good plays to read in high school

If youre in search of comedic contemporary plays, Clybourne Park fits the bill it racked up Tony, Olivier, and Pulitzer awards. Best Characters:Dorine (the spritely comic maid) and Tartuffe for sheer hilarity. For its off-Broadway revival, we described John Cariani's play about the denizens of a small town in northern Maine as "the ideal play for high school." Particularly the narrator who is never actually given a name. (This is the story where a man accidentally kills his father and marries his mother.). A blood feud prevents them from publicly announcing their relationship, so they get married in secret. There are still plenty of good antics worthy of a laugh, but it concerns itself largely with a young boys attempt to escape severe family dysfunction and the moral implications of his taking an escaped slave as a companion on his adventure down the Mississippi River. Cost of Living explores the experiences of two physically disabled people, but dont expect an uplifting story of triumph the plot is firmly grounded in reality, with all of its uncomfortable and distressing truths. Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice follows a family with five daughters, all unwed, and all, due to English customs of the late 1700s and early 1800s, in need of wedding. George and Marthas relationship quickly reveals a deep animosity they hold toward each other stemming from a hidden truth that has festered for too long. Instead, the students at the public arts high school would perform Anton Chekovs play The Seagull, which principal Tina Wilson wrote in an email to families was more His friend, Algernon, becomes interested in Cecily and travels to the country to visit her, taking on the name Ernest. Of the five daughters, Elizabeth is the focus of the novel, though the others are discussed aplenty. But the reality of the three- Donny, the oafish junk shop owner; Bobby, a young junkie Donny has taken under his wing and Teach, a violently paranoid braggart- is that they are merely pawns caught up in their own game of last-chance, dead-end, empty pipe dreams. Samuel French On the advice of his pastor, he leaves Lincoln and ventures out into the wide world for the first time, landing in London. A Snow White Christmas. In this book, Orwell tells a story that warns readers about the possible consequences of complacency in the face of rising dictators (think Hitler and Stalin) and burgeoning technology ripe for misuse. Meanwhile, Harpagon is obsessed with a box full of money in his backyard, afraid that everyone who comes to see him is on a mission to steal it. Though her father approves of the match, Othellos confident, Iago, becomes jealous of Othellos promotion and conspires against Othello with Rodrigo, a man who lusts after Desdemona. As the title character returns from a second tour in Iraq at age 19, he discovers how his trauma parallels that of his father and grandfather. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" "Peter and the Starcatcher" "Alice in Wonderland" "Our Town" In the musical category, "Beauty and the Beast" climbed to the top, edging out last Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball leagues who now works as a garbage man in 1957 Pittsburgh. The staunchly Midwestern Weston family seems normal on the surface. He feels obligated to his family but also burdened by their existence. Its not meant to be an outrageous comedy; rather, Albee explores human proclivities with distressing honesty. Many of the plays can also be modified to accommodate larger or smaller casts, depending on the need of your drama club. The book adopts a gentle, subtle tone, and yet it is not afraid to delve into very explicit and challenging topics related to the bombings. In the end, Everyman learns that when he dies and steps before God, he is alone with only Good Deeds by his side. When Juliet finds out she has to marry a guy she doesnt really know, she takes a sleeping potion, making her family think shes dead. Amy Tans novel, The Joy Luck Club, deals with intergenerational and intercultural questions. (Or awarded a Tony, for that matter) Thats up to you to decide. is an unexpected offering from Edward Albee. Almost, Maine has one of the most unusual stories of any contemporary play. Mary Shelley wrote this Gothic thriller in the early 1800s, and yet we remain fascinated by this tale of playing God and facing the consequences. Playwright: Heidi SchreckLicensing: Concord Theatricals. The body of Quinns brother, who disappeared after Quinn left the group, has turned up, and the IRA wants to avoid any accusations. The story revolves around the last days of Willy Loman, a failing salesman, who cannot understand how he failed to win success and happiness. Your registration has been updated. An award-winning romantic comedy that imagines Tom and Huck as gay sixteen-year-olds, trapped in the 1850s in St. Petersburg, Missouri. Graduating obviously! Each of our picks was written after 2000; youll find the date after each title, as well as a link to the license. He decides to learn to practice magic and summons a demon named Mephistopheles and promises his soul to the devil for 24 years. Caryl Churchill cleverly uses four chatty, retired British women as the voice that warns of the coming apocalypse. His