El Paso teenagers are stepping into the roles of Cady Heron, Regina George, and the rest of the Plastics as Kids-N-Co. opens its production of “Mean Girls: High School Version” this week, with the show set to run through mid-September at First Presbyterian Church. Performances began Friday, August 28, at 7:30 p.m., with additional shows scheduled for Saturday, August 29, Wednesday, September 2, Thursday, September 3, Friday, September 11, and Saturday, September 12 — all curtain times set for 7:30 p.m.
According to KTSM 9 News, the musical is adapted from the 2004 hit film and its later Broadway incarnation, and it follows Cady Heron as she navigates the social hierarchy of a new high school. The production explores themes of friendship, popularity, identity, bullying, and social hierarchy, and it features young El Paso actors in every role. Raul Chavez directed the show, and he told the outlet he's excited for audiences to see the young cast and the work they've put in.
Chavez brings professional theater chops to the youth stage: he holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance from the University of Texas at El Paso and has directed and performed with local troupes including Viva! El Paso and Shakespeare on the Rocks, according to Eden Performing Arts. Isabella Candelaria provided choreography for the production, while Susana Rodriguez-Snyder handled musical direction, per the same KTSM report.
A Nearly 40-Year-Old Youth Theater Tradition
Kids-N-Co. is a non-profit children's theater that has operated for almost 40 years, teaching young people through camps, classes, and shows. Founded in 1988, the organization functions as El Paso's primary community theater dedicated to youth arts education, offering year-round classes, summer camps, and mainstage productions, according to ActivityHero. The company's summer theater program has run for more than 35 years and is recognized as the longest-running summer theater camp in El Paso, per KTEP, with campers learning acting alongside technical disciplines like lighting, set construction, and costuming.
That hands-on training extends to this production as well. Ahead of the show's premiere, Kids-N-Co. opened technical crew volunteer opportunities for local youth to learn stage management, sound, lighting, and set design, according to the organization's Facebook page. The company also regularly draws on talent from UTEP's Department of Theatre and Dance, hiring university students and alumni to teach summer camps and mentor young performers, as noted by The Prospector.
Licensing a Broadway Script for Teen Performers
The version of “Mean Girls” now on stage in El Paso comes from a specific licensing framework built for youth theater. Music Theatre International released “Mean Girls High School Version” for licensing to U.S. and Canadian schools in September 2022, providing the full, unabridged Broadway script alongside an official list of approved changes that let directors adjust content to match local community standards, according to Broadway World. That's distinct from “Mean Girls JR.,” a separate, condensed 60-minute edition Music Theatre International released in January 2023 specifically for middle school performers; junior editions shorten running times while high school versions keep the original script intact.
The original Broadway production, written by Tina Fey with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin, earned 12 Tony Award nominations before closing in March 2020, per the same Broadway World report. The El Paso staging brings that same source material to a much smaller, all-youth cast performing on a church stage rather than a Broadway house.
Tickets and Venue Details
Performances take place at First Presbyterian Church of El Paso, 1340 Murchison Drive — a congregation organized in 1882 as the first Presbyterian fellowship in Texas west of the Pecos River, which has operated at its current campus since 1958, according to the Texas Historical Commission. General admission tickets cost $15, while student, military, and senior admission is $10. Advance tickets are available online and at the door, subject to availability, per KTSM.
The musical is just one piece of Kids-N-Co.'s broader fall 2026 slate. The organization's fall educational programming also includes youth acting instruction with Chavez and musical theater performance classes with Ariel Robles, building toward a showcase scheduled for November 21, according to the company's Facebook page. Kids-N-Co. has additional performances scheduled later in 2026 and into spring 2027, continuing a run of youth theater programming that has become a fixture of El Paso's arts calendar.
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