Theatre Arts - Upper School Past Productions
Upper School Theatre Arts | Past Productions
2023-2024 Season
THE LIGHTNING THIEF
The Percy Jackson Musical
Presented by the Upper School and Middle School: As the half-blood son of a Greek god, Percy Jackson has newly-discovered powers he can't control, a destiny he doesn't want, and a mythology textbook's worth of monsters on his trail. When Zeus's master lightning bolt is stolen and Percy becomes the prime suspect, he has to find and return the bolt to prove his innocence and prevent a war between the gods. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the thief. He must travel to the Underworld and back; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and come to terms with the father who abandoned him.
2023-2024 Season
Bernhard/Hamlet
This sparkling and witty comedy centers around the most controversial act of the most audacious and famous actress in the world: Sarah Bernhardt’s decision to play Hamlet. Why was this so shocking in 1890’s Paris? Gender. Many believed a woman could not play Hamlet. Did that stop her? NO!
This fantastic play has 10 great characters, almost all associated with the theater, and many are historical figures. This is theater about theater: an energetic behind-the-scenes look at the people who make – and disagree about - theater. The underlying themes running through the play are gender, gender roles, gender identity, and the struggle of the artist to create. The play is very accessible, very timely, and very, very fun. With two sword fights! Great bits from Hamlet and Cyrano de Bergerac! And, the very brilliant writing of Theresa Rebeck!
2023-2024 Season
Chicago: Teen Edition
SD Theatre Arts students gave the audience “the old razzle dazzle” during this year's performances of the hit musical, Chicago. Featuring Bob Fosse-inspired choreography by Director of Performing Arts Erica Smith, with additional choreography and dance coaching by Alyssa Carnahan and Doree Clark, the SD Theatre Arts cast and crew put on an inspired show that elicited a standing ovation by the packed house, leaving the audience with smiles from ear to ear.
2022-2023 Season
Disney's DESCENDANTS, The Musical
In this year’s spring musical production, Middle and Upper School students shared the stage. “Connecting the Middle School and Upper School through one big musical theatre collaboration has been a dream of Head of School Cecily Stock’s for many years,” says Erica Smith. “I am so excited that this is the year, and this is the show. Our script introduction reads: ‘At its core, Descendants is a musical about empathy, tolerance, and acceptance.’ What a wonderful way for our students to unite in the common cause of creating art for social change.”
2022-2023 Season
The 39 Steps
This fast-paced and action-packed show is one mad caper after another, including mysterious spies, murder, an evil professor, master criminal, international manhunts, outrageous Scottish accents… an innocent man trying to save his nation while on the run for his life… music halls… thugs and thuggery… a chase on the top of a train… a chase under the Firth of Fourth Bridge… a chase on the Scottish moors… a chase by an airplane… all of which are achieved by innovative use of props, sounds, and the creative genius of our actors and tech crew! The audience was highly entertained and left the theatre still laughing out loud.
2022-2023 Season
Roald Dahl's MATILDA the Musical
Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical is the Tony Award-winning masterpiece from the Royal Shakespeare Company that revels in the anarchy of childhood, the power of imagination and the inspiring story of a girl who dreams of a better life. Packed with raucous dance numbers, catchy songs and a huge ensemble of wacky characters, Matilda is a joyous, soulful, magical romp, celebrating the irrepressible spark inside all of us.
2021-2022 Season
Mamma Mia!
On the eve of her wedding, a daughter's quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother's past back to the island they last visited 20 years ago.
The story-telling magic of ABBA's timeless songs propels this enchanting tale of love, laughter and friendship. A large cast, non-stop laughs and explosive dance numbers have made Mamma Mia! a smash hit. A mother. A daughter. Three possible dads. And a trip down the aisle you'll never forget!
2021-2022 Season
On the Razzle
1880’s, Vienna: we follow the adventures and misadventures of Weinberl and Christopher, clerks in an upscale Grocery store, who sneak off to Vienna in search of excitement, because everyone needs a good razzle before life slows them down!
The play is bursting with wordplay, puns, malapropisms, sight gags, physical comedy, several intertwining plots, and zany characters!
2020-2021 Season
Forgotten Voices
From the lavish parties of the San Rafael elite to the tiny fishing village of China Camp and the wretched barracks of the Angel Island Immigration Station, four families struggle to make a life rich in meaning against a backdrop of enormous cultural change. This unique and entirely original musical production is not to be missed!
2020-2021 Season
The Woman in White
A compelling tale of love, betrayal and greed! With a score by Andre Lloyd Webber, this stunning musical is adapted from Wilkie Collins’ sensational Victorian thriller about a man whose life is changed forever after a chance encounter with a mysterious woman with a chilling secret. Combined with this tale of disturbing intrigue are elements of romance, comedy, and dark secrets, and the answer to the age-old question, “I have a secret, but can I trust you?”