friend, Algernon, becomes interested in Cecily and travels to the country to visit her, taking on the name Ernest. Natasha, a local woman, has hopes of a better future for herself. Best Character: Iago for being one of the most villainous characters ever to grace the stage. score: 5,961 , and 61 people voted. Quinn, a former soldier in the Irish Republican Army, receives a menacing visit from an IRA leader. Soon afterward, the Prince of Corinth, Oedipus, who had left his home, faced the Sphinx and read her riddle. Its bizarre but entertaining, though the revelation of the womens darkest secrets seems like an unnecessary addition to an already interesting show. Its a true account of the life of one Jewish girl during the Holocaust, and, while Anne Frank wrote some passages with publication in mind, others she did not. WebJoyous and fun for schools, churches and families with traditional Christmas songs that everyone can sing and enjoy. Play #2: Burlington nails buzzer beater against South Burlington. Whether you prefer manga or ancient, epic poems, reading is great for all Or did Miller presciently predict the popular social media pastime of public shaming? 3.74 avg rating 2,424,993 ratings. When reviewing the 2013 Broadway production for the New York Post, Elisabeth Vincentelli commented, this is the kind of full-on comedy thats sadly rare on Broadway and we couldnt agree more! The power of the writing was clear from the start; August: Osage County won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for drama and ran for nearly two years on Broadway. Playwright: Lulu RaczkaPublisher: Bloomsbury. Its a fascinating and engaging tale that offers a slightly lighter, yet still tragic, perspective. Text Survey is another powerful pre-reading activity for high school students because it teaches them how to identify the value of the text before reading it. 2. It tells the story of a small town where a black man has been falsely accused of raping a white woman. Hall, who also wrote the book for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, was inspired by her brother a Black, gay man living life in the south. A total of six schools across Bucks are currently ranked as 'inadequate' by inspectors. WebEverything You Always Wanted to Know about Middle School (but were too busy being stuffed in a locker to ask)Werner Trieschmann. The Prozorov sisters, Olga, Masha, and Irina, dream of freedom, sex, romance and Moscow. These are the plays every high school thespian is dying to star in. (This is the story where a man accidentally kills his father and marries his mother.) Playwright: Roy WilliamsLicensing: Concord Theatricals (UK). Summary: Set in the summer home of the Tyrone family during 1912. considerable noun advantage, benefit noun morality synonyms for good Compare Synonyms acceptable The treatment? and Titania fall in love with a boastful actor named Bottom who Puck turns into a donkey. 25. Brutus experiences a moral dilemma, torn between killing his friend and allowing Caesar to take the throne and possibly harm the people of Rome. Orgasms. Daniel Keyes writes a very warm and human form of science fiction in Flowers for Algernon. I am always saying Glad tove met you to somebody Im not at all glad I met. People who grow up in a family with an unbalanced power dynamic often wonder what it would be like if the hierarchy was inverted. She later worked as a professional tutor. (Not an actual representation of Janie. Weve also included a summary and our favorite character(s) from each. With a cast of just three, Blackbird is intimate and intense. Jeremy O. Harris shot to fame with Slave Play; with Daddy, he seems determined to shock audiences. You might remember Quiara Alegra Hudes from her play Eliot, a Soldiers Fugue; in this follow-up, she again tackles the struggles of soldiers returning from war. The matriarch of the family, Mary, returns from a sanitorium where she has attempted (although unsuccessfully) to combat her morphine addiction. Beyond even that, though, reading has an array of crucial purposes. The premise of The Hot Wing King is simple; Cordell is out to win an annual hot wing competition in Memphis. Part autobiography, part history lesson, part social commentary, What the Constitution Means to Me is one of the most unusual contemporary plays on our list. The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. You will grow, empathetically and intellectually. Motivated by greed and ambition (and his power-hungry wife), Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne for himself. If you can read through these 30-odd books before you graduate high school, you'll be in a good shape, from a literary perspective. The protagonist, Esther, a stand-in for Plath herself, is a college student exploring her talents, interests, and sexuality as she descends into an unsettling spiral of mental instability. The hero Best Character: Troy for conflict between his son and his unrealized dream of pro ball. Edmund for intelligence, grace, and personal struggle with family. Ideally, it would be a straight play (no musicals), a cast of about 12-20, and a male lead. Playwright: Suzan-Lori ParksLicensing: Concord Theatricals. When done correctly, audiences have been known to laugh until tears well in their eyes. 25 Plays all High School Seniors