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Nothing energizes a highschool theater division like an upcoming play! Get younger actors, backstage crew members, and stage managers amped for this season in drama with a number of basic and distinctive performs for highschool.
From small one-act performs to epic ensemble musicals, we’ve compiled an inspirational record of memorable performs for top schoolers. You’ll additionally discover assets for managing the manufacturing course of and instructing college students the fundamentals of theater (hiya, improv video games and blocking workouts!).
Spectacular Exhibits for Small Casts
It may be difficult for smaller theater departments to search out good performs for highschool college students. Showcase their abilities with these small-but-mighty performances that decision for 10 or fewer roles, plus the flexibleness to construct out a modest ensemble (or have actors double their elements in some circumstances). For abridged or modified variations of the performs, search for the teenager variations.
- The 39 Steps (4 roles, 2 hours): A homicide thriller takes major character Richard by means of an adventurous manhunt throughout the nation.
- A Doll’s Home (6 roles, 110 minutes): A spouse breaks away from her controlling husband looking for her identification.
- Virtually, Maine (4 roles, 2 hours): 9 brief performs discover love and loss in a small city.
- Animal Farm (7 roles, 105 minutes): Cattle overthrow their human chief and create a corrupt society.
- The Curious Incident of the Canine within the Evening-Time (10 roles, 2 hours 20 minutes): A boy with autism makes an attempt to resolve the homicide of his neighbor’s canine.
- The Glass Menagerie (4 roles, 2 hours): A dysfunctional household struggles with unfulfilled objectives and disappointments.
- Launch Day (Love Tales From the 12 months 2108) (10 roles, 90 minutes): Two-actor scenes present advanced relationships in a high-tech romantic comedy.
- The Odd Couple (8 roles, 1 hour 45 minutes): Mismatched roommates be taught to get alongside regardless of their many variations.
- Peter and the Starcatcher (12 roles, 2.5 hours): A prequel to the story of Peter Pan, the play exhibits acquainted characters in new conditions.
- She Kills Monsters (9 roles, 105 minutes): Agnes discovers the magic of her late sister’s Dungeons and Dragons fantasy world.
Lengthen your highschool play right into a full theater unit
From the stage to the classroom, any play is a instructing alternative. Use your upcoming highschool play to show the fundamentals of theater and drama to new actors or ELA college students.
The Odd Couple Play Research Unit — 3 Full Weeks of Actions & Efficiency!
By From Web page to Stage
Grades: Ninth-Twelfth
Topics: Drama, English Language Arts
In the event you’re planning a manufacturing of The Odd Couple, this useful resource is simply what you want! Created for an introductory drama class, the play research unit equips starting actors with instruments to memorize traces, block their scenes, and take part in characterization apply and actions.
Lavishly Giant Performs for Excessive Faculty
For theater departments with numerous curiosity and much more expertise, performs with bigger casts are simply the appropriate match. Select a bigger efficiency piece with 15 roles or extra, and provides others an opportunity by crafting ensembles of various sizes.
- Arsenic and Previous Lace (15 roles, 3 hours): Two aged girls poison previous males of their group on this Black comedy.
- Clue (20 elements, 90 minutes): This basic homicide thriller combines darkish comedy with theater intrigue and drama.
- The Crucible (20 roles, 2.5 hours): Teenagers in Seventeenth-century Salem accuse fellow townspeople of witchcraft.
- Entrance (18 roles, 2 hours): Households persevere throughout wartime in a dramatic exploration of World Conflict II.
- A Midsummer Evening’s Dream (21 roles, 2 hours): In Shakespeare’s basic comedy, a fairy impacts romantic entanglements earlier than they attain a cheerful ending.
- The Outsiders (18 roles, 2 hours): Teenage gang members flee a killing and attempt to keep alive on the run.
- Stage Door (20 roles, 90 minutes): Younger girls come to New York in pursuit of their performing goals on this entertaining comedy.
- Treasure Island (22 roles, 2 hours): A teen boy takes up a pirate life with the notorious Lengthy John Silver in a swashbuckling journey story.
- Twelve Indignant Jurors (15 roles, 75 minutes): A contemporary tackle the basic Twelve Indignant Males, this gender-inclusive play explores guilt, accountability, and the fashionable authorized system.
- You Can’t Take It With You (16 roles, 2 hours 20 minutes): Cash and way of life threaten to separate Alice and her boss, Tony, on this well-known comedy.
Memorable Musicals with Smaller Casts
Does your smaller theater class like to sing? Make their stage goals come true with musicals which can be excellent for casts of below 15 gamers. Be at liberty to construct out ensembles should you’ve received sufficient curiosity to make your present actually shine!
