The 2009-2010 annual play survey
Every year since 1937, Dramatics magazine has surveyed the International Thespian Society’s member schools to find out what plays they’ve been doing. Over the years the annual play survey list has become thought of as an index of the most popular plays in North American high schools.
Shakespeare is no longer top dog in school theatre.
The Bard of Avon, who has been on a pretty good run for the past four hundred years, was unseated from the number one spot in the Thespian Society’s 2009-10 survey of most-produced plays in North American high schools and middle schools. The usurper: John Cariano’s quirky comedy Almost, Maine, appearing in the ITS top ten list for the first time.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream held onto the number two spot, followed by You Can’t Take It with You, the giddy Kaufman-Hart comedy that has been on the Thespian Society most-produced list every year since the survey began in 1937.
Among musicals, the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast repeated in the top slot, followed, for the most part, by the usual suspects. Seven of the remaining nine titles on the musicals list returned from the previous year. The exceptions are both adaptations from films: Footloose and The Wizard of Oz.
Two observations can be made about the list of top ten short plays. One, we like our short subjects to be funny: all ten titles are comedies. And two, there appears to be about a fifty percent chance any given director will decide to do a play by Jonathan Rand, who for the second year in a row had half of the plays on the list.
The Thespian Society conducts this survey among its 4,000 affiliated high schools and middle schools every year.
Here's the 2009-2010 list:
The top ten musicals
1. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, by Howard Ashman, Alan Menken, Tim Rice, and Linda Woolverton (MTI)
2. Seussical, by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (MTI)
3. (tie) Grease, by Jim Jacobs and Warrren Casey (Samuel French)
3. (tie) Into the Woods,1 by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine (MTI)
5. Footloose, by Dean Pitchford, Walter Bobbie, and Tom Snow (Rodgers and Hammerstein)
6. (tie) The Wizard of Oz (multiple adaptations), by L. Frank Baum, Harold Arlen, and E.Y. Harburg (Tams-Witmark)
6. (tie) You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, by Clark Gesner (Tams-Witmark)
8. The Music Man,1 by Meredith Willson (MTI)
9. Once Upon a Mattress, by Mary Rodgers, Marshall Barer, Jay Thompson, and Dean Fuller (Rodgers and Hammerstein)
10. Thoroughly Modern Millie, by Jeanine Tesori, Dick Scanlon, and Richard Morris (MTI)
1. Includes productions of the publisher’s “junior” versions.
The top ten full-length plays
1. Almost, Maine, by John Cariani (Dramatists Play Service)
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare (public domain)
3. You Can't Take It With You, by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (Dramatists Play Service)
4. Noises Off, by Michael Frayn (Samuel French)
5. Twelve Angry Men2 by Reginald Rose (Dramatic Publishing Co.)
6. (tie) Alice in Wonderland (various adaptations of the book by Lewis Carroll)
6. (tie) The Crucible, by Arthur Miller (Dramatists Play Service)
6. (tie) Our Town, by Thornton Wilder (Samuel French)
9. (tie) Fools, by Neil Simon (Samuel French)
9. (tie) A Christmas Carol (various adaptations of the book by Charles Dickens)
2. Includes productions under the title Twelve Angry Jurors and Twelve Angry Women
The top ten short plays
1. Check Please, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
2. Check Please: Take 3, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
3. (tie) The Actor's Nightmare, by Christopher Durang (Dramatists Play Service)
3. (tie) 13 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview, by Ian McWethy (Playscripts, Inc.)
5. Check Please: Take 2, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
6. (tie) The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon, by Don Zolidis (Playscripts, Inc.)
6. (tie) Hard Candy, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
8. (tie) Competition Piece, by John S. Wells (Samuel French)
8. (tie) How to Succeed in High School Without Really Trying, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
10. This Is a Test, by Stephen Gregg (Dramatic Publishing Co.)
