Verona High has a long history of drama clubs and productions. Productions began in the 1920s with
Edmond Rostand's
The Romancers (1926) being the final production directed by Winifred Bostwick, a long-time teacher at the school. Other shows helmed by Bostwick had included
The Exchange (1922),
The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife (1923) and
The Knave of Hearts in 1925. Harold Butterworth was a longtime director for the club (1936–1956). Under his direction, the drama club boasted its largest membership (137 registered members in 1945), became
The Troupers in 1951 and continued to present contemporary dramas. Then, after Butterworth's tenure, The Troupers presented their first "classic" play:
Thornton Wilder's
Our Town, also the last play performed at the then-VHS building that is now H. B. Whitehorne Middle School. A series of directors took the Troupers into Fairview Avenue's newly constructed Verona High School, where they performed such classics as
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1958), ''
You Can't Take It with You (1960), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1962). Sometime in this era, the title Troupers'' disappeared in favor of the more generic Drama Club. In the early 1970s, classic productions dominated:
Harvey (1972, directed by Ruth Garoni), a new production of
Arsenic and Old Lace (1973 and presented again in 1993) and the first production of a true Broadway musical –
Oliver!, combining the students of the high school and middle school under the music direction of long-time Verona band teacher, Harry Owens. Director Jim Walsh continued dramatic shows on alternate years with
Scapino,
Count Dracula, and
The Good Doctor. In the early 80s, Maurice J. Moran began his 27-year tenure as drama advisor and introduced both a non-musical and musical in the same school year.
The Importance of Being Earnest,
Mame (1982),
Grease (1984),
The Fantasticks (1985),
Godspell (1986),
The Odd Couple, "Story Theater" and
The Crucible are some examples of shows done in the 80s. In 1991, the VHS Drama Club became The Spotlight Players. In 1996, VHS joined 100 other
New Jersey high schools participating in the
Paper Mill Playhouse's Rising Star Awards, winning a "best actress" nomination in its first year with a repeat production of
Anything Goes. New plays and classic musicals (and Star nominations) continued as the 90s closed:
All in the Timing,
The Canterbury Tales, and
Senior Square contrasting with
Gypsy,
The Music Man, and
Pippin. The 21st century began with what was apparently only the second VHS Shakespeare presentation thus far: ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream''. In that same year, parent volunteers organized themselves to help the performing arts as The Spotlight Players Parents Association. To raise funds for the theater program, the parents' group began the annual Verona Talent Night, which continues to give an opportunity for Verona students, adults, and friends to sing, dance, play musical instruments, or tell jokes without the need for competition. In 2002, for the first time, a completely student-produced musical was presented,
Bat Boy: The Musical. The show was presented by the then-recently established local chapter of the
International Thespian Society, and featured a student cast, with a student
director,
music director, band, and
choreographer. Other productions have included
Godspell, ''
You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, and the 2006 presentation of Musical of Musicals, being featured in The Star-Ledger's'' "Young and Talented" column. Another major change was the hiring of an outside director. After 30 years directing school musicals around North Jersey, Moran decided to give up that role and serve instead as a producer of the musicals. He continued to direct the non-musicals (
Moon Over Buffalo in 2005, for example) but recent musicals have been directed by non-VHS faculty, with 2008's
On the Town being the third production directed by Danielle Aldrich. Verona's drama program expanded in 2008, with the revamping of the theater including new seats, better acoustics, and a new lighting and sound booth. A One-Act Play Festival began in May of that year, bringing the number of theater offerings to four per year. In Fall 2016, the program relaunched with the hiring of Laurence Fry and Steven Munoz to head the program after the retirement of Fran Young. The first production put on under the new team was ''
You Can't Take It With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart in November 2016. Next was the classic Cole Porter musical Anything Goes
in March 2017. The next year, Fry departed the program, and it continued under Munoz with their next production, The Curious Savage by John Patrick in November 2017, with two of the performers being nominated for "Foxy Awards" - Ava Vasalani (Ethel Savage) for Lead Actress, and Maya Fortgang (Fairy May) for Supporting Actress. The musical that school year was Curtains in March 2018, which became the first VHS musical to participate in the Rising Star Awards since Munoz took over. In fall 2018, the production was The Secret in the Wings
, a Mary Zimmerman play. To fundraise for the program, the Spotlight Players put on a "murder mystery" dinner, where the actors, with packets of information on the mystery, would go table to table, talking to the guests about the investigation at hand. The dinner took place in January 2019. The next musical was The Addams Family'' in March 2019, which was one of the more successful productions in recent years for the program, earning around $9,000 in ticket sales alone. On April 12, 2019, the nominations for Montclair State University's Theatre Night "Foxy" Awards were announced. VHS's production of
The Secret in the Wings was nominated in five categories, including Outstanding Achievement in Choreography/Movement, Outstanding Achievement in Stage Crew, Outstanding Achievement by an Acting Ensemble of a Dramatic Stage Adaptation of a Literary Work or Film, Outstanding Production of a Drama Stage Adaptation of Literary Work or Film, and Excellence in Dramaturgy. The fall play of 2019 was the classic
William Shakespeare comedic play,
The Comedy of Errors, one of few Shakespearean productions ever performed at Verona High School. The production was performed on November 14, 15, and 16th, 2019. Their next production was the musical
The Mystery of Edwin Drood on March 5, 6, and 7th, 2020. In addition, the Spotlight Players also presented their second annual murder mystery, "Once Upon a Murder", in January 2020 at Verona Community Center. On April 15, the nominations for the 2020 Theatre Night "Foxy" Awards were announced, and VHS's production of
The Comedy of Errors was nominated in four categories - Supporting Actor in a Classical Play (Griffin Willner as Egeon), Lead Actor in a Classical Play (Aidan Callari as Antipholus of Syracuse), Lead Actress in a Classical Play (Abby Bermeo as Dromio of Ephesus), and Acting Ensemble of a Classical Play. ==Student organizations==