2019-2020 Season
Into the Woods
The Tony award winning Into the Woods is a musically brilliant, funny and heart breaking show that takes everyone's favorite storybook characters and brings them together for a timeless, yet relevant, adventure...and a rare modern classic.
A Baker and his wife are desperate to have a child; Cinderella despairs of missing the King's ball; Jack’s mother sends him off to sell his best friend (an ancient, milk-less cow) so that they can eat. When the Baker and his wife learn that they cannot have a child because of a Witch's curse, the two set off on a journey into the shadowy woods beyond their home. Everyone's wish is granted, but the consequences of their actions return to haunt them later with disastrous results.
2018-2019 Season
Noises Off
A wild romp, full of physical comedy and sight gags, Noises Off is a play-within-a play where if it can go wrong, it will. A British acting company is touring England in “Nothing On,” a farce starring a famous comic actor, Dottie Otley. Called “the funniest farce ever written,” Noises Off takes us through a disastrous dress rehearsal, backstage during a performance as relationships are beginning to explode, and finally to an unhinged performance, which brings down the house in more ways than one.
2018-2019 Season
Rent: The Musical
Based loosely on Puccini's La Boheme, Jonathan Larson's Rent follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS in the nineties. These young bohemians are all unique, flawed, and lovably human, as they deal with the extreme highs and lows of new adulthood. How they strive to grow and respect each other's differences across huge caverns of disagreements (ultimately caring for each other as a community who "measures in love") provides the narrative thread to this groundbreaking, rocking and exuberant musical.
2017-2018 Season
Almost, Maine
What makes people fall in love? What makes people fall out of love? Almost, Maine follows nine stories, all taking place on a cold February night in the mythical town of Almost, in the state of Maine. Underneath the Northern Lights, the residents fall in and out of love in unexpected, sometimes poignant, often hilarious, and always magical ways.
2017-2018 Season
A Chorus Line
Winner of six 1997 Tony Awards, Chicago is an electrifying tale of fame, fortune, and all that jazz, with one show stopping song after another, and astonishing dance numbers that will make your heart beat to that razzle-dazzle rhythm. Set in 1920s Chicago, the tale focuses on two women both accused of murdering their lovers, and their insidious journey to freedom - justice be damned!
2016-2017 Season
Footloose, The Musical
One of the most explosive movie musicals of the eighties bursts onto the live stage with exhilarating results! When Ren and his mother move from Chicago to a small farming town, Ren is prepared for the inevitable adjustment period at his new high school. What he isn't prepared for are the rigorous local edicts, including a ban on dancing instituted by the local preacher, determined to exercise the control over the town's youth that he cannot command in his own home. When the reverend's rebellious daughter, Ariel, sets her sights on Ren, her roughneck boyfriend tries to sabotage Ren's reputation, with many of the locals eager to believe the worst about the new kid. The heartfelt story that emerges is of a father longing for the son he lost and of a young man aching for the father who walked out on him. To the rockin' rhythm of its Oscar and Tony-nominated top 40 score (the soundtrack album reached number one on the Billboard charts and has sold over 15 million copies!) and augmented with dynamic new songs for the stage musical, this show features a huge cast of characters and a story that moves and inspires!
2016-2017 Season
Two Gentlemen of Verona
William Shakespeare’s fast-paced comedy of love, friendship, and transformation, The Two Gentlemen of Verona is packed with great characters: the two Gents themselves, strong, resourceful, and witty women, comic and saucy servants, tyrannical fathers, ridiculous fops, sword-wielding outlaws, and Launce’s famous dog, Crab. A lively comedy with serious themes of betrayal of love and friendship, redemption, and forgiveness. Shakespeare, of course, balances these elements with loyalty, faithfulness, honesty, and comedy. The show is a journey, both physical and emotional, taking the characters on a roller-coaster of emotions and metamorphosis.
2015-2016 Season
Chicago
Maurine Dallas Watkins was a journalist and playwright who penned theatrical material while working as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Her most notable play, CHICAGO, was based on some real-life murder cases in the 1920's, and was later developed into a musical of the same name, garnering awards for both stage and film interpretations. We are delighted to announce that the Upper School Theatre Department will be one of the first high schools in the country awarded the performing rights to present this #1 longest-running American musical in Broadway history. Come watch us Razzle Dazzle 'em with this exciting piece of musical history. CHICAGO, The Musical, will have auditions the second week of school.
2015-2016 Season
As You Like It
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” Jaques declares famously in this joyous comedy. And the players on the stage of As You Like It run the gamut from the ridiculous to the sublime as Shakespeare romps through all the facets of love: romantic, familial, and between friends. A comic masterpiece of character, situation, and wit, the play is filled with music, performed live by a small ensemble and set in the 1960's. As characters flee the dangers of the court and enter the enchanting world of the Forest of Arden, some will find love, some will flee love, some will surrender to love, some will remain aloof from love, but all will emerge from the forest better for their adventures within it.
