A Theatre Director’s Back-to-School Checklist

Welcome to The Scene, your bi-weekly round-up of theatre news you may have missed.

Has another summer flown by already? For some teachers in the U.S., the new school year is just around the corner. To help you prepare, we’ve created A Theatre Director’s Back-to-School Checklist. To get you back into the school spirit, we’re featuring Noah Haidle’s Bleachers, a dramatic comedy about four tuba players in a high school marching band as they progress through the fall football season. And in the Spotlight, we’re looking at a prolific school playwright’s work with Ian McWethy in Five Plays. Of course, we’ll also keep you up to date on the latest theatre news, including updates from Broadway, the UK and American regional theatres.

So, get those backpacks on and listen for the school bell as we present another issue celebrating the wondrous world of theatre. This is The Scene.

• The Best New York City Theater Shows to See Right Now – On and Off Broadway by Madison Flager and CNT Editors, Condé Nast Traveler | Summer in the city is a great time to take in some culture, from CATS The Jellicle Ball to Masquerade to Oh, Mary! Read...

• Broadway – How Excited Are You?: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Chris Peterson, OnStageBlog | Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy is coming to Broadway. Read...

• Andrew Durand Will Lead Benjamin Button Musical Off-Broadway by Logan Culwell-Block, Playbill | Coming stateside from London's West End, the musical was the 2025 Olivier winner for Best New Musical. Read…

• Oh, Mary!, Starring Cole Escola, Will Get Live Stage Film by Logan Culwell-Block, Playbill | Escola’s Tony-winning performance will be captured in London’s West End. Read...

A pro shot of Hadestown, featuring the original Broadway cast, is now playing a limited run in cinemas! Click here for tickets.

• Going to the Theatre Might Keep Your Body Younger, Study Shows by Michael Major, Broadway World | Theatregoing, along with going to the movies or a museum, could contribute to your body’s well-being. Read...

• Unicorn Theatre Releases Creative Schools Report Revealing Impact Of 5 Years’ Work With Schools by Stephi Wild, BroadwayWorld | The London-based children’s theatre’s findings focus on arts engagement in primary and secondary schools. Read...

• A Summer of Reflection by Cristina Pla-Guzman, American Theatre | Pla-Guzman reconnects with past students and asks teachers how they’re educating a new generation. Read...

• 75 Great Plays from the Last 75 Years by Lily Levinson, Faber | What are the most loved plays of modern times? Faber surveyed playwrights, editors, staff and members to find their favorite works of drama. Read...

In some parts of the U.S., summer vacation is drawing to a close. In other regions, school won’t resume until September. Either way, now is a good time to prep for your new theatrical season! Whether you have a few weeks or a few days, here’s a checklist of tasks to consider before your new school year begins.

☐ Outline what you hope to achieve this year. First, lay out those big, concrete goals (produce this fall play and that spring musical, workshop these short plays or monologues, enter this competition, go to the state festival, etc.).

☐ Next, and just as importantly, set a few high-level objectives, like “foster more collaboration,” “focus on diction and projection” or “model kindness,” and work those into your outline.

☐ Create a one-sheet for your students, outlining what they can expect to learn, the projects they’ll be working on, and the standards of behavior and dedication you expect from them. This will provide a sense of structure and direction for all of you.

☐ If you maintain a storage space for sets, props or costumes, get in there and clean it up! Set yourself up for success by starting the year with well-organized materials.

☐ If you have access to your rehearsal space, take the time to decorate or freshen up the room before your students arrive to create a functional workspace with an inspiring, fresh look.

☐ Find your show(s). Do your research and work with your licensing company to find the perfect play(s) or musical(s) for your program.
☐ Narrow your list of potential shows. Licensing companies recommend applying for multiple titles for each season slot, as approval is never guaranteed. Remember, submitting a license request does not obligate you to produce or pay for the show.
☐ Confirm your method of payment. Make sure you are familiar with your business office’s procedures and give yourself plenty of time. Does your school require a specific payment process that might take additional time? Does the legal team need to review your performance agreement? Is there vendor paperwork? Get this lined up ASAP.
☐ Apply for a license as far in advance as possible. While many titles are approved automatically, others require additional clearances and can take a few weeks. To apply for a license, you’ll need to confirm production details like dates, number of performances, ticket prices and expected attendance. Gather that info and do your best to apply one season ahead (meaning it’s time to apply for spring 2027!).

☐ Work backwards from your performance dates. Aim to have the show ready for a dress rehearsal at least a week before opening. Then, plug in your key dates, including:

• Pre-audition preview (in which you explain the show and encourage people to audition)

• Auditions

• First read-through

• First run of each act (or segment) of the show

• Off-book deadline (when actors are fully memorized)

• First full run-through

• Deadlines for each design element, including costumes, props, lights and sound

• Longer and/or more frequent rehearsals during tech week (when the above elements are incorporated into the show)

• Periodic “check-ins” with cast and crew

☐ Fill in your rehearsal schedule, scene by scene, based on the needs of the script.

