A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Bleachers

Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy  /  2w, 2m plus ensemble

Noah Haidle

It’s high school football season in America! Four high school band geeks wait for their cue, all while asking: Why is football like a religion? What will it take to get into a good college? Is there more to the small town that has given them nothing and everything?

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Bleachers

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 2m plus ensemble
  • Duration
    Duration
    105 Minutes
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

It’s high school football season in America! The band sits in the bleachers, and at the top row sit the tubas. “If the marching band is the lowest social caste in high school, tuba players are the Untouchables.” Four high school band geeks wait for their cue, all while asking: Why is football like a religion? What will it take to get into a good college? Is there more to the small town that has given them nothing and everything?

This is a script built to adapt.
The goal is recognition.
Let the audience see themselves. Let the students tell their vision.
Make it yours. Make it true. Make it LOUD.
Performing Groups
THE TUBA SECTION
ELIZA – 15. 2nd chair. A rebel.
NEIL – 17. 3rd chair. A budding philosopher possibly from another dimension.
JOY – 16. 1st chair. A leader.
RUSTY – 14. 4th chair. Scared.

CHORUS/FLOATING ENSEMBLE
Bleachers is designed to scale. While the central story can be told with just the four actors playing the tuba section, you can add the presence of a Chorus, drawn from other members of the marching band, kids in the theatre department, or any other students from the broader reality of high school that are overlooked, half-heard or nearly forgotten. The Chorus are silent witnesses, musical ghosts, mascots who never get to take their helmet off, stagehands who never take the stage. They can march, freeze, hum or shadow the main cast during transitions. In the appendix of the script, you’ll find a number of brief Choral interludes. Use all of them. Choose a few. Invent your own in your rhythm. Use them as a visual echo, or a musical underscore, or as a reminder that the four tuba players in the bleachers are never really alone. Encourage your students to contribute ideas for Chorus moments. Give them agency. Let them rewrite silence.

LOCALIZATION
Bleachers is also designed to be hyper-local. The more personal it feels to your school and community, the more powerful it becomes. You are encouraged to: swap in your school mascot and colors, reference your actual fight song, use local place names, and let students insert inside jokes or custom chants where appropriate. Feel free to modify background details, school-specific terminology, and any line that would make students say, “That’s not how we talk.”

  • Time Period Present Day
  • Setting

    Your high school bleachers during the high school football season.

  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Additional Features Play with Music
  • Duration 105 Minutes
  • Cautions
    • Strong Language

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Authors

Noah Haidle

Noah Haidle
Noah Haidle is an award-winning playwright whose work has been seen on six continents. For the 2017-2018 season, he was the writer-in-residence at the National Theater of Mannheim, Germany, a position first held by Friedrich Schiller in 1785. A graduate of Princeton and Juill ...
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