2014-2015 Season
Young Frankenstein
It’s Alive! From the creators of Broadway‘s record-breaking musical comedy sensation, The Producers, comes Young Frankenstein, a monster of a hit musical based on Mel Brooks’ classic comedy film masterpiece. This wickedly inspired re-imagining of the legend of Frankenstein is the story of the bright young doctor Frankenstein who travels to Transylvania to complete the masterwork of his grandfather by bringing a corpse to life. Full of slapstick comedy and double entendre, Young Frankenstein is a scientifically proven, monstrously good time at the theatre.
2014-2015 Season
The Three Musketeers
All for one, and one for all!
The greatest swashbuckling adventure of all time and packed with swordfights, The Three Musketeers is a rollercoaster tale of honor, intrigue, love, revenge, deception, valor, friendship, heroes, heroines, villains…and the ultimate villainess.
Summer 2015 - In the American High School Theatre Festival at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival
Argonautika
Goddesses…Heroes….a young sorceress…a journey into the unknown…Harpies…Gods…nymphs…Cupid…prophecies…good…evil…magic…an impossible quest…eternity…all these come together in Mary Zimmerman’s marvelous Argonautika. Zimmerman spins the tale of Jason and the Argonauts in her stunning signature style of physical theatre, magic, music, beauty, poignancy, and earthy humor. Sent on the quest for the Golden Fleece, the young Jason is befriended by the Goddess Hera, and protected by the Goddess Athena. Jason gathers together the heroes of Greece as sailors for the Argos and the adventure begins. After struggling with Gods, monsters, and the difficulty of keeping a group men on-task, Jason finally reaches the island of Colchis, where the Golden Fleece is guarded by a dragon who never sleeps. Hera and Athena know Jason will never obtain the fleece – or survive - unless he is aided by the teenaged sorceress-princess, Medea, daughter of the King of Colchis…perhaps Aphrodite and her son Cupid can be of help?
2013-2014 Season
Cabaret
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome… to Cabaret, Kander and Ebb’s legendary musical about British nightclub singer Sally Bowles, American writer Cliff Bradshaw, and the decadence of 1929 Berlin. With mounting fear and uncertainty outside, the bawdy Emcee lures you into the world of the Kit Kat Club where your troubles are left at the door. A charmingly dark musical about finding your heart while the world loses its way.
2013-2014 Season
Treasure Island
Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel of adventure on the high seas, Treasure Island is the ultimate pirate tale, following the swashbuckling adventures of young Jim Hawkins and the most famous pirate of all time, Long John Silver. Action-packed with sword fights, battles, damsels in distress, treasure, adventure, and yes, pirates!
2012-2013 Season
The Bomb-itty of Errors
What happens when a show closes and a director comes in to tag the set that is still in place? Preparations occur for the debut of The Bomb-itty of Errors, a four-actor Ad-Rap-Tation, hip-hop theatre retelling of Shakespeare’s play. Part play, part rap concert, Bomb-itty was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Drama Desk Awards, for the Outer Critics Circle Awards, and received the Jefferson Award in Chicago and the Grand Jury Prize at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.
2012-2013 Season
The Comedy of Errors
What happens when two sets of identical twins, separated at birth, unbeknownst to each other, end up in the same town on the same day? Comic chaos! The Comedy of Errors is Shakespeare’s hilarious take on mistaken identity, filled with sight gags, physical comedy, lightning speed word-play, and crazy coincidences. Each character is a comic gem in this ingenious romp set in 1920’s gangster-era Chicago.
2012-2013 Season
Monty Python's Spamalot
Stolen whole cloth from the classic film comedy, Monty Python & the Holy Grail, Spamalot is a highly irreverent parody of the legendary tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, featuring a bevy of beautiful show girls and hilarious dance numbers, not to mention cows, killer rabbits, and French people.
2011-2012 Season
The Drowsy Chaperone
Long before audiences would flock to see the latest production by big names of Hollywood such as Elton John, musical theatre was dominated by composer/writer duos who specialized in the art form and turned out hit after hit. The Drowsy Chaperone is a send-up of those good old days and the fans who remember them fondly. The musical is narrated by "The Man in the Chair," who entertains the audience with his memories of shows past. As he listens to songs on his record player, characters from his favorite musical invade his apartment—each of whom has a story to tell, a song to sing it in, and a hysterical personality with which to tell it.
2011-2012 Season
Crimes of the Heart
2011-2012 Season
Eurydice
2010-2011 Season
The Merry Wives of Windsor