Crater High School student Alexandra Schireman sits on the set of her play, “Junestruck,” which will make its debut performance tonight. She wrote the script, music and songs. (Mail Tribune / Jim Craven)

Undeterred by the absence of a drama program at Crater High School, Alexandra Schireman sat down her freshman year to write a musical her friends could perform.

Four years later, with a flourishing drama department now in place, Crater High School actors will put on Schireman's play, "Junestruck," for the spring show.

The show runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

"I wanted something high school students could do," Schireman said. "What better than a play about them?"

"Junestruck," a musical comedy, portrays teenagers at Carter High School, a play on Crater, who are dealing with the perpetual adolescent question of what to do after high school.

Schireman plays Vanessa, a zany girl whose primary ambition in life is to get married as soon as possible. She dates a fellow named Spike, who is her polar opposite.

Her friend, Katie, aspires to go to college but is uncertain about how to pay for it. Her friend Martin suggests the military.

Katie's boyfriend, Jay, faces pressure from his father to attend Stanford University, but Jay has no interest in doing so.

"When writing the characters, I wanted to write the kind of kids you would want to have as friends," Schireman said. "But they are really based on stereotypes and ideals."

She wrote the dialogue for the play and the lyrics for the music. She wrote the music with the help of local musicians Richard Williams and David McKenzie. It took her about three years to complete the musical.

"I would sing the songs to Richard and he would help me put chords down," she said. "David McKenzie made them into written arrangements."

Schireman hopes the production of the play will give her an edge in the national Baker's Plays High School Playwriting Contest, to which she recently submitted "Junestruck."

Baker's Plays, based in Quincy, Mass., will publish the winning submission with a royalty-earning contract and award $500 to the playwright. The main criterion for the contest is that the play can be produced by high school students on a high school stage.

Michael Fitzgerald, drama director at Crater High and a professional actor for 22 years, sponsored the submission.

"The play has vibrance," Fitzgerald said. "It has thoughtful transitions, and the music is appropriate to what's going on in the play. A lot of times with young playwrights, the music doesn't go with the story."

Putting on the play for the first time, however, has been challenging, he said.

"We are working from ground zero," Fitzgerald said. "We can't just watch the movie and get some ideas. It's very gratifying."

Schireman said she has had an interest in theater for as long as she can remember.

"I was blessed to have parents who appreciated the theater arts and took me to a lot of shows," she said.

She began singing at age 12 while a pupil at Scenic Middle School. Under the tutelage of a music instructor, she did recitals as well as school performances.

At age 14, she joined the Southern Oregon Songwriters Association.

She wrote a song, "The Man Who Set The Water Free," in summer 2001 and recorded a single, which she sold largely by word of mouth. The song is based on the water wars over the Klamath River between farmers who wanted to irrigate and environmentalists who wanted to protect the endangered sucker fish.

Schireman comes from a family of farmers, some who still farm in Klamath County.

"I wrote the song to support the farmers' cause and donated the money to the Klamath Relief Fund," she said.

She has also been involved in the Oregon Conservatory of the Performing Arts, the Central Point Teen Actors and the Crater High drama program, which began last school year.

She plans to attend Whitman College, a liberal arts institute in Walla Walla, Wash., in the fall to study theater arts.

Call Paris Achen at 776-4459 or e-mail pachen@mailtribune.com.