Should Read (Before They Graduate) Part 1 : PerformerStuff More Good Stuff It appears that you are outside of North America. You know whats great about being a high school senior? Sarah DeLappe's critically acclaimed play about a girls' soccer team is perfect for a drama club It tells the story of everyday life and death in the small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, during the early part of the last century. In Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart, readers encounter a complex and beautifully rendered examination of life with the Igbo tribe in Africa, both before and after the white mans interference. In a Chicago junk shop three small time crooks plot to rob a man of his coin collection, the showpiece of which is a valuable Buffalo nickel. A further Best Character: Nora for inspiring feminists everywhere. Our leading lady is Jennifer, a young, agoraphobic tech whiz whos afraid to leave her room. The books are presented in alphabetical order, and a short description is given for each book, as well an explanation of why it is worth reading. Enjoy live events at insider prices. As you work long hours at this tedious job, a man called a lector reads aloud to you from the front of the room. Witty and charmingly outlandish, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow offers a fresh, surprisingly insightful take on the human vs. technology theme. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley explores themes similar to those found in Orwells 1984. Are you both a reader and interested in becoming a doctor? This is contemporary theater at its most challenging: intentionally disjointed, full-on, and alternately hilarious and heartbreaking.Playwright: Alice BirchLicensing: Concord Theatricals. Check out our guide to AP Literature for tips on preparing for the exam. She deftly integrates the social and political context of the time, offering insights into the attitudes and behaviors of her characters. He writes about the atrocities humans commit upon each other, and he also mixes in a number of other concerns, some heavy, some light, such as death, aliens, and the ability to see other points in time, past or future. Brutus sides with Cassius and the other betrayers. In one of the most famous scenes in theatre, Brutus stabs Caesar on the floor of the Senate on the 15th of March the Ides of March. Its one of those modern plays thats so easy to watch that the raw moments hit you that much harder. While there is nothing wrong with ANY OF THESE CHOICES, here are three plays that we dont teach as often but make fantastic selections for high school students. Mary tells her grandmother the lie, swearing it to be true, and when her grandmother calls the other girls parents, the lie spins so out of control that it destroys the lives of the two women forever. Algernon, Ernest, Cecily, and Gwendolyn are four lovers caught up in a confusing game of false names and identities. Was this read? The title might be pithy, but A Girl in School Uniform (Walks Into A Bar) is anything but a comedy. Push through the discomfort, and its not hard to see why this play was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2009. Oberon and his faithful servant, Puck, cause trouble when Puck accidentally makes Lysander and. Theres madness (real and feigned), murder, suicide, treason, and a lot of waffling over the right course of action. Lots of modern plays tell war stories, but they usually use a human perspective. After the four lovers enter the woods on a moonlit night, they get lost in a kingdom ruled by Queen Titania and King Oberon, lady and lord of the fairies. Playwright: Jackie Sibblies DruryLicensing: Dramatists Play Service. Webfloating light bulb. Add in a cleaning lady who can see the future, and you have the recipe for a good time. Sense and Sensibility hbspt.cta.load(360031, '4efd5fbd-40d7-4b12-8674-6c4f312edd05', {}); Have any questions about this article or other topics? The Wolves Best Character: Everyman for character journey and endless options for character development. Playwright: Quiara Alegra HudesLicensing: Dramatists Play Service, A corporate collapse might not seem like fertile fodder for a play, but Enron takes it on with glee. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia, and because he must keep killing in order to maintain his rule, the guilt and paranoia persist. competent, skilled adj. Salinger. The oft-encountered quote, "Big Brother is watching," finds its origin in this novel. She became a central figure in the Berlin gay community. Valre, Marianes original fiance, struggles to regain the hand of his true love Mariane with the help of Elmire, Orgons second wife. Best Character: Harpagon (a character role) for pure fun. Each will transform the Prozorov family. Playwright: Young Jean leeLicensing: Dramatists Play Service, The all-male Take Me Out tells the story of baseball player Darren Lemming. He tells people that he has a reckless wanton younger brother in London named Ernest. Ophelia from Hamlet, Irina from Three Sisters, or Lysistrata from well Lysistrata. Playwright: Christopher DurangLicensing: Dramatists Play Service, Madeleine George explores the Watsons of the world as in Sherlock Holmes trusty assistant and the roles they play in the most important developments in human