- The twenty fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (9 roles, 100 minutes): Six college students navigate the world of spelling bees within the pursuit of the large trophy.
- Be Extra Chill (10 roles, 2 hours): Jeremy discovers a supercomputer that can provide him the whole lot he desires on this fashionable musical.
- Dreamgirls (8 roles, 2 hours): Three Black feminine singers pursue their goals of fame in a musical impressed by Nineteen Sixties Motown.
- Hadestown (6 roles, 2 hours): A retelling of the parable of Orpheus and Eurydice takes audiences by means of a journey of affection, hope, and loss.
- Little Girls (10 roles, 2 hours): 4 sisters develop up amidst social requirements and life classes in post-Civil Conflict New England.
- Little Store of Horrors (8 roles, 2 hours): Seymour, a shy floral assistant, grapples with a hard plant in a theater-favorite comedy musical.
- As soon as on This Island (10 roles, 2 hours): A peasant woman faces prejudice and finds love after rescuing a wealthy boy on a Caribbean Island.
- Trip the Cyclone (7 roles, 90 minutes): Six youngsters have an opportunity to return to life after a deadly accident on a curler coaster.
- Tick, Tock…Growth! (3 roles, 90 minutes): A composer examines his life and friendships in a journey of creative self-discovery.
- You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (6 roles, 2 hours): Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang come to life in a revue of the basic caricature and its characters.
Breathtaking Musicals with Huge Casts
When it’s time for the large faculty musical, it’s all concerning the ensemble. Placed on a spellbinding present with giant casts and in depth ensembles that get everybody within the viewers singing alongside! Some musicals could also be out there as abridged or edited teen editions.
- Magnificence and the Beast (16 roles, 2.5 hours): A younger girl falls in love with a prince cursed to life within the type of a beast.
- Chicago (19 roles, 90 minutes): A jazz singer and a starstruck ingénue are arrested for homicide and change into movie star criminals behind bars.
- Into the Woods (17 roles, 2.5 hours): This whimsical musical connects many fairy tales and their characters in a posh journey towards togetherness.
- Mamma Mia! (12 roles, 2.5 hours): The daughter of a hotelier invitations the three males who may very well be her father to her upcoming wedding ceremony.
- Matilda (21 roles, 2 hours): An excellent younger pupil will get revenge on her merciless dad and mom and evil principal.
- Newsies (30 roles, 2 hours): Newsboys in 1899 type a union and strike towards the grasping publishers who’re elevating their prices.
- Faculty of Rock (28 roles, 2 hours): A struggling musician poses as a trainer and varieties a band along with his proficient college students.
- The SpongeBob Musical (16 roles, 2 hours): SpongeBob Squarepants should save his underwater house from a volcanic menace.
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Avenue (9 roles, 2 hours): A Nineteenth-century barber takes revenge on those that wronged him.
- Urinetown (18 roles, 2.5 hours): This apocalyptic musical satirizes a authorities through which residents should pay to make use of the restroom.
One-Act Performs for Excessive Faculty
One-act performs are excellent for theater showcases, end-of-the-year performances, or theater courses that need to get only one extra present on the calendar. Check out these widespread one-act performs for highschool that may really feel simply as dramatic and breathtaking as their full-length counterparts.
- 10 Methods to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse (7-25 roles, 35 minutes): 4 buddies use a how-to record to outlive a zombie apocalypse.
- 12 Indignant Villains (14 roles, half-hour): In a comedic tackle Twelve Indignant Males, this fairy-tale themed play places twelve villains in control of Peter Pan’s destiny.
- The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon (5-20 roles, 35 minutes): This one-act play is a fast and entertaining exploration of all 209 fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm.
- The Day the Web Died (25 roles, half-hour): On the day the web goes out, buddies and households discover ways to get by means of life with out their screens.
- The Diary of Anne Frank (13 roles, 75 minutes): A brief play dramatizes elements of the well-known diary of Anne Frank, together with her adolescence hiding from Nazis in an annex.
- A Evening Underneath the Stars (17 roles, 45 minutes): Characters seeking to escape their regular lives bond and discover life below the celebs.
- Queens (15 roles, 45 minutes): King Henry VII is haunted in demise by his wives and mistresses for his misdeeds in life.
- The One-Act Play That Goes Fallacious (8 roles, 75 minutes): A play-within-a-play options an ill-fated whodunnit and the actors making an attempt to place it on.
