Frugal Tip for Seeing Live Performances – Watch Them At Local High Schools and Colleges

I know not everyone lives in an area with a local high school or college, much less several of them. But if you do, they provide a cheap way to see live theater.

I live in a large city so there are tons of high schools and a few colleges, most of which have theater departments. Tickets at local high schools to plays and performances are usually pretty cheap, in the range of $10-40. Plays at colleges are usually a little more expensive, in the range of $35-80. However, schools usually discount tickets for students, seniors, and some other special groups of people. You can be a student from any educational institution, not just the school putting on the play. This is a lot cheaper than large, professional theaters charge, which is in the hundreds.

To attract large audiences, schools will usually do popular plays and musicals like Anything Goes!, Pride & Prejudice, Annie, The Addams Family, Sweeney Todd, etc. So looking at your area's high schools and colleges is often a cheap way to see popular Broadway musicals that you'd otherwise have to travel and spend hundreds of dollars to see.

An alternative is small local theater groups that are funded primarily on donations and have a pay what you can/want sliding scale for tickets. These usually put on smaller, lesser-known indie plays that are cheaper to run. So if you're more interested in the popular plays/musicals, these usually aren't an option.