<p>The drama teacher at my school has said that he's not going to be directing the school play this year so it's basically up to the students' initiative to get the play running. We're trying to decide what plays, or even a musical, that we could do.</p>
<p>This is really hard because my school has no drama department, and it's a private school, very centered around academics, so it would have to be a small play or musical, with more female roles than male.</p>
<p>Since this is a thread about theatre, can anyone suggest possible plays or musicals that fit the bills?</p>
<p>Have you tried <a href=“http://www.mtishows.com%5B/url%5D”>www.mtishows.com</a>. I don’t know what your budget is, but you can get a lot of ideas for musicals at this website.</p>
<p>My son’s high school has “Shakespearience”. Every year this entirely student run, directed and funded program is great fun. They usually take a play and twist it, such as the Glam Rock version of As You Like It was great. You can have actors playing multiple roles.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I was actually checking out the website that noccamtmom suggested and I came across the show Putnam County Spelling Bee. I remember seeing it in New York a couple years ago and I loved it-- fairly simple cast, VERY funny show. However I tried searching other high school productions of it and nothing came up… </p>
<p>Are the rights not available for this show? How does one acquire the rights?</p>
<p>I’m not totally set on this show, I’m just wondering. If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to chime in.</p>
<p>You haven’t seen any high school productions because it was just released a month ago. (We’ve booked it for July.) Go here to request a license:</p>
<p>Do you have people who are at least okay with dialects? If so, I’ve seen some high school groups do surprisingly well with “Dancing at Lughnasa” and “The Women of Lockerbie.” Then there’s always the old standby, “The Trojan Women.”</p>
<p>Straight plays are of course much easier than musicals if you don’t have a lot of support. If you did a musical, who would be the musical director? The choreographer? Etc.</p>
<p>Do you have a LOT of girls who want to be cast members? One straight play with a lot of females is “Stage Door” (set in the 1930s but not the exact same story as the Katherine Hepburn movie). </p>
<p>Another fun play where you don’t have to have too many men is “The Matchmaker” (the play upon which the musical “Hello Dolly” is based). </p>
<p>A good musical with lots of female parts is “Smile.”</p>
<p>Any of the above would have affordable rights.</p>
<p>Spelling Bee is a terrific show, with a small cast and simple set & costumes. I should warn you, though, that the music is quite difficult, both in terms of the vocals and instrumentals. You might look at “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” as a possibility if you are really interested in a musical – it can be quite simple in terms of sets and costumes, and the music is a bit simpler.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize Spelling Bee was so difficult, musically. Would it be hard to really do it well? I just chose it because my school hasn’t done a musical in years, so I thought it would be fairly simple to produce, and it’s pretty funny, too.</p>
<p>NJTheatreMom: A teacher at my school recommended a former colleague of his that teaches drama and is a professional playwright and director. We’re bringing him in to help direct this, since he’s done many musicals before.</p>
<p>Canada, if you haven’t already done so, it would probably really be a good idea to have a talk with the person who is going to help direct. He might be able to provide guidance on what would be a good musical to do.</p>
<p>Oh…you might also want to start a thread about this over on the MT forum.</p>