www.pioneerdrama.com
POB 4267
Englewood, CO 80155
303-779-4035
by Michael Leppert
Many homeschooling families and support groups see the value in including Theatre Arts skills as part of a vital curriculum. Theatre Arts also lend themselves to a powerful unit study approach, offering a mileau in which to teach memorization, public speaking, history, musical performance – instrumental and vocal — physical education, cultural geography, foreign languages, creative writing, leadership and teamwork. Nothing can build real-life self-esteem and confidence through achievement, like working on a play or musical with other people and entertaining audiences with the fruits of your labor!
To help your group or co-op with all aspects of theatre, Pioneer Drama Service offers scripts for virtually any age group and any genre. With over 60 years of experience serving the script needs of schools and homeschool groups, Pioneer Drama has grown from the passion and hobby of Shubert Fendrich to today’s large family-owned and operated business, run by his daughter-in-law, Debra. Debra used to be a teacher and understands how to serve the needs of educators – professional or homeschooling parents.
Pioneer Drama Service has an international reach, having customers on every continent but Antarctica and the Arctic with the works of over 400 playwrights! Pioneer’s friendly and professional service builds relationships with teachers and parents that span decades in many instances.
Another way that Pioneer Drama serves customers well is by remaining current in technological developments. Directors and teachers can search for specific specifications of a play, such as: cast size, length of performance, type of play and topic. Pioneer’s Search Feature will bring up plays from their catalog of 1350 plays and musicals that match those specifics. There is also an e-Script feature, which allows a customer to download a pdf of the play and purchase photocopy rights, rather than having a paper edition delivered. The photocopy rights are the same as the paper editions, but saves both time and money on rush shipping.
Pioneer Drama doesn’t offer only scripts, but also other resources necessary to staging plays successfully, including makeup kits and how-to books for directors on stage combat, costuming, blocking a scene, even a tome on music for melodramas! They also have dozens of scene and monologue books, including cross-curricular scene books about American history or science.
Pioneer’s offerings are vast, offering plays and musicals for elementary grades to high school, including murder mysteries, comedies, literary adaptations, Christmas plays, and more. They have plays with small, medium or large cast numbers; simple to elaborate sets; and varying lengths of plays from 15 minutes to two hours and everything in between!
Pioneer’s catalog includes titles such as:
- “The Inn Around the Corner” a Wild West adaptation of “You’ve Got Mail”
- “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
- “Peter Pan”
- “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
- “Little Women”
- and original works that spoof well-known plays and/or characters, providing comedy elements but bringing serious historical theatre information to students. One can learn about a classic character or setting, while poking fun.
If you want to give your homeschooling students the experience of a lifetime and enrich their lives forever, bring Theatre Arts to their curriculum and let Pioneer Drama be your vehicle!