- Tracks (10 roles, 40 minutes): Ten folks arrive in a subway station after they’ve died to resolve whether or not they need to get on the prepare or not.
- A Wrinkle in Time (17 roles, 50 minutes): Meg challenges the boundaries of society and time to avoid wasting her father and humanity.
Sources to Train Play Manufacturing
The Nationwide Core Artwork Requirements for theater element the significance of pupil participation within the play manufacturing course of. Whether or not you’re coaching new actors or serving to drama college students with their ardour tasks, these class assets can streamline and standardize the best way you run a play.
Grasp monologues and talking on stage
Do your excessive schoolers have a case of stage fright? Assist them really feel comfy and assured on stage by working towards monologues and in-class performances earlier than they ever enter the theater.
Appearing Monologue Efficiency Unit for Junior Excessive / Excessive Faculty Drama (Low Prep)
By A lot Ado About Drama
Grades: Eighth-Eleventh
Topics: Artwork, Drama, English Language Arts
A monologue efficiency unit turns apprehensive actors into practiced performers in simply ten classes. This low-prep useful resource contains warm-ups, discussions, and performing actions that concentrate on vocal exploration and character goals to get college students comfy with being on stage.
Handle the route course of from begin to end
The very best performs for highschool are essentially the most organized ones! Maintain everybody on monitor, together with the trainer, by planning out your play price range, calendar, auditions, and rehearsal schedule.
Bundle: Play & Musical Manufacturing – Excessive Faculty Drama Supplies
By Students on Stage
Grade: Sixth-Twelfth
Topic: Drama
Take a play manufacturing from audition to closing curtain with a bundle of highschool drama supplies. With useful templates, a manufacturing calendar, price range assets, rehearsal studies, and trainer/director guides for each step of the manufacturing, this useful resource is simply what any highschool class must hold the drama on the stage and out of the preparation course of.
Educate and adorn with drama classroom posters
Theater is artwork, so shouldn’t you may have some theater artwork in your classroom? Use instructional drama posters at school or backstage to remind college students of theater fundamentals.
Roles in Theater, Theatre Hierarchy, Manufacturing Roles | Drama Classroom Posters
By Delightfully Dramatic
Topics: Artwork, Drama
In the event you’ve received house in your partitions between all of the musical and play posters, use a theater function poster to ascertain the right hierarchy of a typical play manufacturing. Accessible in shiny colours or black and white, the poster lets everybody know who they report back to, who studies to them, and who will get to make the ultimate name on a artistic determination.
Extra Excessive Faculty Theater Class Actions
Want extra methods to bulk up theater college students’ abilities and understanding? Discover methods to infuse theater fundamentals into your classroom instruction, together with improv video games, the historical past of Greek theater, and staging fundamentals.
Host a reader’s theater for drama fundamentals
A well-liked option to deal with CCSS for English language arts, reader’s theater actions are a mixture of studying and theater fundamentals. Use this instructing methodology to strengthen literary evaluation abilities and drama fundamentals in theater and ELA courses.
Reader’s Theater Script | Greek Roots | Drama by Educating and Motivating Teenagers
By Educating and Motivating Teenagers
Grade: Seventh-Tenth
Topics: Shut Studying, Drama, English Language Arts
Requirements: CCSS RL.8.1, 2, 3, 4, 6, RL.9-10.1, 2, 3, 4, 6; CCRA.R.1, SL.6, L.1, 2, 3, 4, 6
Splendid for each theater and ELA courses, this useful resource introduces college students to the basics of Greek drama, together with hubris, hamartia, Greek refrain, and poetic justice. They research widespread Greek root phrases earlier than performing an authentic reader’s theater script, then analyze the expertise and their half in it.
Train characterization and blocking earlier than a present
Bored with calling “Discover a window!” to your theater college students? Join characterization and blocking so that they perceive extra about their character’s motivation, and subsequently, their onstage placement.
9 Quick Scenes for Characterization and Blocking
By ShowStopper Theatre Sources
Grades: Sixth-Twelfth
Characterization and blocking might be difficult to grasp for brand new and skilled actors alike! Make these abilities extra accessible for top schoolers with a collection of brief scenes that every one start with the road “You’ve received to be kidding!” Scholar teams create their very own characters and work to dam their scenes earlier than performing in entrance of the category.
All of the World’s a (Excessive Faculty) Stage
There’s nothing like highschool theater season, whether or not you’re performing a two-student present or an enormous all-department musical. Discover extra highschool drama assets to make this theater season the most effective one but. For extra methods to get drama college students pondering creatively, check out writing prompts for highschool that work for younger actors.