history. Doctor Faustus, a well-respected scholar, becomes bored with traditional methods of acquiring knowledge intensestudy of medicines, law, and religion and yearns for something more. 59 Best Musicals for High School: The Ultimate List, 21 Contemporary Legit Soprano Musical Theatre Songs. In For Colored Girls, Ntozake Shange creates choreopoetry (poetry meant to be performed with movement and dance) that covers important themes of race, gender, abuse, and perseverance. Best Character: Tom Wingfield for one of the most interesting sets of monologues ever delivered in modern theatre. When youre in the right headspace, its a rich and rewarding journey. Playwright David Henry Hwang calls Yellow Face an unreliable memoir. The story blends reality and fiction, following a character named DHH as he writes a play and protests the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Engineer in Miss Saigon something that actually happened in 1991. Stay abreast of discount offers for great theater, on Broadway or in select cities. Set in the Creole culture of the late 1800s, this novel by Kate Chopin details one womans process of becoming aware of herself. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans: buying a liquor store and being his own man. The middle sister, Masha, for wit, intelligence, and a biting sense of humor. Anne Franks published diary is different from a typical literary work. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Summary: This epochal drama of marriage and the individual portrays a controlling husband, Torvald Helmer, and his wife, Nora, a submissive young woman who, when their idealized homelife collapses, comes to the realization that she must finally close the door on her husband, children, and life in a dolls house in order to find and live as her true self. Samuel French F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby a novel that in many ways closely reflected his own experience. Best Character: Biff Loman for a strong conflict between his personal goals and what his father wants. The Odyssey deals with human interactions with the gods, bringing up questions of righteousness, wrongdoing, and pride as well as ideas of faithfulness and patience. 3. The Skyview boys will play Tumwater at 1:30 p.m. and the Adna boys will play Chief Leschi at 4:30 p.m. A Central 2B League contest between No. A medieval English morality play that has the capability to be performed in any time period. It will help improve your grades and test scores. Summary: While Thebes was under the rule of King Laus and Queen Jocasta, a strange and monstrous Sphinx appeared. This is not a play for the faint of heart it follows the meeting of a predator and his victim, now grown up. The play takes place in four acts over the course of one day, and its a beautiful doozy of a play. This story follows a Danish prince whose father has died and whose mother has almost instantly married the fathers brother. Gertrudes son, Hamlet, takes serious issue with this change, goes a little nuts, and puts his trust in his best friend, Horatio, and two friends from school, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. This sequel to Mark Twains The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is much graver in nature than its predecessor. The novel examines the balance between self-respect and selfishness. Oedipus isnt the central figure; instead, the story focuses on Mellie, a woman with a disability that has alienated the gods and the town of Thebes. While marriage is one of the central ideas in the novel, there are plenty of other themes to be picked apart, including ones that touch on pride, prejudice, first impressions, love, misunderstanding, and manipulation. 365 Days/365 Plays isnt a single modern play as you might guess from the name, its a collection of 365 plays. Playwright: Alan BennettLicensing: Concord Theatricals. He throws on the run well and shows good touch on throws down the field. It's no wonder that Almost, Maine regularly tops the list of most-produced high school plays. Gertrudes son, Hamlet, takes serious issue with this change, goes a little nuts, and puts his trust in his best friend, Horatio, and two friends from school, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet, Horatio, and Ophelia for strong characters having to deal with. Siblings (and roommates) Vanya and Sonias dull Chekhovian life is tossed upside down when their famous sister Masha comes to visit with her much younger (and much dumber) boyfriend Spike. Help improve your grades and test scores our leading lady is Jennifer, a local woman, has other:... Behaviors of her characters male lead Huck as gay sixteen-year-olds, trapped in the Irish Army... That warns of the plays every high School thespian is dying to star in of high. The Ultimate List, 21 contemporary Legit Soprano Musical Theatre songs where a black has! The field the play takes place in four acts over the course of one day, and Irina, of... Baseball player Darren Lemming and endless options for Character journey and endless options for Character journey and endless options Character... ', { } ) ; have any questions about this article other! School: the Ultimate List, 21 contemporary Legit Soprano Musical Theatre songs that,! 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