[PappyCat]

So I'm really good friends with a lady who directs High School shows and she's looking for a show for the fall. I said I'd ask around.

Comedies or drama with comedic elements are preferred. Farces are great, murder mysteries are good too, although they've done many mysteries lately. Something with one set is best.

Here is the biggy: They often have a large turnout and like to give as many people a chance as possible. 10-20 is a good cast number.

I'd shy away from Shakespeare with the program they have. In fact, I'd say doing contemporary shows would be in the best interest. Something like the Man who Came to Dinner would be perfect.

Shows they've done in the past:
Rumors by Neil Simon
Done to Death by Rick Abbot
But Why Bump off Barnaby by Rick Abbot
Arabian Nights
The Boys next Door by Tom Griffin
The Clumsy Custard Horror Show by William Gleason
The Man who Came to Dinner by George S. Kaufman

Any ideas? It would actually be really helpful if you guys posted the plays your high schools have done in general. Would give me a good idea. (If you wouldn't mind adding a little description of the show when you post so I don't have to look up every single one, I'd be forever grateful. Doesn't have to be long, could just be "1920s Comedy with lots of people!")

[LaurelDP]

In the past the plays my highschool has done are:

Noises Off
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Good Times Are Killing Me
Fools
Teahouse of the August Moon
Dracula, The Case of the Silver Scream <-
Much Ado About Nothing


Kind of all over the place.


Some popular high school shows in my area, though:

The Foreigner
Don't Drink the Water
The Diary of Anne Frank
Lend Me a Tenor
The Dining Room


Sorry I didn't give a little synoposis for each... Most are pretty well known if you have questions about some feel free to ask.

[kakoforever]

-The Diary of Anne Frank
-The Odd Couple (Female Version) - four girls, two guys
-Arsenic and Old Lace - hilarious. need kids that can play old.
-Up the Down Staircase- dramedy set in an "inner city" school. heinous script.
-You Can't Take it With You- also hilarious. easy to stage, cute. big cast.

[blue wind]

some that have been done in my area in the past are

inherit the wind
the miracle worker (one of my favorites)
dracula
the women
the nerd
mother hicks
dancing and laughnatsa (sp?)

[DontDoSadnessxx]

fools
heaven can wait (reallllly funny)
and the others were too dramatic or the school has already done.

[Beagle On Stage]

I love that this school has discovered Rick Abbott. His work is perfect for high school and community theatre alike.

Some appropriate high school classics:

Inherit the Wind - courtroom show based on fact (which is always fun), lots of people.
The Miracle Worker - an excellent vehicle for Annie, plus a great supporting cast.
Don't Drink the Water - about 10-15 roles, all are great character parts.
To Kill a Mockingbird - suprisingly, since it requires racially-rigid casting. But always a hit.
Cheaper by the Dozen - large cast, possibly the most enjoyable show I've experienced...20's period piece, will need some of the girls to play children.
The Curious Savage - again, medium-sized cast with great character parts

And for some reason, "The Foreigner" is always a hit, even if I can't stand five minutes of it myself.

[ConverseSneaker]

The Crucible and the Diary of Anne Frank would be good for high school and more well known=bigger crowds.

[ILoveToSing2010]

These are all plays my school has done before....

The Mouse that Roared
Dark of the Moon
Kiss and Tell
The Crucible
The Good Doctor
Death of a Salesman
Harvey
Our Town
Noises Off
Witness for the Prosecution
The Man who Came to Dinner
Picnic
On the Razzle
Flowers for Algernon
You Can't take it With you

I don't know more than half of these, but there is a list on the school website on what they have done since 1991.

[Salome]

try

Importance of Being Earnest
Pygmalion
Relative Values


I would NOT reccomend Inherit the WInd for high school the Darrow and Bryan roles are too hard for students.

[blue wind]

[metaphor17]

Musical Comedy Murders of 1920.

It's not a musical.

