[UA] High school one-shot idea: The play's the thing.

[Eslington ~]

I found this essay on life at high school and why it sucks on a blog I
read fairly often:
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

I'd seen it before, but the last time, I didn't end up running it
through my mental UA-filter. The result this time was the skeleton of
an idea for a one-shot.

---

Life for the nerds, geeks and losers of the school is hell, as is normal.
Most of the students are too immature to understand why, and the
teachers either don't care or feel helpless to change things.

But not all of the students are normal.
An impassioned young reporter for the school newspaper got a special
order dumped on him by Mak Attax, and was awakened to his true nature,
a low-level Chronicler avatar. He has seen the truth behind the
school's situation, and wants everyone to know it.
Unfortunately the cowardly editor doesn't want him to rock the boat
(and endanger his position as editor, his ticket to the ivy league)
with his controversial article, and most of the student body would
probably ignore or dismiss a leaflet campaign since the ideas can't be
expressed simply enough.

A more daring plan is called for, and the play's the thing.

The drama club are staging a production a week from now, and the
Chronicler has seen the perfect place to slip in an extra scene to the
play to send his message to the masses in a suitably dramatic and
memorable fashion.
He has an in with one or two drama club members, since he knows the
people in charge wouldn't appreciate him messing with their
production, and he has the aid of the local Mak and teenage
Oneriomancer who dropped the special order on him, who's willing to
help him confound anyone who stands in their way and crank up the
impact of the Chronicler's scene.

But something is rotten in the school that will make things difficult
for the meddlesome bard.
-Maybe the True Queen of the in-crowd, who knows the truth and wields
it as a weapon, has found out about his plan and is quietly placing
obstacles in his path.
-Maybe a local Sleeper cabal have been watching the Mak, know they
can't risk the scene going out as planned (And hey, they may be right
about the whole sleeping tiger deal) but are having a hard time
infiltrating a building full of teenagers and suspicious adults with
the dead-eyed weirdos that make up their occult troubleshooter squad.
(And this is one problem they probably can't /literally/ shoot.)
-Maybe someone plans to highjack the event for their own purposes. An
irascamancer out for a major charge? A rival of an uninvolved actor?
-Or maybe just the mundane difficulties of teachers who crave
stability, club budget cuts or concerned parents who think the play is
a tad controversial.

---

More explicitly, the elements are:

Protagonist PCs:
-The Chronicler
-The Oneriomancer
-At least one actor or other member of the drama club.
-Probably one more to round the group to four. In gamist terms an
"optional" character.

Antagonists
-See suggestions above.

Themes
-Isolation/imprisonment
-Cliques/tribalism

Motifs
-Shakespearean imagery/references.
-Unconscious, sometimes irrational actions and assumptions.
-Tiredness
-Media
-Pointless busy-work.

Game elements
-Probably low action and more of a focus on intrigue/misdirection,
since as teenagers the PCs probably don't want to be going around
breaking bones.

---

What do you think sirs?

Ideas and suggestions encouraged, especially for antagonists and a
good play to use.