Ah, the arts. Watching a play done by professionals is great. Watching a play done by a bunch of hormone-filled young people? Well, the results can vary.
The club's members will almost always be a Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits who don't fit anywhere else. If there are any kids who do actually enjoy acting, the Jerk Jock and the Alpha Bitch will always assume there's something wrong with them and tease them for it, because after all, it's not sports or elevating yourself on the social ladder.
If the main activities at the school are sports, then the Drama Club will be the Butt-Monkey of High School society. If the main activities are more academic or artistic (especially if the club is at a creative arts/performing arts school), then the drama club will probably be on the higher end of the Popularity Food Chain.
They will, of course, put on the School Play.
The members of the drama club may include people from all over the High School Popularity Food Chain, from the meanest girl to the loneliest guy, but mostly from the bottom. One thing you can be sure of, there will almost always be a large ham.
For the 2021 series also titled Drama Club, see Drama Club (2021)
Examples
- The Backstagers — The setting is the high school drama club at an all-boys high school, along with the Eldritch Location of the Arch-Theater.
- Hamlet 2: Made of Playing With this trope.
- High School Musical: The drama club — run by the clueless and overly strict teacher — is relatively neutral in terms of where it fits on the social structure: Its ruled by the Alpha Bitch and looks down on most other groups but isn't popular with the school either. Then, Troy and Gabriella, from two totally different social groups join the club, panicking the drama members and throwing the rest of the school into anarchy.
- Jawbreaker: The most popular boy in school is in the drama club. One of the Libbys suggests that 100% heterosexuality is not guaranteed.
- Teen Wolf: This film portrays a Drama Club entirely negatively: it is very much the preserve of the Alpha Bitch and the drama teacher is a preening jackass who casts the hero solely for his freakshow potential.
- Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (and the book it was based on)
Literature
- The Drama! series is set at a school for the arts, so pretty much the entire school is the Drama Club.
- Degrassi: The Next Generation has had a drama club from the beginning, and it namely played a big role in the plot from seasons 10-12 and season 15.
- Glee: Well, not drama, but the same principles apply.
- Rise (2018): Mr. Mazzu taking over Stanton's drama club, and all the kids in it.
- My So-Called Life: But mostly emoteens there.
- Lizzie McGuire: The drama club makes a one-time appearance in the episode where Lizzie is running for School President. They're described as "second-tier popular", and Gordo has her try to schmooze them for votes. She's sucked into their clique, which seems to involve little more than wearing dark clothes and sunglasses.
- Victorious: Another arts magnet school, another case of drama club being popular and Serious Business.
- The main story of CLANNAD centers around Tomoya helping Nagisa reestablish the drama club.
- In the Dear Brother anime, Rei Asaka is seen helping out the girls of the Drama Club.
- Hitohira is primarily about drama club.
- Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun has two characters in the drama club: club president Hori, a talented actor who's not quite tall enough to be a leading man and now mostly works behind the scenes, and the princely Kashima, whose mind frequently jumps to strange conclusions. Nozaki also writes scripts for the club in exchange for Hori drawing backgrounds for his manga.
- Pretty Cure:
- Exploited in Episode 9 of Futari wa Pretty Cure; Nagisa's disguises to get her Card Commune back came from the drama clubroom.
- An episode of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 revealed that Nozomi got kicked out of the Drama Club after only two days in a Noodle Incident.
- HeartCatch Pretty Cure! has a rivalry of sorts start up between the Drama Club and the Fashion Club one episode in preparation for the school festival. The leader ends up driving her entire club to quit because of her draconian directions. It isn't until she's turned into a Desertian that she realizes how stupid she was and the club returns and gives her and it a second chance.
- In Chapter 8 of the Maho Girls Pretty Cure! manga, Kotoha is scouted by the drama club captain to join them.
- In Episode 6 of Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, one of the clubs Manatsu considers joining is the drama club.
- An episode of Sgt. Frog sees Natsumi get shanghaied into the drama club's production of Peter Pan by her friends when they realize that they're short on actors. Not only does Natsumi have some serious stage fright to overcome, but then Keroro tries to incorporate himself into the play.
- The Drama Club in Star Driver doubles as La Résistance.
- The two main characters of W Juliet are in their school's drama club, and much of the action centers around it.
Video Games
- In Ensemble Stars!, this is the club of choice for brilliant but eccentric Large Ham Wataru, reserved but reliable Hokuto, and Ridiculously Average Guy Tomoya, the last of which specifically joined this club because he had heard about Wataru's exceptional talents, only to be disappointed when he met him in person and realised what a weirdo he was. The club is a pretty popular one for scouts and events, giving an excuse for offering up not just idol costumes but also Gorgeous Period Dresses - and since Yumenosaki is a One-Gender School, plenty of Shakespeare-style crossdressing.
- In Growing Up, Richard considers joining the drama club choir, but is extremely nervous about it because he's afraid of his voice cracking in public. Bobbie, on the other hand, is excited to take it up in middle and high school because she wants to be a Broadway actress. Wendy doesn't like it because she thinks it's boring, but if you take her to a Shakespeare play, she'll realize it's not so bad and thinks of joining the club in high school as an aspiring makeup and VFX artist.
- In Persona 4, you can choose the Drama Club as your cultural club, with the other choice being the band, each of which has a variant of the Sun Social Link. In the Drama Club variant, you befriend Yumi, a girl who is coming to terms with her feelings about her father, who abandoned her when she was young and is now dying.
- If you're playing a Dating Sim set in a school, it's highly likely that a prospect love interest will be a member of the Drama Club. i.e., the original Tokimeki Memorial has Cute Bookworm Mio as one despite her anemia and tendence to pass out, while Tokimeki Memorial 2 gives us Miho Shirayuki and Tokimeki Memorial 3 has Mari Oda.
- Yandere Simulator: One of the clubs the protagonist can join is the Drama Club. Among its advantages, Yandere-Chan has access to gloves which she can use to frame other students for murder without leaving her imprints on the weapons. Yandere-Chan can also conceal her identity with one of the masks, although this feature has only limited advantages, as the masks will be banned from school after somebody catches her in the act. The club's president, Kizana Sunobu, is the third rival.
Webcomics
- Darths & Droids: Annie was in the drama club before joining the roleplaying group.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: The "Growing Pains" episode is like this. Every member of the cast has a line to audition with; Flash (the Jerk Jock) and Sally Avril (the cheerleader) don't get parts, but about everyone else does...except Peter, who was too busy fighting Venom and Col. Jupiter to audition.
- American Dad! The whole school was after Steve and his friends. They got away from the drama club by insulting their performance of Bye Bye Birdie.
To sleep, perchance to...Uhhh...Line!
