Over the past 78 years, the most popular plays have consistently been Our Town and You Can't Take It with You, according to our analysis. So in the winter of 2014, Don Corathers, the magazine's editor, began digging through the archives for hard copies of each original issue - nearly 100 pages in all.ĭuring the process, he wrote to explain a delay: 'What's taking so long, other than the distraction of publishing a magazine, is that we have to locate the articles in bound copies in order to scan them.'Įventually, he found them all, made copies - a huge stack - and mailed them to the NPR Ed team here in Washington, D.C. The NPR Ed team analyzed more than 100 pages of data from old issues of Dramatics magazine. Dressed in black, I rushed the bed onstage for Tevye's dream sequence in Fiddler on the Roof. Perhaps another radio play is in their future! The back storyĮven though I myself did not bask in the glow of the high school stage, I do have fond memories of working behind the scenes, as stage crew. At Vernon Hills High, where they're planning to hold classes remotely in the fall, staff are still working on a plan for theater. For nearly half of the schools surveyed, financial losses from cancelled shows mean cutbacks for next year's theater and arts-related activities.

Money made from ticket sales in the spring often funds the fall shows. This year, 85 percent of nearly 3,300 schools surveyed by the EdTA said they had canceled performances, and many educators say they'll feel the financial impact from that this year. They sold tickets and streamed the audio for 'one night only!' in May. The school wasn't able to perform the show as planned last spring due to the coronavirus, so over Zoom, the cast and crew created a radio drama. 'There are secret passageways and over-the-top characters.' 'It combines mystery with some really great physical comedy,' she says. For Vernon Hills High School in Illinois, Clue was a great choice because of its creativity and humor, says Stephanie Freichels, the school's theater director.

Forbes magazine top high schools 2017