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"The Addams Family" at Weber High School in Pleasant View, Utah.

‘The Addams Family’ and ‘Almost, Maine’ Top High School List

Dramatics magazine releases its annual tally of most-produced plays and musicals for the 2015-16 school year.

CINCINNATI, OHIO: Dramatics magazine, published by the Educational Theatre Association, has released its list of most-produced high school works of 2015-16. The Addams Family topped the list for most-produced high school musical and Almost, Maine was the most-produced play. Both works are in the No. 1 spot for the second year in a row.

Dramatics also announced the nation’s most-produced short play, Check Please. The numbers are tallied from 1,200 ETA member high schools, who self-reported (5,200 schools were surveyed). The survey has been conducted annually since 1938.

“The top 10 on these lists are pragmatic choices,” said Gregory Bossler, editor of Dramatics, in a statement. “There are solid reasons why these results are logical. Most of the pieces are classic choices, and Almost, Maine is a modern classic.”

The full lists are below.

FULL-LENGTH PLAYS

  1. Almost, Maine (John Cariani)
  2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (William Shakespeare)
  3. Our Town (Thornton Wilder)
  4. 12 Angry Jurors (Reginald Rose)
  5. You Can’t Take It with You (George S. Kaufman, Moss Hart)
  6. The Odd Couple (Neil Simon)
  7. Arsenic and Old Lace (Joseph Kesselring)
  8. Alice in Wonderland (various)
  9. Noises Off (Michael Frayn)
  10. The Crucible (Arthur Miller) and The Diary of Anne Frank (Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett) (tie)

FULL-LENGTH MUSICALS

  1. The Addams Family (Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice)
  2. Mary Poppins (Sherman Brothers, George Stiles, Anthony Drewe, Julian Fellowes)
  3. Seussical (Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens)
  4. Cinderella (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Douglas Carter Beane) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin) (tie)
  5. Legally Blonde (Nell Benjamin, Laurence O’Keefe, Heather Hach) and Grease (Jim Jacobs, Warren Casey, John Farrar) (tie)
  6. The Little Mermaid (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Glenn Slater, Doug Wright) and Shrek (David Lindsay-Abaire, Jeanine Tesori) (tie)
  7. Into the Woods (Stephen Sondheim, James Lapine) and Little Shop of Horrors (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman) (tie)
  8. Beauty and the Beast (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Linda Woolverton)
  9. Once Upon a Mattress (Mary Rodgers, Jay Thompson,  Dean Fuller, Marshall Barer)
  10. High School Musical (various writers)

SHORT PLAYS

  1. Check Please (Jonathan Rand)
  2. The Audition (Don Zolidis)
  3. The 9 Worst Breakups of All Time (Ian McWethy)
  4. This Is a Test (Stephen Gregg)
  5. Sure Thing (David Ives) and The Other Room (Ariadne Blayde) (tie)
  6. Seussification of Romeo and Juliet (Peter Bloedel)
  7. Booby Trap (Ed Monk)
  8. The 13 Ways to Screw Up your College Interview (Ian McWethy), Game of Tiaras (Don Zolidis), and That’s Not How I Remember It (Don Zolidis) (tie)

The Educational Theatre Association, based in Cincinnati, is a professional organization with approximately 100,000 members nationwide. EdTA’s mission is shaping lives through theatre education.

*A version of this story ran on Sept. 29 with a number of different titles on all three lists. On Nov. 11, the EDA sent us an updated version of the list, so we amended this post to include those new entries (though the number one slot remained the same on the play and musical list).

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