It's HILARIOUS. Best show my school has ever done. And it's a murder mystery so that's fun.

[BroadwayObssessed]

[Salome]

[Gwen]

We've done: (the ones that I remember...)
Rhinocerous
Our Town
Rhymers of Eldritch
I wasn't in any of them, but I know vaguely what they're about. Not enough to give anything specific though.

[Salome]

Rhinoceros is brilliant!
how did high schoolers get Ionesco though?

[Annie]

Jitters by David French.

It's brilliant. BRILLANT. A hilarious Canadian play by one of the most famous and prolific Canadian playwrights. It's a backstage comedy about a struggling theatre company readying to open a new play with a completely dysfunctional production team and cast. Think "Waiting for Guffman" meets Rumors and Noises Off.

Look into it. PLEEEEEASE. I guarantee it's not overdone in your area, if done at all. It's simply awesome.

[PappyCat]

[Baker]

Romeo and Juliet
Much Ado About Nothing
A Midsummer Night's Dream
and we're working on Macbeth

My school only does musicals and Shakespeare plays. Hopefully they'll be more diverse next year, but I'll be gone by then. Most schools around here only do musicals, but there's one that only does plays. From what I remember, they've done The Crucible, Our Town, May The Farce Be With You, and a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream where they updated everything, including the dialogue. That might be another idea, to do a Shakespeare but rewrite it. If they're good at comedies, that might be a lot of fun.

(Except if they do Midsummer, don't do what this school did. They used a mask of Donkey from Shrek for when Bottom's head was transformed.)

Another one to look into is Klondike Kalamity, a really funny melodrama. It's very Dudley Doright-esque and has a cast of about 10.

[blue wind]

[Beagle On Stage]

Practically everyone has done "Our Town" in high school, but be forewarned that while it's a fairly simple show, mounting a production of it is a bigger task than it appears. Unless everyone is absolutely EXCELLENT, the first three-quarters of it can be boring as hell, especially for an audience of mostly sixteen-year-olds.

Middle school is certainly too young for "Inherit the Wind."

I'd love to hear about more people's high school "Mockingbird" productions, though. It really does surprise me how often it's done in high school, since it really does require the black people to be black and the white people to be white, and it's usually hard to work with that at the high school level.

[LaurelDP]

[UniquePerspective]

We've done:

The Good Doctor
Spoon River Anthology
A collection of Arthur Kopit one acts (The Conquest of Everest, Sing to me Through Open Windows, and Chamber Music)
The Real Inspector Hound
To Kill A Mockingbird

And more, of course, but these are the only five I know they did.

[LaurelDP]

[Beagle On Stage]

[star2ballie]

My schools plays since I've been around...working backwards:

Labors of Love (currently)
You Can't Take it With You*
Our Town
Once Upon a Playground*
Flowers for Algernon*
Selkie
Arsenic and Old Lace*
The Zen Substitute
Scapino!*
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

* = were very well recieved by the community. All of the shows were quality and well recieved, but the starred ones were serious crowd-pleasers.

[Annie]

Here are all the plays that I have seen mounted in the 3 years I've been in my program (in bold are the plays I was actually in):

The Dining Room
Finishing Touches
Measure for Measure
You Can't Take it With You
Uncle Vanya
The Little Foxes
The Beaux Stratagem

Jitters (!!!!!!!....see my previous post in this thread. PERFECT for high school)
The Heidi Chronicles
As You Like It
Pentecost (by David Edgar. AMAZING)
The Autumn Garden
The Madwoman of Chaillot (another BRILLIANT play. Would also work well in a high school. LOTS of characters!)
Orpheus Descending

The Cherry Orchard
Splendor in the Grass
Richard III
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Arcadia
The Manchurian Candidate
Joseph Andrews

[PappyCat]

Hey guys, I gotta have Authors on some of those... Some aren't obvious and googling some of the titles doesn't immediately bring it up!

