The world premiere of the high school version of “The Play That Goes Wrong” will be Nov. 4-6 at TWHS. The process of adapting this play for high school performances began last school year.

This show is a comedy, and is a Tony and Olivier award winning show that was a huge hit for about two years before COVID. Step one was getting the Broadway version of the show and adapting it for a high school stage, but that presented several challenges.

“We were chosen due to the success of our Improv Troupe and our theater departments,” director Matt Peters said. “They were looking for a theater department in the country who had some experience with comedy.”
According to Peters, the biggest challenge is staying true to the author’s source material but also trying to find how to keep it accessible to high schools.
“On Broadway they have all the tools at their disposal, so getting creative to still have all the comedic moments but on a high school budget was tough, but I think Ms. Collins and Mr. Jackubek have done an amazing job,” Peters said. “The great thing is the authors who wrote this show were an improv troupe who produced the original version with a very small budget, so we just leaned on that to create the high school edition.”
The high school actors have been part of the development process as well.
“All of us have to help out with making everything go wrong,” actor EvanTroup said. ”We all have to work out as a unit. We also had to come together to change things on the script. In the original there was a fire but we couldn’t do it, so we all had to find a change.
The work the theater department has done will literally set the stage for all high school performances going forward.
“Any time anyone wants to put this show on, our students and school will be at the front of the script, and a manual we write will be given to all schools on how we did the show and the many gags,” Peters said.

The cast and crew has had an opportunity to work with the play’s authors as they developed the show.

“We had a really cool zoom call with one of the writers and original cast members of the show,” Troup said. “It was cool to hear about how they developed the show and how they perceived the characters.

TWHS was recently selected to perform the show at the Texas Thespian Festival in November to over 6800 directors and fellow thespians from across the state.

Tickets are available online now at https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/57718.