Open Forum

Diary of Anne Frank adapted by Wendy Kesselman - an even cast of 5 and 5 (Sam French)

And a Child Shall Lead by Michael Slade - even cast of 4 and 4 (Playscripts)

A Stranger on the Bus by Ed Shockley - felxiable cast of 12+ (Youth Plays)

The Lost Boy by Ronald Gabriel Paolillo - 3-10 females/4-8 males (Playscripts)

Frankenstein by R.N. Sandberg - 2 females/ 3 males (5-8 possible) (Playscripts)

Are they willing to do a couple of hard hitting one-acts together? If so, here are a few that my kids really enjoyed (and they are all from Playscripts):

Booby Trap by Ed Monk - 6 females/5 males (11-17 possible) 

Voices in Conflict by Bonnie Dickinson - 6 and 6

And by Alan Haehnel - 10 females/4 males (a little bit larger than the ideal)

Lockdown by Douglas Craven - 4 and 4, with 1 gender neutral

Five Kinds of Silence - very intense, and a lot of research and dramaturgy can be done. Deals with domestic violence. This was life-altering for all of us involved in the production. Requires some deeply committed actors.

Too Much Memory - an intense update of Antigone.

Distracted - deals with ADHD. Not necessarily edgy, but certainly relevant. Language might be a problem.

Wit - only if you have a girl who can handle being on stage the entire time.

Very Still and Hard to See - a ghost story based on Japanese myths. Might be too much for your admin (it was for mine, but the students loved it). There's a lot you can do with the staging. One day I will produce this play and it will rule the world.

I would suggest Acts of God by Mark Rigney.  A contemporary drama which reads a little abstract but in a good way as it represents the "brokenness" of the characters after a tornado has ripped apart their town and their lives and the guilt they feel afterward.  Several story through-lines.  Just a warning, my kids found the script "weird" to read--but once we put it on stage and started to work with it, the characters and their stories became very meaningful to them.  The cast became one of the closest I have experienced in my 25 years of teaching.

I would recommend Reviving Ophelia by Cherie Bennett (available from Dramatic Publishing). Very relate-able for the kids, deals with a lot of teen issues, such as alcoholism, body image, religious identity, and abusive relationships, but without being too preachy or too after-school special-y. The cast is flexible too, can be as few as 7, and as many as 15 or so. It's full-length, but short (one act). We produced it this past November, and had a great time.