AUG
18

Top Ten Reasons Why You’ll Love Working with Pioneer!

Ah, the start of another season.  New actors, new opportunities, and a flood of new play catalogs, no doubt!  We’re proud of our brand new catalog which you should have just received.  It’s our biggest one ever with more offering than we’ve ever had before!  We realize you have many choices when it comes to selecting your plays and musicals for the upcoming year, and we thank you for taking a look at Pioneer Drama Service’s catalog and website.  There’s so much about Pioneer that sets us apart from the other play publishers.  Besides knowing that you can trust us to offer you consistently high quality, appropriate shows, here are our Top Ten Reasons Why You’ll Love Working with Pioneer.

1. We add dozens of new plays and musicals every year so you’ll always find fresh shows to consider.

This year alone, we have added close to 50 new titles!  That means more shows carefully hand-picked by our experienced editorial team so you can choose just the right one for your theatre troupe.  Click here for a complete list of our new plays and musicals.

2. We welcome your phone calls.  Our friendly, knowledgeable customer service reps can help you with your order, make recommendations, or answer any questions.

We have staff available Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m.  until 7:30 p.m.  EST.  Your call will always be answered by a real person during those hours, and you will never have to push your way through an automated phone system to get help!  Call us toll-free from the US and Canada at 800-333-7262.

3. We offer Live Chat online for when a phone call isn’t convenient.

We know that sometimes it just isn’t convenient to place a phone call.  That’s why we also have helpful, experienced customer service reps managing our online chat at pioneerdrama.com.  Chat is available the same business hours as our phone calls.  Outside of these business hours, you’re welcome to leave an offline question, and we will email you a reply as soon as we are back in the office the next business day.

4. Extensive script and music samples online make it easy for you to choose your play without spending a fortune on preview scripts.

With over 1250 wonderful shows just right for educational and amateur groups, it can be hard to narrow down which scripts to preview.  That’s why we have script and music samples online for almost all our shows.  With each free script sample, you see the complete cast list and production notes, as well as about a third of the actual script, so you can narrow down your choices.  Our goal is to help you save both time and money while selecting that perfect show!

5. You can select either a traditional paper script or a complete electronic script online for previewing.

For previewing complete scripts, you have a choice!  You can place an order for a traditional paper script or you can instantly download an electronic preview, which we call an E-view.  An E-view is a non-printable pdf version of the script to read on your computer or tablet.  For more information on Pioneer E-views, click here.

6. You can choose between paper scripts and photocopy/distribution rights for your production set of scripts.

Already short on rehearsal time and don’t want to wait for shipping?  You’re not alone!  For the same cost per copy, you can order your scripts electronically, meaning that we email you one printable copy of the script that you then print and photocopy or distribute electronically to your cast members.  Of course, your photocopy or distribution rights are limited to the number of scripts rights you purchase.  (Hint:  This is also a great way to get additional scripts in a hurry when an actor loses a script or you expand your cast!)

7. We automatically extend credit to schools, churches, and other verifiable businesses.  No prepayment is required, even when ordering online.

We can bill any organization with a legitimate, verifiable business address and phone number.  All others, including businesses run out of a home, must prepay for all material and royalties.  We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.  If you are a business run out of a home, we cannot automatically extend credit to your group or company, but you are welcome to submit a credit application in order to establish an account with Pioneer.

8. We’re flexible about allowing you to make small changes to our scripts to better fit your cast.

You’ve picked your show, held auditions, and now you only have three males for a show with five male parts...  what do you do now?  We can help!  We are much more flexible than most publishing companies regarding our customers making changes to one of our plays or musicals to have it better meet their needs.  The typical sort of changes we will easily approve include changing the gender of a character to fit your cast needs or adding in local references of names or geographic locations to add humor.  Adding or cutting lines to accommodate your time constraints is also quite possible as long as it does not change the plot or intent of the playwright in any way.  Just make sure you still leave time for Pioneer Drama Service to approve your changes, since the scripts are copyrighted.

9. All of our musicals have professional quality vocal and instrumental tracks available at a very affordable price.

We love sharing this tip:  Burn a copy of the rehearsal CD (the one with lyrics) for each member of your cast.  (It doesn’t break copyright laws since it’s just for educational purposes.)  Challenge your actors and chorus members to get so good at singing along with the CD that they can do it karaoke style.  You’ll love how motivated they’ll be to master the songs!

We also highly recommend that you make an extra copy of your production CD as soon as you receive it, just in case you get a scratch on it the day of your opening performance!

10. We don’t charge you an extra fee for rights to make a video of your production, either by parents or a professional company.  In fact, we encourage you to post pictures on Facebook and videos on YouTube!

We love seeing your pictures and videos!  When you pay your standard royalty fees, friends and family are welcome to record the performance for their own personal use at no additional cost.  Likewise, your royalty fee gives you permission to bring in a video recording company to produce videos that you or they then sell at cost.  Memories should be saved and you shouldn’t have to pay to share them!

If you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to broadcast your production on your local cable station, please contact us and arrange for one additional royalty for unlimited broadcasting rights.