When I was in high school we did a little know Neil Simon play called "Fools" about a town cursed with stupidity. Hysterical!! I played the female lead.
"I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tightrope dancer, so that no incompetent would dare step upon it." Goethe
"Barefoot in the Park" is extremely fun to do. If you have a more advanced theatre program, I recommend "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" by Steve Martin or "Savage in Limbo" by John Patrick Shanley. Both great plays.
We recently performed "You Can't Take It With You" at my high school, and it was hilarious, good fun. The cast all enjoyed it, and the audience loved it.
I can't remember the author, but "Black Comedy", if you can find it, is another funny one. It requires some skilled people to work lights, but the cast is simple and the show is funny.
I also second You Can't Take It With You and Lend Me A Tenor, my school did both, very funny!
We also did Harvey...I dunno, it seems like it shouldn't be for HS but I was production assistant...and we had sooo much fun in that show. It is quite long and needs to be shrunken, and might not have appealed to audiences so much but I really love it. Probably being biased, the two above prob are a little more appropriate for High school in terms of at least appeal.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
Our Town is a classic that is very popular in high schools. Some Shakespeare comedies can work as well, especially the "ensemble" ones with lots of good parts like Midsummer Night's Dream.
I would steer clear of Greek tragedy. When I was in high school, we tried Antigone and it wasn't very popular with anyone, even the large number of people studying Latin and Greek.
"WHEN is the winter of our discontent?"
"NOW is the winter of our discontent!"
Visit My Blog
if you want a comedy, try "the curious savage." we did it last spring at our high school and it was hilarious. the ending is also very sweet. "the miser" is also a good bet.
the problem with our town by wilder is that to many high school audiences it is too boring. also the problem with shakespeare is that unless the cast is open to an analytical approach to the production, a lot of the true greatness of shakespeare would be lost. with that said, i would suggest doing the play star-spangled girl from simon. its a 3 person cast, and the characters work well together
"The stage is where I live and come alive and act out all the things that go on in my life. It's not just what I do for a living, it's my shrink and my love affair. No one in my life has ever or ever will kiss me on the mouth like this lover called my relationship with my performance."
If done well, Shakespeare does work. I did A Midsummer Night's Dream in 11th grade, and the audiences ate it up. It was pretty hard for even the cast to keep from laughing.
My school recently did "Seussical the Musical". It was so much fun to be in it. We cut the song A Day For the Cat in the Hat and part of Havin a Hunch. It's a cool show to perform.