The Homeschool Theater Troupe is putting on the English classic story collection The Canterbury Tales this weekend at the Dr. A.J. Ferlazzo Auditorium. The troupe is a group of homeschoolers ages 10 to 17 who practice at Sharron Baucom Dale City Recreation Center.

Sarah Beth Kaleda, 17, doesn’t just study history. She stars in it. This fall, she’s a married woman living in England the year 1380AD. Last spring, she braved the waters of coastal Greece in 1,170 BC. The year before, she relived 15th century Paris and ancient Persia.

Kaleda is a member of Homeschool Theater Troupe.“It’s cool because every play is such a place in history. Studying that is really cool,” says Kaleda who has been in the theater group since 2005.

HTT Director Julie Little always chooses classic works with historical settings for the group’s plays. She assigns all the students to study their character and time period in which he or she lived.

“That’s actually an old drama trick from my past. Normally, to be somewhat believable in show you need some background on the character you are playing. And it helps the kids learn about history by learning about their character. So it’s sort of win-win,” says Little.

Homeschool parents are also fans of the group’s history class meets high school play formula. Assistant director Jill Beare has two kids in the production and helped start the theater troupe in 2004.  In the past five years, her kids have covered literary classics from the Homer’s The Odyssey to Charles Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities with the group.

Although Homeschool Theater Troupe is not the only drama group for homeschoolers in the area, it is the only one with a history component. Others focus on musicals. That unique element attracts students from the far flung corners of Northern Virginia.  

“I live in Fredericksburg so this is a really far drive for me,” says Elliott Hay, 16. “There’re a lot of theater groups in the area, but I could never do another. First of all is the camaraderie of the group. But Julie is such an amazing director.”

Little is as integral to Homeschool Theater Troupe as the scripts and costumes. The students adore her hands-on style. At one recent rehearsal, she patiently helped two students in chicken costumes perfect their rendition of the Nun’s Tale – coaching the hen to sound annoyed as her crush, a rooster, describes a recent bad dream.

Little and Beare initially started doing plays with their kids and those of a few other area families. Little, who  is a member of Woodbridge’s The Castaways Repertory Theatre, has been directing the biannual plays ever since. When HTT grew quickly, so Little and Beare approached Sharron Baucom Dale City Recreation Center about hosting rehearsals there.  The plays now runs as a class through the center.  

Now, each fall and spring, between 35 and 45 children audition for Homeschool Theater Troupe’s plays. Her group is now so popular that Little struggles to find productions with enough parts to accommodate everyone. “We started doing shows where I could offer roles to everyone, even if it’s just an extra roll. I just don’t like turning people away,” she says.