JAN
21

The Pioneer Drama Difference

By Debra Fendrich, Publisher, Pioneer Drama Service 

The other day, a new customer asked me, “How is Pioneer different than MTI and the other big-name publishers?”  Wow, where do I even begin?!  The multi-faceted answer I gave her covers so many areas that I thought it would be worth sharing with you, too.

First and foremost, we have to start with Pioneer Drama’s customer service.  We staff both our phones and our Live Chat feature an amazing 55 hours a week (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.  to 8 p.m.  Eastern Time) with helpful, knowledgeable people who are able to make show recommendations, get you additional materials, and immediately answer all your questions.  When we read online forums of teachers waiting weeks for additional materials or to even hear back from their “sales rep,” we feel so badly!  Pioneer Drama does everything possible to ensure that doing business with us is EASY and that your questions are answered with just one phone call or chat.

Beyond the outstanding customer service we provide, how Pioneer Drama conducts business — everything from the ordering process, the timelines, the restrictions, and more — is also quite different than the bigger-name companies in a myriad of ways:

• Pioneer Drama has AUTOMATIC LICENSING, which means that purchasing your production materials and telling us the number of performances and your approximate production dates is all it takes to get performance rights to do any show.  Whether purchasing a musical or a play, you never have to “apply” for licensing rights or tell us how big your theatre is and how much you’re charging for tickets.  Heck, we don’t even need to know the exact dates of your production!
  
  Better yet, you don’t have to prepay your royalties as long as you order through a school or organization.  Instead, you can request to pay for your performances closer to your performance date, even if it’s months away.
  
  
• Speaking of not needing to prepay, schools and organizations with verified business addresses automatically have credit with Pioneer, so you don’t have to prepay for your material in order to receive it right away.  Need to requisition a purchase order?  Pioneer Drama’s quote system makes the process very easy!  (District purchasing offices love us!)
  
  
• All our prices — including royalty fees — are fixed and readily available online so you don’t need a “cost estimator.”  You can simply load up your shopping cart without checking out (or do the math yourself, if you’re so inclined!)  to figure out EXACTLY how much any particular show will cost for the materials and licensing rights.
  
  
• We do not rent our materials or require you to return them.  All our production material is for purchase so your actors can have real ownership of their script, highlighting their lines and writing notes in it.
  
  If you do collect the scripts back from your actors after a show, we allow you to reuse them with another cast any time in the future.  This can save you a lot of money down the road since all you have to do is set up new performance rights for your new cast...  and replace whatever number of scripts were lost or “too loved” to be reused!
  
  
• You can purchase your materials as far in advance of your production date as you want.  Who are we to dictate what your rehearsal schedule should look like?!  This can also help with budgeting if you want to use this year’s money to purchase next year’s show.
  
  We also allow you to announce your next production whenever you want...  even if you haven’t yet purchased the materials and rights!  This is just one more advantage of automatic licensing — there’s no concern that you won’t get the rights to any particular show, so you can get your actors excited for the next show on your time schedule, not ours!
  
  
• Pioneer Drama does not pre-package any production material into “kits.”  Face it, these packages never seem to be the right size.  Either you’re forced to pay for materials you don’t need or you’re paying an exorbitant price for “additional” materials beyond what the kit includes.  We’d rather let you purchase exactly what you need and nothing more (respecting copyright laws, of course!).
  
  
• Pioneer Drama is more flexible than other publishers about making changes to a script.  Leaving out a song or two, changing the gender of a character not involved in a romance, or making other small wording changes are all requests we’re very willing to consider.  The best news is that we’ll always have an answer to your request within one business day, usually less.
  
  We’re even more flexible regarding the art work for any play or musical.  We leave it up to you whether you want to use our art or design your own.  Have a talented artist who wants to create a different logo for the show?  Good for them...  and good for you!
  
  
• Pioneer Drama has all our material available digitally or traditionally.  You can even mix and match by getting some material digitally and other parts traditionally.  Feel free to call us to place your order to be sure you get exactly what you need!
  
  

We know that your job is plenty hard enough without extra headaches while trying to order materials or licensing rights.  That’s why we’re dedicated to making all your interactions with us as smooth and easy as possible!  As the largest play publisher working exclusively with the amateur and educational markets, all our policies and procedures are set with YOU in mind.  THAT’S the Pioneer Drama difference!