I'd also appreciate a little something about the plays you reccommend (just one line on whats it about is sufficient!)

[star2ballie]

here is what i wrote but edited:


My schools plays since I've been around...working backwards:

Labors of Love (currently) - eh, it's okay. small cast, but it's a semi-musical so nahhh.
You Can't Take it With You* - Kaufman & Hart. It's one of the most produced plays or something like that...it's about an eccentric family and their one normal daughter who wants to marry a rich dude. It's hysterical and offers tons of great characters for high schoolers. I think it's a great show for high schools!
Our Town - Thorton Wilder. another popular show...if you google it you should figure it out. I personally love it, I just don't love when HS's do it.
Once Upon a Playground* - I think this is a one-act, so nevermind. It's an adorable show, though.
Flowers for Algernon* - David Rogers (based on the novel by Daniel Keys, I think is his name). http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/p508/Flowers-for-Algernon/product_info.html
Selkie - stupid one act show about seal people
Arsenic and Old Lace* - another classic. http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=1841
The Zen Substitute - funny but a challenge as it's kabuki theatre
Scapino!* - HILARIOUS. this was the year before i was in HS and i adored this show. [url]http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/p1319/Scapino!/product_info.html[/url]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

* = were very well recieved by the community. All of the shows were quality and well recieved, but the starred ones were serious crowd-pleasers.

This website may help you, too:

www.FINDaPLAY.com

[metaphor17]

The Last Night of Ballyhoo is a good one, too... it's pretty funny, especially if your school has some strong comedians/character actors. It has it's serious parts though.

DO NOT DO HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES. I have yet to see a high school production of it that wasn't TERRIBLE. I did see a professional production that was okay, but still not great... high schoolers in general just DO NOT get it. Neither do most parents, and it doesn't draw audiences.

Noises Off and The Crucible are always good bets. Our Town is overdone for schools.

[Kiwi]

Some that we've done in the past

Clue - you can just look up movie transcript i think, cuz that's what it is
The Nerd - Larry Shue
John Lennon and Me - Sherie Bennet
Twelfth Night (pretty much any shakespeare)
The Foreigner - Larry Shue
Barefoot in the Park (although I don't think you can do Niel Simon shows in high school anymore, but don't quote me on that)
Wait Until Dark - don't remember the author

[LittleRedLovesTheater]

I've done "It's A Wonderful Life" [Christmas classic] & "House of Blue Leaves" which is really dark comedy. I got to play a crazy nun who eventually gets blown up....yeah....

[Tumnus1031]

Hm...we don't do most of that mainstream stuff. (We read Our Town in English--it's soooo boring. Don't do it.) Here are some recent plays we've done:

Months on End - Ensemble cast of 10 that act out 12 scenes over the course of one year. It's a great play and covers a wide range of scenes, which are often performed on their own I've seen "October" and "March" done a lot. There's also two great monologues in it: "May" is a graduation speech that goes horribly wrong and "November" is the lead male's eulogy for his best friend who died of AIDS. It's kinda like RENT, but without the music and drugs. And there's only one guy with AIDS.

Picnic - Very passionate, romantic love story. Small cast of 11 that focuses on a small-town family and their friends after a Southern vagabond rolls into town and begins working for a neighbor. The set's the same throughout the entire play, and it's a great dramatic show, but I found the writing a tad...dull. That's just my opinion. It's something to think about.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - This was actually the Middle School play I did last year, but it was probably the most fun play I've done. Ever. I was Mr. Tumnus and I basically stole the show. However, it might be more suited to a middle school environment and it's a tad cheesy since there are obviously things in the book and movie that couldn't translate to stage well. I'd tell your director about it to perform for the Middle School, maybe?

Marvin's Room - This is a depressing play. It's about a woman caring for her dying father who gets leukemia and has to call her sister (whom she hasn't spoken to in years) and her two kids to come and test for a bone marrow transplant. Very depressing and requires some pretty talented actors to work well. But it's a beautiful show about family and that kind of stuff.