• Do your best to call only the actors required for each rehearsal so you don’t have students sitting around.

• Leave room for “buffer” or “catch-up” rehearsals, which will be necessary due to absences, weather and other outside factors.

☐ Put it all together in one clear, understandable calendar, saved in PDF or another shareable format.

☐ Establish contact with everyone you’ll work with, encouraging team spirit and promoting smooth communication throughout the year. Send a quick note to inform and inspire your:

• Administration, to ensure full support of the program

• Adult collaborators, including your production team and designers

• Student leaders, if they’ve already been selected

• Academic departments, if you plan to collaborate on any projects

• Local vendors, if you’ll need their services

☐ Make your program feel active, visible and successful. Create posters or post a message to social media to drum up excitement. Reach out beyond potential cast members, recruiting students for backstage roles like stage manager, designer or technician.

☐ Do something nice for yourself, because summer will be over before you know it.

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Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 2m plus ensemble

It’s high school football season in America! But while the team plays under the bright lights, the marching band sits in the bleachers, providing the soundtrack for everyone else’s glory.

Across the course of a football season, four tuba players stuck in the back row wrestle with everything that doesn’t fit into a halftime show: ambition, grief, friendship, faith, love and the strange cruelty of small-town “normal.” Bleachers is a funny, ferocious, and flexible play built for schools and young actors. Equal parts marching band comedy and raw confession, the script is built to adapt, using your school’s name, mascot, fight song and rivals.

Your community can see itself onstage and ask, out loud: Who gets to be the main event, and what happens when the background characters of high school claim the story as their own?

Learn More

• Royal Court Playwright’s Podcast #10.3: Kimberly Belflower by Elizabeth Smyth, RCPP | Kimberly Belflower, hailing from the rich tradition of storytelling in Appalachia, chats about her play John Proctor Is the Villain. Listen...

• What are the most important shows from the last 20 years of British theatre? by Exeunt Magazine | A big old group discussion to consider the question of the best British theatre over the last two decades. Read...

• Lesley Manville and Anna Maxwell Martin to star in West End August: Osage County by Alex Wood, WhatsOnStage | Tracy Letts’ play returns in January 2027. Read...

One of the most-loved and most-produced playwrights for younger audiences, Ian McWethy has created plays that are a joy to perform for school theatre groups. Meeting students where they are but never talking down to them, McWethy decorates his work with farcical narratives, memorable characters and breakneck pacing that allows for a large number of actors to get their moment in the spotlight.

In his Breaking Character article Ian McWethy in Five Plays, writer Dylan Fugel explores five exemplary works from the prolific playwright. Here’s a short sampling of three McWethy titles:

When a man is accused of abducting half a dozen cats, it’s a simple open-and-shut case, even for a jury that’s filled with oddballs like a dim-witted PR guy, a bickering couple and a man obsessed with french fries. Filled page-to-page with jokes, this hilarious parody of 12 Angry Men plays fast and loose with an American classic.

Ian McWethy (IM): This is one of my favorite plays partly because I produced it myself and saw how well it worked with a full audience. It’s been produced over 200 times since, all over the world. An inverse, bizarro version of the original.

A casting director has one day to find the leads for a community theatre production of Romeo and Juliet. But what seems like a simple task proves impossible when the pool of actors includes extreme method actors, performers who just don’t know what to do with their hands, and one particular woman who may or may not think she’s a cat.

IM: A silly, easy-to-produce piece that is to this day my most popular play in the Concord catalog. I still get a kick out of one actor walking on stage as a cat and leaving. Fun Fact: All the characters are named after my high school friends or my wife’s high school friends.

A whirlwind tour of the wild world of higher education, this hilarious, contemporary comedy provides readers with a wide selection of alma maters better left unattended. When Calvin and Olive’s parents insist they tour as many colleges as possible, they’re stuck visiting the quirkiest, most extreme examples of American higher education.

IM: My latest play is co-written with my much funnier/more talented wife, Carrie McCrossen. We had a ball writing it and think it has both clever commentary on different colleges and also some very stupid/silly scenes you aren’t expecting.

For a deeper dive, check out Ian McWethy in Five Plays!

• World Premieres by Lucas Hnath, Clare Barron, Jackie Sibblies Drury, More Set at Atlantic Theater Company by Margaret Hall, Playbill | The off-Broadway company has unveiled their 2026-2027 season, including the new musical Finn. Read...

• Cast Set for Lemonade: A Fresh Pressed Musical World Premiere by Chloe Rabinowitz, BroadwayWorld | Previews begin August 12 at Trustus Theatre in Columbia, SC. Read…

• Rebecca Gayheart to Play the Principal in Jawbreaker Musical by Linda Buchwald, TheaterMania | The stage adaptation of Darren Stein’s 1999 cult classic will run in September at the Hudson Theatre in Hollywood. Read...

• THE 39 STEPS at Princeton Summer Theater to Host Talkbacks on Espionage and Hitchcock by Stephi Wild, BroadwayWorld | Panelists include CIA veteran Jonathan Fredman and Princeton English professor Maria DiBattista. Read...