Recommended plays for a high school cultural festival: popular, crowd-pleasing ideas
When it comes time to put on a play for your high school cultural festival, the choice of work can dramatically change the feel of the stage.
From moving fantasies to relatable comedies and heartfelt musicals, each has its own unique appeal and key directing points.
Because it’s a production everyone in the class creates together, you’ll want to pick something that’s fun for the cast to make and a joy for the audience to watch.
Here, we introduce a wide range of plays that are perfect for high school cultural festivals.
Find the one that fits your class!
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- Classic plays performed by elementary school students: recommended works roundup
- [For High School Students] A roundup of recommended attractions for the school festival
- Ideas for stage events and attractions that will liven up a school festival
- Ideas for Performances That Inspire Laughter and Tears: Perfect for Upper Grades at School Arts and Learning Showcases
- Stage performance ideas to excite a cultural or school festival
- [Middle School] Cultural Festival Attractions: A roundup of popular exhibits, games, and stage performances
- [Short Movie] A collection of video project ideas you can use for cultural and school festivals
- [Cultural Festival / School Festival Theme] Carefully Selected High-Impact Recommended Phrases!
- I want to adapt these for the school festival! A roundup of comedians’ manzai, sketch comedy, and one-liner gags
- [Hilarious] One-Liner Gags That Kill at Parties and Events
- Ideas for exhibits recommended for school culture festivals. Film screenings, too.
Anime, Manga, and Contemporary School-Life & Variety Works (11–20)
Paco and the Magical Picture Book
It’s a blockbuster Japanese film.
The tagline is “A story children want to read to adults.” It has laughs along the way and a moving ending, making it easy to adapt into a play.
Let’s start by creating a script based on the movie.
The key is to bring out each character’s unique personality!
Mom
“Mama,” a work by teacher Iyadomi☆Kōsei, who is active in various plays and commercial scripts.
It is one of the pieces performed by the drama club of Saga Higashi High School in Saga Prefecture, which stages productions not only on campus but in various locations.
The play portrays the story of a mother who raised her daughter alone in a single-mother household, centering on the theme of “what it means to live” in the face of the imminent death of a loved one.
The script written by Teacher Iyadomi has no ending, and the Saga Higashi drama club reportedly came up with their own conclusion.
Reading the script and creating the ending you would want for this mother and daughter could make for a wonderful memory at a culture festival or school festival, don’t you think?
Boys Over Flowers
Hana Yori Dango, which was adapted from a shoujo manga into a TV drama and then a film, has also been made into a musical! Using that as a reference, how about performing it at your school festival? A realistic story performed by students might be even more moving! You can use your school uniforms as costumes as they are, and it seems easy to adapt the story, so it’s highly recommended.
Chain of Flowers
I’d like to introduce a work by the famous author Kanae Minato.
Published in 2011 and adapted into a film in 2013, it’s a piece whose characteristic Minato-style foreshadowing and structure I found outstanding.
Although each character’s storyline appears to stand alone, it actually serves as foreshadowing and becomes a key to the narrative.
So if you were to stage it as a play, say for a school festival, you would need to think very carefully about the structure.
However, precisely because it’s demanding, I believe the sense of accomplishment for the cast and the satisfaction it would give the audience would be immeasurable.
The Little Prince
The Little Prince, a fairy tale by Saint-Exupéry loved by people all over the world.
Although it was originally written as a children’s story, it is filled with deep insights into life and words that resonate straight to the heart, making it more than suitable to be performed as a play for a school cultural festival.
Anime, Manga, Modern School Settings & Variety Works (21–30)
Crayon Shin-chan
Some people say Shin-chan’s outrageous antics go too far, but Crayon Shin-chan is hugely popular with kids.
The TV anime is of course funny, but in the movies Shinnosuke is gentle, brave, responsible, and a real model student.
Is it the same phenomenon as Gian from Doraemon turning into a nice guy in the movies? Staging a Crayon Shin-chan play sounds fun, too.
With the children playing the roles of Dad and Mom as well, it would feel very homey.
I wonder if everyone wants to play Shin-chan?
Darkness in Shangri-La
Based on the well-known folktale Momotaro, Togen Anki is a work that depicts the battle between the descendants of ogres and the descendants of Momotaro.
Since the story unfolds while incorporating elements of the original folktale, it gives the impression that a wide range of people can get into it.
The distinctive characters are also a major draw, so let’s carefully consider how to portray them in a way that makes them appealing.
As the narrative shifts into battles, it’s crucial to emphasize the action scenes and draw viewers into the world above all else.