The Good Doctor - Funny Russian play by Chekov that's several funny scenes. They're all hysterical, and one in particular stood out: a crazy woman goes to the bank for a loan. I'd reccomend this one.

The Servant of Two Masters - Well, I don't remember this one considering I didn't see it, but it's basically slapstick comedy. Apparently it worked though; who knew Italians were so funny?[/b]

[EponineMNFF]

You know, even though Our Town is overdone for schools, there really is a good reason it's overdone. It creates such a great community and bonded cast, which is usually very ideal for a high school show.

My school basically only does plays (we do one musical every other year), these are the most recent ones.

Macbeth - This one sounded like a great idea because a lot of people know it and are interested in seeing it, but when you get down to it, the show is basically all about Macbeth and isn't that great for the other actors. I just finished a production where I was on stage for ten minutes, and then spent the rest of the time helping everyone else do their quick-changes because I had nothing else to do. All of the people who died/were in few scenes (me, Banquo, Lady and Young Macduff, etc.) got pretty tight though.

Our Town - See above. It was just a perfect show for my school. I didn't even LIKE the play before starting it.

The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard - This show was really fun for a small company. All of the roles are around the same size (Hound is considerably smaller and Simon dies fairly early), but they all offer REALLY fun scenes and they're all basically leads.

Pericles - Worst. Show. Ever. Don't do it. Seriously. Don't do it. There's a reason why it's considered one of Shakespeare's worst plays. Because it is. Don't do it.

The Odyssey by Mary Zimmerman - This play is fantastic for high schools. It has a LOT of roles and needs a very strong ensemble.

Other ones I have seen my school do:

Secret in the Wings by Mary Zimmerman - This one was a fantastic production. I'm not familiar with the original format, but I heard there are only like six roles or something. They broke them apart, and it ended up making a perfect ensemble show.

Metomorphoses by Mary Zimmerman - Yeah. We love Mary Zimmerman. This was another really great ensemble show.

Right now, the middle schoolers are doing A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (I don't know who adapted it), but I've heard that it's been going really well.

[allygator]

At my school in the last few years, we've done:
The Green Bird (Carlo Gozzi)
Metamophoses (Mary Zimmerman)
Reckless (Craig Lucas)
The Yellow Boat (David Saar)
WASP (Steve Martin)
some one-act Alice in Wonderland
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail (Jerome Lawrence)
The Laramie Project (Moises Kaufman et al)

...and probably some others that I'm forgetting.

Reckless was really, really great for our school... but, as it's Craig Lucas, is clearly not for everyone.

[LaurelDP]

Allie mentioned Scapino... That is also a popular one around here. I've never seen it, but hear it is hilarious.

[musictheatre00]

[Beagle On Stage]

I don't especially like it either, but it is very well suited for a high school production. A good variety of fun roles, and material that is interesting but not above the abilities of the students. Plus one set and relatively simple costuming.

[EponineMNFF]

Oh right! The Laramie Project!

That one was REALLY popular! It was one of those shows that became a legend in my school. It's a great option.

[Beagle On Stage]

Not for all schools, though. That show is controversy waiting to happen. That may be appropriate for some, but it's NOT a good option by and large.

[Gwen]

[NoOneMournsTheWicked]

While I was there, my school did:

A Streetcar Named Desire
You Can't Take It With You
Shel's Shorts

and this year they did The Exonerated, which was amazing.

[Beagle On Stage]

"Streetcar" is great, but I think high schools should use it really carefully. Most teenagers don't have the goods for Blanche or Stanley. Same with "Cat." Total classics, but I'm a big fan of waiting until you're truly ready for a role, as opposed to doing everything by the time you graduate and being disappointed years later that you were pretty mediocre when you got your chance to do a really spectacular role. No matter how good you may be, there are so many roles that you're just nowhere near ready to do justice to at sixteen.