Three Problems and Three Plays for the High School Stage

Abstract

There are plays and musicals that are produced consistently every year—even every decade—by United States high schools. This article identifies three problems with that predicament: 1) the educational theater industrial complex, 2) the 24-year delay, and 3) dissonance from contemporary diversity efforts and standards. In the second part of the article, the author engages in reflective practice as a high school educator. The analysis fixates on a “reverse engineering” process where three new plays by professional playwrights are incubated directly for a high school stage in conversation with the school community.