From Ensemble to Leading Lady: Mara Sampietro debuts as Janice Ian in Mean Girls Musical

Mara Sampietro, ’25, shares how she’s navigated portraying Janice Ian, a bold and complex character in Redwood’s production of the Mean Girls musical.

By: Donya Hassanshahi

As a member of the ensemble, characters translate lines into pure expression. The complexity entangled with reacting at the proper time and interacting with the leads with such expression is a crucial element of a drama production.

Departing from the ensemble, Mara Sampietro, ’25 will play her first leading role as Janice Ian.

From ages seven through thirteen, Sampietro was active in TCOE productions, but it wasn’t until freshman year that she resumed acting in musicals.

Acting as the best friend of protagonist Cady Heron, she says that tensions arise from Cady befriending Regina George, a member of the Plastics. “Janice has a story about Regina, who’s the main mean girl, about how she spread a rumor about Janice being a lesbian, and Janice is actually Lebanese, not a lesbian, so that’s her back story. Her origins why she hates Regina so much. As the story continues, Cady obviously becomes a Plastic with Regina, so my character is kind of like ‘You screwed me over like Regina did.'”

Sampietro describes Janice as “a voice of reason and shows Cady what’s actually important, which is how everyone’s special…My character is all about being herself and treating people nice, even if she doesn’t like them or if they’ve wronged you, they’re still people too.”

Being casted as a lead, Sampietro says it was incredibly unexpected. “I never thought that I would play her. Then I saw the cast list and I was like ‘What the heck,’ so I had to navigate how to play her and her plot line,” she says.

Sampietro expresses the boldness of her character, saying, “I’m in bold costumes and she’s artistic, and I feel like to be artistic you have to have some sort of individuality about you and know how to put that through art. I think that the things she says are bold and the song that I sing as her is a really bold song, too. I think she’s bold, which for some people can come off as annoying or for others it can be inspiring.”

Navigating the persona of her character arose some challenges. Becoming comfortable with a larger role, Sampietro says portraying Janice’s sexuality “was really confusing…I just didn’t really know how to do that without being offensive to some people. We changed it a little bit, so that was different.”

Resonating with her character’s personality was also foreign. She says, “I feel like she’s kind of opposite of me because she’s kind of a longer, but at the same time I can kind of see the similarities between both of us—knowing who’s your real friend and knowing that, even though you might dislike people, you have to see their good qualities.”

Sampietro has tried to incorporate elements of herself through the style of singing. “I’m trying to put myself into it vocally, mostly, because I think that will bring my own self into the character,” she says.

Just days leading up to their performance, she says, “This is my first time being a lead, but usually I’m a background character, ensemble. I like being a background character. Trying to get myself in there is really hard, it’s been hard, but I think I’ve been able to do it.”

To see Sampietro play Janice Ian, come see the musical opening night on February 15 at the LJ Williams Theater at 7:00pm. The musical will also take place on the 16 and 17 of February following opening night.

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