It’s the season of The School Play, the least cynical theatrical event in the business. Behind the curtains — that is, where there are stage curtains — schoolkids across the Island have been cooing over each other’s costumes, sketching each other’s faces with greasepaint, and studying lines and stage directions as well as for their math and science tests. Cue the butterflies, the beaming parents, the misty eyes and the magic that can’t be captured anywhere but on those boards. It really is fun for the whole community, one of those heart-warming things about, apologies to Thornton Wilder, Our Island.

Last weekend, Broadway came to the Island in the form of Godspell Jr, performed by students from West Tisbury School, and Annie Jr, from Tisbury School thespians. Bravo, all of you.

If you missed those, there’s more this weekend: tonight and Saturday you can catch The Haunting of Will Shakespeare at the Vineyard Playhouse and The Ants and Grasshoppers — A Greek Comedy, another award-winning original Island-grown show at the Oak Bluffs School theatre.

First to the play about that most famous playwright, Shakespeare — this one was written by Claudia Haas, is directed by Treather Gassmann and Jane Loutzenhiser, and is performed by students at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School tonight, Friday, March 27, at 7 p.m. and on Saturday, March 28, at 2 p.m. and again at 7 p.m.

William Shakespeare (1554-1616) was one of the most prolific playwrights of all time. It has been debated for centuries whether he was actually the sole author of the 37 Shakespearean plays: Did he have a collaborator? Did he even exist at all? These questions are finally answered on stage, right there before your very eyes.

In The Haunting of Will Shakespeare, Vineyard students present an historical, albeit fictitious, account as to how Shakespeare became inspired to write some of his most famous plays. Follow young “Will” on an eventful trip through a haunted forest where the young playwright is visited by spirits who will ultimately manifest themselves in several of his famous plays.

Ants and Grasshoppers at the Oak Bluffs school.
From left: Katherine Reid, Sam Permor, Stowe Counsel and Taylor McNeely. — Donna Swift

Over at the Oak Bluffs School, the drama department presents The Ants and Grasshoppers — A Greek Comedy. This one-act musical comedy is fun for the entire family. The show features 15 talented Oak Bluffs students in grades five through eight, singing, dancing and acting their way though a new spin on the old fable.

This show continues the spring tradition of producing Island-created musicals. Donna Swift and Ross Mihalko (authors of Waking Beauty, Bluebeard and Bears Beware) wrote the script and Linda Berg (composer of Beanstalk and Nancy Luce the musical) and Brian Weiland (composer of Bluebeard and Waking Beauty) wrote the music.

The Ants and Grasshoppers is kid-sized and runs about 50 minutes, but kids are encouraged to bring their adults to enjoy the fun, too.

That show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night. Saturday will host two shows at 11 a.m. and at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 for kids, $8 for adults and $25 for the family. For details, call 508-939-9368.