Lowell HS Students Turn Around Musical in 24 Hours
Photo Courtesy of the Lowell Performing Arts Center.
5/31/2026
Justin Scott - Info@redarrowpreps.com
Lowell High School Theatre closed its season with a 24 Hour Theatre production of Mean Girls Jr. at the Lowell Performing Arts Center. An incredible undertaking, the format required the cast and crew to prepare the show in one day. Students worked through the script, music, choreography, blocking, props, lighting, projections, costumes and staging before performing for an audience later that night.
The show was a tremendous success with an expectation of about 100 audience members, the show had 400+ members in the audience.
LHS Theatre director Amanita Fahrni said the process included both the difficulty of working under a short deadline and the reward of seeing the production come together.
“Something absolutely phenomenal happened on the LHS stage last night. It was totally fetch,” Fahrni said. “In 24 hours, the cast and crew experienced the ultimate highs, pure success, pride, joy, and exhilaration. But to get there, they had to survive the lows, at times feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and fatigued.”
The cast and crew only had two full runs of the show before the performance, which included everything else. Costumes for example mostly came from the LHS storage shelves or from the students themselves.
“The cast and crew only ran the show twice before last night’s actual performance,” Fahrni said. “Let that sink in, two full times.”
Lily Collins, Claire Block, Natalie Saylor, and Marley De Jong go through the “Burn Book”.
“24 hour was the coolest thing ever! Totally exhausting. Buuuut totally fetch. I got to be one of my dream roles as a “Plastic” with some of my best friends , and totally loved every second. It was definitely tricky, and there was a minute there were I felt like this whole thing would crash and burn. But honestly I couldn’t have imagined the outcome. It was the most fulfilling feeling knowing I did that in 24 hours, and that we could all work together to make it happen.” - Lily Collins
The production was based on Mean Girls, the 2004 comedy that was also adapted into a 2024 film musical. The 2004 is much more well engrained in culture, which made it highly appealing to people who grew up in the 2000’s and may now have kids at the high school or middle school. The show follows Cady Heron as she enters North Shore High School and becomes involved with the school’s popular group, “The Plastics”.
Recent LHS graduate Natalie Saylor played Cady Heron. Marley De Jong played Regina George, Claire Block played Karen Smith and Lily Collins played Gretchen Wieners. For all of them of course, it was their last show with LHS Theatre, and all have played starring roles over the years at the school.
“This experience was unlike any other, both rewarding and exhausting and so much fun,” Saylor said. “Everyone worked so hard through exhaustion and seeing it all come together in such a short amount of time was awesome. I will never experience anything quite like this again, and I am so proud to be leaving LHS Theatre on a bang as Cady.”
Cast members were up a majority of the 24 hours, undoubtedly crashing when they got home and of course checking out our photos in the morning. The cast and crew had a bunch of food and drinks at the ready for them when they needed, plenty of places for naps including the band and orchestra room, and were hard at work on props, learning choreography, practicing, and ultimately at 7:00pm the performance.
Morgan Saylor, Natalie’s twin sister, played Ms. Norbury. She said the 24-hour format made the production memorable.
“This experience was definitely a wild ride,” Morgan Saylor said. “A lot of highs and lows, from the extreme bouts of tiredness we had to push through to learn blocking, to the rewarding feeling after our first run-through. It is an experience I will never forget, and I couldn’t be more grateful I got to experience it with my amazing and talented friends.”
The theatre program did a trial run of the 24-hour format during December, but theat2 a.m.re director Amanita Fahrni noted that was a play. A musical is a significantly larger undertaking.
Class of 2026 graduate Gracen Simmons played Ms. George. She said the cast and crew had to manage a demanding schedule while also staying focused through fatigue.
“It was a very interesting 24 hours,” Simmons said. “There was so much going on between staying on schedule but also being mentally and physically stable. We went between learning songs, dancing, blocking, taking a few naps here and there, as well as a few snack breaks.”
