In The First Shadow, what play does Joyce Maldonado try to stage at Hawkins High?

In The First Shadow, Joyce Maldonado tries to stage Dark of the Moon at Hawkins High. The play is set in 1959, decades before Joyce becomes the mother and investigator audiences know from the television series.

Dark of the Moon is an Appalachian folk drama by Howard Richardson and William Berney. Its story centers on a witch boy who gives up his supernatural powers for love, making its themes of isolation, longing, and danger especially appropriate to The First Shadow’s darker mythology.

Joyce’s theatrical project is part of the prequel’s portrait of her as an ambitious Hawkins teenager who wants to graduate and escape the small town. Her production also brings her into the same social world as young Jim Hopper, Bob Newby, and Henry Creel.

The title can be confused with Stranger Things’ broader references to classic school musicals and plays. In the stage production’s 1959 storyline, however, the named play connected to Joyce’s directing effort is Dark of the Moon—not The Crucible, Our Town, or The Glass Menagerie.