FALL PLAYS

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Every fall at HCA, productions like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Little Women allow students to showcase their creative abilities and gifts. Typically smaller scale and often more off-the-wall than the HCA Spring Musical, the fall play allows the Drama Department to be extra creative, performing everything from murder mystery dinner theaters to multiple One-Acts, to well-known old favorites.

Looking Back at Recent Fall Plays

In 2011 the Theater Department presented Little Women to an enthusiastic audience that also enjoyed a Christmas Tea. In 2012 the Drama Department was pleased to present Arsenic and Old Lace. The evening included dinner and a murder-mystery play that delighted and amused our HCA students and families. In 2013 the production was The Great High School Whodonit, and in 2014, the annual “Fall Play” was moved into December to accommodate the Christmas feel of It’s a Wonderful Life which was done in black and white! In 2015 our school families enjoyed Murder Mystery at the Murder Mystery, a play within a play within a play! In November 2016 the Theater Department presented The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with the first-ever “theater-in-the-round” at HCA, and in 2017 presented Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. 

In the fall of 2018, the Theater Department presented their first junior high musical, Lion King Jr.; in the fall of 2019 presented Disney’s Frozen, Jr. ; and in the fall of 2020 presented Frozen Junior.

Most recently in 2020-22, the JH musicals included Seussical, Jr. and Honk, Jr. The Mystery Plays included And Then There Was One and Finders Creepers.

Additional Fall Plays & One-Acts
Driving Miss Daisy
Hamlet, Zombie Killer of Denmark
Tom Sawyer Wins Out
Check Please, Take Three
Murder in the Knife Room
The Empty Chair
Is There a Doctor in the House?
The Cop and the Anthem
The Open Window

SPRING MUSICALS

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Highlands has produced and performed outstanding spring musicals since 2000. Presented in March or April each year, the Drama Department produces up to four performances over the course of a weekend.

The spring musicals have included everything from an adaptation of a literary classic, Narnia, to a recent pop culture favorite, Disney’s High School Musical. In recent years we have also presented Anne of Green Gables, The Music Man, The Princess and the Pea, The Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, Cinderella, Hello Dolly, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Annie, Meet Me in St. Louis, Peter Pan, Willy Wonka, Beauty and the Beast, Music Man, Anne of Green Gables Musical, Little Mermaid, The Sound of Music, Little Women, The Wizard of Oz, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, and Rodger’s and Hamerstein’s Cinderella.

Each year, tryouts are held either at the end of the fall semester or the beginning of the spring semester. Effort is made to include every interested student in some aspect of the production, and throughout preparation there is always room for increased involvement. Students with major roles commit to several months of after-school practices. Our most recent productions have comprised a cast and crew of over seventy students, faculty, and volunteers. Through the spring musical, students cultivate their skills and talents, build relationships with peers who share their passions, and connect with students both older and younger than themselves.