SHREK Unseats BEAUTY AND THE BEAST as Most-Produced High School Musical in 2013-14

After six consecutive years, Disney's Beauty and the Beast has relinquished its place as the top musical in the annual survey of most-produced titles in United States high school theatres, unseated during the 2013-14 season by another adaptation of an animated anti-hero: Shrek the Musical. Returning to the list, and rounding out the top three, is Godspell, which has seen its popularity rise after a recent Broadway revival and subsequent national tour.

Dramatics, a publication of the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), surveys select high school theatre programs to determine which plays and musicals were produced during the previous academic year. The results appear in the October 2014 issue of Dramatics.

The survey, conducted since 1938, was sent out to the more than 4,000 high school theatre programs affiliated with the International Thespian Society (ITS), the student honorary division of EdTA. Results are collected in three categories: musicals, full-length plays, and short plays (one-acts). Responses came back from approximately 700 schools.

Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, has been trading places at the top of the full-length plays list with John Cariani's Almost, Maine for the past several years, and is once again number one among full-length plays. Not far behind those two comedies were another pair of perennial favorites: Our Town and You Can't Take It with You, which has been on the top ten list every year since rights were made available to high schools in 1939.

The 2013-14 top ten lists are:

Musicals
1. Shrek the Musical by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire (MTI)
2. Disney's Beauty and the Beast by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, and Linda Woolverton (MTI)1
3. (tie) Godspell by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak (MTI)
3. (tie) Hairspray by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Mark O'Donnell, and Thomas Meehan (MTI)
3. (tie) Thoroughly Modern Millie by Jeanine Tesori, Dick Scanlan, and Richard Morris (MTI)
6. (tie) Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine (MTI)1
6. (tie) Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (MTI)
8. (tie) Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey (Samuel French)
8. (tie) The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin (MTI)
8. (tie) The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Harold Arlen, and E.Y. Harburg (Tams-Witmark)
8. (tie) You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown by Clark Gesner (Tams-Witmark)

Full-length plays
1. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (public domain)
2. Almost, Maine by John Cariani (DPS)
3. Our Town by Thornton Wilder (Samuel French)
4 (tie). Twelve Angry Jurors by Reginald Rose (Dramatic Publishing)2
4 (tie). You Can't Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (DPS)
6. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (public domain)
7. The Crucible by Arthur Miller (DPS)
8. (tie) Harvey by Mary Chase (DPS)
8. (tie) The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde (public domain)
10. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield (Broadway Play Publishing)

Short plays
1. (tie) 13 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview by Ian McWethy (Playscripts)
1. (tie) Check Please by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts)
3. (tie) 10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse by Don Zolidis (Playscripts)
3. (tie) The Audition by Don Zolidis (Playsripts)
5. (tie) Check Please: Take 2 by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts)
5. (tie) It's Not You, It's Me by Don Zolidis (Playscripts)
7. (tie) The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon by Don Zolidis (Playscripts)
7. (tie) How to Succeed in High School Without Really Trying by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts)
7. (tie) The Least Offensive Play in the Whole Darn World by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts)
7. (tie) Sure Thing by David Ives (DPS)
7. (tie) Words, Words, Words by David Ives (DPS)

Notes
1. Includes productions of MTI Broadway Junior versions of this title.
2. Includes productions under the titles Twelve Angry Men and Twelve Angry Women.

About Dramatics magazine - Dramatics is the only magazine edited exclusively for high school theatre students and educators. Published monthly from September to May, each issue features new playscripts, interviews with theatre professionals, practical articles on acting and stagecraft, and college and career information. Special issues each year include a wrap-up of the annual Thespian Festival, as well as comprehensive directories of collegiate theatre programs, and summer theatre work and study opportunities. Dramatics is published by the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), a professional organization for theatre education.

About the Educational Theatre Association - The Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), is a professional organization with approximately 90,000 members nationwide. EdTA's mission is shaping lives through theatre education: Honoring student achievement in theatre and enriching their theatre education experience; supporting teachers by providing professional development, networking opportunities, resources, and recognition; and influencing public opinion that theatre education is essential and builds life skills. EdTA operates the International Thespian Society (ITS), an honorary organization that has inducted more than 2 million theatre students since its founding in 1929. EdTA also publishes Dramatics, a monthly magazine for high school theatre students, and Teaching Theatre, a quarterly journal for theatre education professionals.

Pictured: A production of SHREK at the 2013 Thespian Festival by Bradford High School, Kenosha, Wisconsin.