Drama Club

Ah, the arts. Watching a play done by professionals is great. Watching a play done by a bunch of acne faced teens? Not so much.

Most of you had a drama club in school. You know, a place where all those 'weird' kids went to hang out?

Usually, the Drama Club will be run by a Wide-Eyed Idealist teacher who believes everyone should get along, and what better way to get along then by performing a low class version of Romeo and Juliet? The club's members will almost always be a Ragtag 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, only weird kids join the Drama Club, right?

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, then the drama club might be the most popular group in school.

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.

Examples of Drama Club include:

Anime and Manga

• Keroro Gunsou sees Natsumi get shanghaied into the drama club by her friends when they realize that they're short on actors. Naturally, things go downhill when Keroro tries to incorporate himself into the play.
• Hitohira is primarily about a Drama Club and a Drama Research Society in a school. One of the protagonists, Mugi Asai, isn't sure at first about which club she should join -- but ends up pressganged by the other female lead, Nono Ichinose, into joining the Drama Research Society. And later it turns out that Mirei Sakaki, the proper Drama Club leader, has a feud with Nono...
• The main story of Clannad centers around Tomoya helping his love interest Nagisa reestablish the drama club. They have to work a lot for it since they barely have members, they have no advisor and are nearly as bad with organization and paperwork as Afterschool Tea Time, so the student council has to consider it a non-entity. When they work out the issues (mainly by having an advisor with an instrument club), they encounter no more external problems
• The drama club in Star Driver doubles as La Résistance.
• The two main characters of W Juliet, Itou and Makoto, are in their school's drama club, and much of the action centers around it. Especially because Makoto wants to be an actor instead of a martial artist, and joining the club while pretending to be a girl and keep the act until highschool graduation is the key to get his Fantasy-Forbidding Father to let him go.
• Heartcatch Precure has a rivalry of sorts start up between the drama club and the Fashion Club one episode in preparation for the school festival. The DC leader, Azusa Takagishi, ends up driving her entire club to quit because of her draconian directions. It isn't until she's turned into a Desertian that Azusa realizes how stupid she was and the club returns and gives her and it a second chance.
• In Private Actress, the Boarding School's drama club is vital to the plot. The most talented and popular actress of the group, Kana Juumonji, is not just the Alpha Bitch but also the Big Bad of the case, and she murdered her sempai and biggest acting rival (a girl named Yuki Haneda) some time ago solely to get her out of her way. Her classmate Fuyuka Sakuragi witnessed this, so Kana and her Girl Posse began to harass her... and when Fuyuka didn't falter in her intention to denounce them they bullied her to death, which prompted her parents to hire the titular character so she'd find out the truth...
• In the Oniisama E anime, Rei is seen helping out the girls from Seiran High's drama club.
• An episode of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime has Touya temporarily joining the club (despite being a TERRIBLE actor) to help its star, his classmate and friend Youko Nakagawa (who has an unrequited crush on him).
• Touko from Mariasama ga Miteru is a member of her school's drama club.

Film

• Hamlet 2: Made of Playing With this trope.
• High School Musical: The drama teacher is clueless and overly strict and the Alpha Bitch Sharpay belongs to the Drama Club. Then, Troy and Gabriella join the club and Hilarity Ensues.
• Jawbreaker: The most popular boy in school is in the drama club. One of the Alpha Bitches suggests that 100% heterosexuality is not guaranteed.
• Teen Wolf: Possibly the only film to portray 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.
• No More Dead Dogs

Live Action TV

• Glee: Well, not drama, but the same principles apply.
• 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.

Tabletop RPG

• Darths and Droids: Annie was in the drama club before joining the roleplaying group.

Video Games

• In many Dating Sims that take place in schools, one of the prospect boyfriends or girlfriends may be in this club. ie, Tokimeki Memorial 1's Mio Kisaragi is a member of Kirameki High's drama club.
• In Persona 4, the Player Character can potentially join Yasogami High's drama club. Also, there are two girls who can be take up the role of the Sun Arcana Social Link (and maybe, even be the guy's Love Interest): one of them is Yumi Oosawa, also from the club. (The other is Ayane Matsunaga, from the school band)

Western Animation

• The Spectacular Spider-Man: The "Growing Pains" episode is like this. Every member of the cast has a line to audition with, but Flash (the Jerk Jock) and his ex girlfriend, the cheerleader (The Alpha Bitch) 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!