The Founder
I am Jeremy Homesley, and I founded Project Local Inc. in 2017 when I realized everywhere I went became a classroom.
In 2020, I became a high school English teacher and learned what 'classroom' really meant. Teaching is easier, more reflexive, and less stressful when it happens anywhere other than school. The classroom was the culprit.
PLI is an educational support charity and certified 501(c)(3) created with the sole intent of connecting community resources to rural educators and the educational initiatives and programming I was performing in. Historical Dramas, Outdoor Theatre, Living History Encampments, Reenacting, Agritourism Events and Educational Farms, Local Businesses, National Parks, and so much more. More than providing field trip opportunities, we support teachers with anticipatory guides as well as reflective tasks and informational scaffolding activities to continue the benefits of the experience every step of the way to evidence of success on assessments.
My nonprofit supplements rural educators with community resources that increase the potential for engagement, relevancy, empathy, and authenticity for required curricular studies across the board. I know the standards, have personally administered standardized tests to students. I've also earned a masters degree in teaching during which I studied education at all grade levels,
K-12. The field trips, events, and venues we create are so tightly aligned to core curriculum and state-mandated teaching requirements, I believe some of our programs will one day be adopted by mainstream educational institutions themselves. As PLI grows, we collect evidence of student success and growth also, and track improved results in testing across the board. Multimodal and kinesthetic experiences with literature and language are proven to increase reading skills and comprehension.
There is no subject in school that does not require proficiency at reading and comprehension.
In the classroom, teaching from text, restricted to script, the student is required to invest more trust and faith in the honesty of a teacher than the real world would ever require. The format alone contradicts a life lesson all students already know regarding the healthy exercise of social distrust. With contexts companioned to curriculum, the teacher can reduce that mandate of dependence, and students will gain interconnected meanings and contextual framing from environments and experiences directly.
Project Local Inc. enacts the script. We bring curriculum to context. Community to classroom.
We help education work by finding or creating local resources and support.
Thank you for taking the time to read about Project Local.
Please check out our upcoming events for 2025 and 2026 to learn more about what we do.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Homesley, CEO and Founder of Project Local Inc.
Services
We resource, design, promote, direct, and perform high quality professional dramatic and theatrical events that have historical and educational value, and specialize in creating performances and events in outdoor amphitheaters, as well as for traditional and nontraditional performance spaces including parks and schools.
Historical Drama
North Carolina is rich in history, and the tradition of enshrining and celebrating that history with live performance events is a hallmark of our state. These events are unique among performances, and pose unique challenges for actors, technicians, directors, and producers alike. Project Local Inc. offers a complete company management package that allows us to build a historical drama performance company from the ground up, and turn a production budget into a high quality performance product, that meets all standards of success. We have created short skits and living history exhibits for National Parks and city parades, as well as main stage events and school outreach initiatives.
Outdoor Theatre
Outdoor amphitheaters and nontraditional outdoor performance spaces are our speciality. These performances require loud, articulate, and physically expressive performers and feature special effects like live-firing historical weaponry and realistic stage combat. Performing in the outdoors is uniquely challenging, but with proper planning, equipment, and attitude, there is no more exciting event than one that takes place in the open air, and nature itself can offer some help with special effects. PLI offers complete company management and quality oversight for outdoor performance events of all kinds using our vast experience and network of technicians, performers, and teaching artists experienced in outdoor performance.
Agritourism
The most crucial component of any event is real estate, and food producers and farmers have land by the acre. By integrating entertaining and educational events into a farm's seasonal production, communities rich in open land and agriculture can easily offer these spaces as educational resources and opportunities for schools in their areas. Outdoor performances, educational presentations and activities, new homesteads and pastures, renovating otherwise unused barns and shelters, and even finding ways for farmers to partner with education and the arts simply by donating food and offering residential spaces as company housing for teachers and performers.
PLI Production Fund
PLI is dedicated to creating high quality educational and entertainment events. Every donation goes directly to the quality and accessibility of our current event calendar, as well as toward creating brand new events and educational initiatives from the ground up. We combine contributions with a vigorous grant proposal campaign to provide supplemental financial resources to every event we produce. (if you would like to contribute to a specific event on a calendar, you can, just send us a message with your contribution and let us know what event it is for. For donors of $250 and more, there are annual advertising and other benefits available.
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