Get the Crowd Going at Your High School Culture Festival! A Collection of Ideas for Plays and Musicals
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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- Recommended for elementary school students! A collection of classic play ideas that will excite upper graders too
- [For High School Students] A roundup of recommended attractions for the school festival
- Stage and Booth Events for the School Culture Festival! A Collection of Ideas to Get Everyone Excited
- For Upper Grades: A Collection of Performance Ideas for School Arts and Learning Presentations That Inspire Tears and Laughter
- Get Fired Up for Cultural and School Festivals! A Collection of Stage Performance Ideas
- Make Your Middle School Culture Festival a Hit! A Collection of Ideas for 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
- [By Genre] Cultural Festival / School Festival Booth Catalog [2026]
Anime, Manga, and Contemporary School-Life & Variety Works (11–20)
toi toi toi！
Here’s an idea for a parody piece, “toi toi toi!”, memorable for its cute animation and song.
Some of you may have had the experience of spending so much time on structuring your video that you can’t see when it will be finished.
For those people, we recommend making a parody.
A parody is a work that humorously or satirically imitates an already completed piece.
In the video, they try their hand at parodying a show that’s broadcast on TV.
Give it a try yourself!
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.
Anpanman
If you’re expecting young children from outside the school to attend, why not choose Anpanman—a big favorite among kids—as your play? It’s best to keep the story easy to understand, similar to the original “Soreike! Anpanman.” If there won’t be small children in the audience, you could instead create a story that includes inside jokes, which might make it more exciting.
Paying attention to the characters’ costumes and props like the Anpanman-go could also enhance the overall quality of the production.
Demon Slayer
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a popular TV anime based on the manga by Koyoharu Gotouge.
It tells the story of Tanjiro Kamado, the protagonist, who grows through his journey as he searches for a way to turn his sister—who has become a demon—back into a human.
Since the story is set in the Taisho era, many of the costumes are traditional Japanese clothing, which would make the production visually enjoyable.
However, there are many sword-fighting (tate) scenes, so it might be necessary to find ways to make those look as cool as possible.
Because it’s a long-form story, I think it would be good to focus on one part and adapt that for the stage!
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!
Mysterious Candy Shop Zenitendo
Create a world and perform it! Here are some ideas inspired by The Mysterious Candy Shop Zenitendō.
Hugely popular from children’s novels to anime and film, The Mysterious Candy Shop Zenitendō is known for its thrilling, heart-pounding stories and distinctive worldbuilding centered on sweets.
The characters are unique, of course, but focusing on the worldbuilding above all might be the key to creating a wonderful play.
Adding clever twists within the story will likely capture the audience’s attention.
Be sure to give it a try!
Chibi Maruko-chan
Let individuality shine! Here are some ideas inspired by Chibi Maruko-chan.
When you think of Chibi Maruko-chan, it’s not just the classmates—each family member and local resident has a unique personality, which makes it so entertaining.
In particular, some characters have distinctive catchphrases or sentence endings, which should be easy to incorporate.
The gap of high school students playing elementary school kids could also be a great hook to capture the audience’s interest.
Try acting while weaving everyday, ordinary moments into your script.