The Cookeville-based Homeschool Drama Society offering community and extracurricular work for homeschoolers in the Upper Cumberland, with a new performance this week.
Founder and Director Mev McCurdy said this year’s cast of some 120 kids is the society’s largest ever. McCurdy said participation is a way for kids to get up in front of others and express themselves. McCurdy said drama is also a great way to teach teamwork.
“In a play, you really and truly are a part of a team,” McCurdy said. “And you learn your lines, but you can’t say your line until the person who had a line before you says their line. And you’re working together with the choreography, with communicating a story to your audience.”
McCurdy said the program has seen massive success, with participants from as far away as Kentucky. McCurdy said there has been a lot of community formed through the society over the years.
The Homeschool Drama Society will perform the show, “Westward Ho,” at the Cookeville Performing Arts Center Thursday-Saturday.
McCurdy said she grew up acting and performing, and she wrote her first play as a teenager.
“When I was 15 years old being homeschooled, I asked my mom if I could write a play and invite the other homeschool kids from our church to be in it,” McCurdy said. “She said yes. That was in 1999, and I’ve been writing and directing for the homeschool dramatic society ever since.”
McCurdy said the society has put on a play every year since then, with the exception of 2020.
“Lasting friendships have definitely been formed,” McCurdy said. “We’ve even had a couple of matrimonial matches come out of the Homeschool Dramatic Society.”
McCurdy said Westward Ho is an original play that she wrote based on stories from people moving west on the Oregon Trail. She said she scoured journals, memoirs, and other period sources and wove them into one story, which follows a westbound wagon.
“Since the Homeschool Dramatic Society started, we do an intense two-week schedule, and you’ll be blown away by what these kids can accomplish in that amount of time,” McCurdy said.
Rehearsals for the Oregon Trail inspired production begin Tuesday, and the kids have been learning their lines for the last three weeks. McCurdy said the cast will work to piece together the roles, songs, and more when they get together for rehearsals next week.
