinkle Middle School’s nascent program, which Marroquin developed to inspire interest in the theater in young students slated to promote to Estancia High.

During Tuesday’s rehearsal, Casillas tested her vocal chords on the brief solo song “My Name is Karen!” The 17-year-old senior said she and her classmates were startled by the difference between their home theater and the one at Costa Mesa High.

“When we first came to Costa Mesa and saw their wings, everyone gasped and said, now this is a theater. It felt really professional,” Casillas said, recalling having to do costume changes out in the hallway of the school behind a makeshift screen.

The lobby of Costa Mesa High School’s performing arts complex, where Estancia High drama students stage productions too large for their own theater.

(Sara Cardine)

Although she plans to attend UC Berkeley next year, she hopes to continue to attend local shows.

“I feel like during high school I learned to love the theater and how important it is, how you make the show and all the hard work that goes into it,” she said.

Montagna, who’s been rehearsing the role of Aaron Samuels since February, joined the drama department as a freshman new to Costa Mesa and has since become part of a tight-knit group.

“I’ve never had this many close connections in a class. Most times, I don’t even bother learning the names of my classmates,” he said. “But you just feel a lot more connected here. You feel you’re not being treated as a student but as an equal.”

On track to graduate from Estancia in 2025, Montagna is among the lucky few currently in the Drama Department who will have a chance to perform in the new theater once it opens.

“In Estancia, everyone is so close to the stage you feel like you can hear them breathing,” he said. “It will be kind of melancholy to think we’re never going to have that charming theater again. But [the new theater] will be a great improvement. It will help us do bigger shows that, I think, will be appreciated by more people.”

Estancia High School’s “Mean Girls” opens Thursday at 7 p.m. with additional shows at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, at Costa Mesa High School’s performing arts complex, 2650 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. General admission is $15, student admission is $10. To purchase tickets, visit estanciadrama.com or pay cash at the door.

Estancia High drama student Liv Mabilog, as Regina George, rehearses a scene Tuesday from “Mean Girls,” which debuts Thursday at Costa Mesa High School’s performing arts complex.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)