It was frantic back behind the scenes where we were back there prior to the show in the late afternoon. It was probably the busiest the LHS hallways have been from midnight to 5:00am perhaps ever. Everyone wanted to maintain the standard. Simmons said the cast was nervous before the performance because of that standard set by past LHS Theatre productions.
“We were all so nervous before the show,” Simmons said. “Lowell has a history of great shows, and we just didn’t feel like this one met the expectation. Fahrni reminded us that we did all this in 24 hours and that we should be proud of ourselves.”
To the audience of course, there was an understanding it wouldn’t be as polished as a typical performance, but those moments were few and far between. The show was clearly a fan favorite, and a standing ovation was well deserved after.
After the performance, Simmons said the group was able to recognize what it had accomplished.
“After the show we just put on, we definitely are all proud of the work that everyone put into making this production,” Simmons said. “I think it’s definitely something the LPAC will experience again, and I can’t wait to come back and watch it.”
Behind the scenes, the crew worked on the technical and logistical parts of the production. Sophie Liley served as one of the backstage leads and said the format was unlike anything she had done before.
“The 24 Hour production of Mean Girls Jr. was like nothing I had ever done before,” Liley said. “We started with reading through the whole show as normal. Then came the challenges of getting the show in motion. This included finding out what sets were going to look like, learning songs, and trying to find ways to stay awake.”
Liley said the first scheduled rest period was not until 2:00 a.m. Before that, students worked on lines, props and other basic parts of the show.
“So until then we ran lines, gathered props, and tried to give the show a foundation to work off of,” Liley said. “A dance party followed the 2:00 a.m. nap to give us a boost of energy to keep going.”
Using their phones, the cast created an inexpensive, but powerful conclusion to the performance.
The crew continued working throughout the day to move the production from a first read-through to a staged performance.
“For me, this show felt like one of the longest days of my life,” Liley said. “To see the show go from our first read-through to a full production in such a short time was incredible. The show wasn’t perfect, but it was fun to push our limits and see how much we could do in limited time. I’m so thankful for the amazing cast and crew that helped make this possible.”
Class of 2026 graduate Maddie Dexter also worked on the crew. She said the technical side required students to prioritize quickly because of the limited time available.
“The tech side of this 24-hour musical was quite a bit of trial and error, and sorting through multiple lists to figure out what our main priorities needed to be because of the limited time,” Dexter said. “This show really pushed us to trust our cast and crewmates and ourselves more so than the regular musical because we didn’t have time to run through tricky scene transitions until they were perfect. We just had to trust that we would figure it out.”
The production also included support from several LHS alumni. Sam Konyndyk assisted with projection and lighting, Kennedi Weed and Brylee Craycraft helped with choreography, Megan Ophoff worked with vocals, and Keana Fahrni helped with staging.
Mean Girls Jr. joins the poster wall outside the Performing Arts Center.
The crew included Lorrissa Reynolds, Elliot Peel, Andi Rottier, Kirsten Hill, Joslyn Kissinger, Evelyn Austhof, Anabel Austhof, Saige Brandt, Henry Schrauben, Morgan Anderson, Rowen Creasy, Ally Hollern, Hudson Robbins, Sophie Liley, Gabrielle Zook, Reilly Frueh, Madilyn Dexter and Kadance Gregory.
Fahrni said the experience gave students a chance to take on a difficult challenge and see it through to the end.
“The most rewarding achievements always demand hard work and fierce determination,” Fahrni said. “The message to these students is never back down from a challenge. There will be a reward waiting for them at the end of their challenge.”
The production ended LHS Theatre’s season. The fall play is on the schedule for the last weekend of October, 2026. The LHS Musical for next spring is scheduled for March 5th, 6th, 7th, 12th, and 13th. The show hasn’t been announced, but whatever the show is, Red Arrow Preps and Lowell Theatre photography partner Shamrock will be there for live coverage!
