Whether you prefer John Hughes, the WB, or Nirvana as the storyteller, one thing's for certain: as a subject matter, high school can be pretty entertaining.

The Penn State School of Theatre will test this hypothesis with its production of Is There Life After High School?, a musical by Craig Carnelia and Jeffrey Kindley.

Although the play was originally written in 1982, the downtown Citizens Bank Theatre will be putting on a production that is an updated version that has never before been staged before this performance.

Carnelia, who is also directing, said the rewriting process was a collaborative one, which involved creative contributions from himself, Kindley and the Penn State undergraduates who comprise the cast.

"We molded the show on them," he said, adding that certain scenes were changed or improvised during the rehearsal process.

"We are using what they are, what they have, what they bring into the room," he said.

Is There Life After High School? is an ensemble piece, wherein the 11 actors play several different students each, thus resulting in a substantial student body.

Stage manager Kevin Cartier (junior-stage management) said that because of this there is a diversity of representations in the play.

"It encompasses every possible role someone could have assumed," Cartier said. "No matter who you were in high school there's something that's going to affect you."

One of the cast members, Tommy Wehry (junior-musical theater) said Carnelia asked the actors to use their own memories as tools.

"We were encouraged to draw on our own high school experiences as well as other life experiences to connect to the piece," Wehry said. "The characters I play range from the people I most hated in high school to the people I most admired."

Is There Life After High School? is a "concept musical."

A "concept musical" has a loose, nonlinear structure, juggling various characters via musical transitions and flashbacks.

"It's a collage of impressions and memories," Carnelia said. "Some are positive, some negative, some indefinable."

He added that although the play has some rather unconventional elements, the audience will still enjoy and relate to the show, and it won't be difficult for audiences to follow.

"Audiences are so hip these days just as long as what you're doing is of interest to them," he said. "I expect each member of the audience to experience the show differently. I wouldn't be comfortable with an event where afterward everyone thought the same thing."

Carnelia said even though the original version of Is There Life After High School? debuted 20 years ago, the themes are just as relevant now.

"The potency of this period has not changed even though perhaps some of the things we did and words we spoke and music we listened to has," he said. "The formative impact it had on us could probably be largely the same in how it imprinted us and formed us."

Justin Buchs (senior-musical theater), another cast member, said he expects the play to resonate with college students because of the subject matter.

"No matter what, who we became in high school is a part of our lives," Buchs said. "Some people just want to graduate high school and forget about it, but it's part of what makes us who we are as people."

Tickets for the Sept. 30 preview are sold out, but tickets for the remaining shows are $14.

They for the show are available at the Downtown Theatre Center, 146. S. Allen St., Eisenhower Auditorium and the HUB-Robeson Center.