Who We Are
About Pioneer Performing Arts Center
Pioneer Performing Arts Center (PPAC) is a community-rooted nonprofit in Carbondale, Northeastern Pennsylvania, dedicated to youth theater, music education, and live performance. This page sets out who we are — our mission, our vision, our history, and our nonprofit status.
Our Mission
To enrich lives, empower youth, and strengthen community through the performing arts.
Through exceptional performing arts education, creative opportunity, and transformative live experiences, PPAC creates a space where young people in Northeastern Pennsylvania can discover their voice, build confidence, and find their community on and off the stage.
Our Vision
A Northeastern Pennsylvania where every young person has access to a stage, a teacher, and a community in the performing arts — anchored by a permanent home for the arts in the heart of Carbondale.
We are building toward a dedicated facility for performance, education, and gathering — a place that anchors our programs, welcomes the community, and gives young performers a stage of their own.
Learn more about that effort on our Future Home page.
Our History
How PPAC began.
The Pioneer Performing Arts Center grew out of a simple observation: Northeastern Pennsylvania is full of young people with a spark for the stage — and they deserve a place to let it grow.
In 2022, founder Samantha Guevrekian — a classically trained operatic soprano who performed with the Metropolitan Opera before turning to teaching — moved to Carbondale and opened the Electric City Voice Studio, working one-on-one with singers of every age and experience level. The studio took root quickly, and through it Samantha came to know dozens of young performers and their families. She saw what those students needed that a weekly lesson alone couldn’t give them: a stage, a community of peers, full productions to be part of, and a path to grow in the performing arts without leaving the region to find it.
That recognition became the Pioneer Performing Arts Center, founded in 2026 to serve the families of Carbondale and the surrounding region. PPAC channels a lifelong love of music and theater — and years of professional teaching experience — into something bigger than any single studio can offer: a home base for performing arts education built around the talent already here.