Three Los Alamos High students earn Enchantment Awards nominations for Mean Girls

Maici E. Guise, Zachary Sestric and Aubrey Ruston have pushed Los Alamos High School theater onto a statewide stage, earning 2026 Enchantment Awards nominations for Mean Girls and giving the Hill’s arts program a reach that extends well beyond the school auditorium.

Guise was nominated for best actress, Sestric for best supporting actor and Ruston for best supporting actress, recognition that places three LAHS students among New Mexico’s standout high school musical theater performers. Their nominations are tied to this year’s Mean Girls production, which now has a concrete measure of success outside Los Alamos: statewide judging in one of the most competitive student theater programs in New Mexico.

The stakes are real. The 2026 Enchantment Awards are scheduled for Sunday, May 3, at 7 p.m. in Popejoy Hall on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, where as many as 150 students are expected to perform on stage during awards night. The New Mexico High School Musical Theatre Awards says it compares scores from adjudicated shows across the state and selects the top 20 high school students through its process, with the top 10 named for best actress and the top 10 for best actor.

Those finalists rehearse together in Albuquerque for up to a week before the ceremony, then perform both a short medley from their adjudicated role and a solo before judges. The top-scoring male and female students are sent to New York City for the Jimmy Awards at the program’s expense, turning a local school production into a pathway to national recognition. The Jimmy Awards are described as a national celebration of student achievement in vocal, dance and acting performance.

Los Alamos also has a direct connection to the awards’ biggest names. Devon McCleskey, who will host this year’s ceremony, graduated from Los Alamos High School and was the school’s 2016 best actor winner for Monty Python’s Spamalot. He later won a 2016 Jimmy Award on Broadway, a reminder that the route from Los Alamos to the national stage is not theoretical.

The Enchantment Awards program says it recognizes individual and communal artistry in performance while honoring teachers and schools for their commitment to performing arts education. For Los Alamos High, the three nominations signal more than a successful show. They suggest a theater program that is becoming a statewide presence, with student talent strong enough to turn a science-town school into a regular contender in New Mexico musical theater.