Hi,
I recently retired after 40 years of teaching/coaching/directing etc. in Catholic schools.
Here is my experience:
In 1994 a colleague and I officially launched our middle school program; it was all volunteer and all after school. We did a night of one acts.
From there we did full scale Broadway type musicals:
You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown
Oklahoma!
Annie
Oliver!
The Wizard of Oz
Cinderella (R & H)
The Sound of Music
Bye, Bye, Birdie
Children of Eden
Disney's Beauty and the Beast
Peter Pan (with full scale flying by ZFX)
The Music Man
Cats
Willy Wonka
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
The Secret Garden
Seussical
Disney's My Son, Pinocchio, Geppetto's Musical Tale
A Little Princess
Disney's The Little Mermaid
These were all full length as we were never interested in "junior" versions.
Along the way we did squeeze in one straight play: The Miracle Worker.
We also did a student variety show once a year (in January) as a fund raiser for our middle school musical (usually done in May). We included special guests (barber shop quartets, bag pipers, dancers, singers, Gospel artists, concert pianists, etc.) to make it more of an event and to increase the gate.
We did not receive any budget as we were totally self-supporting. Our revenue came from ticket sales ($10.00), program ad purchases (rates ranging from $25.00 to $100.00), and the occasional donation.
We made money on every show!
We used student choreographers more often than not since many of our performers were members at local dance studios and were quite good at it.
Our productions were well received and written up in local media.
I was a full time teacher: 7th and 9th grade English and religion mainly. I also coached sports from time to time.
In 2007 I was asked to take over the drama program at the local Catholic high school. So, for almost a decade I was responsible for four to five productions per year, including a h.s. play festival.
Included in the h.s. duties was teaching one drama class. I was allowed to use this class mainly as a production class. This meant that those in the class could work on sets, props, costumes, etc. for all of the middle and high school productions. The class was usually last hour, which would lead in to our after school rehearsals at 3:00 p.m.
We did all of this mainly on the following: faith in God, a lot of prayer, a strong belief in your student performers, which was communicated frequently and firmly, great parental support, high expectations, and surrounding yourself with talented people and allowing them to do their job.
It's a lot of work. I never got paid for it, but the excited look on the faces of students and performers after close made it worthwhile.
Don't let money stop you from doing what others say is impossible. To quote Uncle Walt: It's kind of fun to do the impossible! Charge admission and use program ads.
Build relationships with media, staff, administration, a.d., etc. Don't burn any bridges. Don't back off from your vision. Use as many student ideas as possible (They were usually better than mine; plus, they will own the show.) Use every scrap of advocacy if you need to show why the performing arts are critical.
God love you for wanting to help Catholic school kids have a true theatrical experience since many national programs leave us out!
Best of luck! Break a leg!