In  2004,  Yes! And… Collaborative Arts iMagination Programming was born out of a desire offer more summer theatre camps, as well as year-round collaborative arts education. This was more than giving name to a 7 year-old community of artists. It was an invitation to campers and communities to come create with us. Back on the Main Line, Central Baptist Church (CBC) hosted their first camp, and created the story and characters of the first “Extra ! Extra! Read All about it!”  This was the story of the Great Book of History disappearing because people were forgetting. We met Baby Girl, and Sir Dorakos’ Dragon Flamer in that show.  At UrbanPromise for a second year, the theme was “Mosaics” and the show was called “Sneaky Pieces, Squeaky Clean.”  This is where we first met the Seips and Zip, a member of this bumbling band of spies, as well as Shomoya  with the Jamisikas and their perfect life (which included a Jacuzzi full of Hawaiian Punch).  For our first one-week camp at Trinity Baptist Church (TBC) in the Brewerytown section of Philadelphia, we focused on improvisation skills.  The final sharing was two improv scenes: one tribe was trapped on a raft and one was trapped in an elevator.  During the year, Yes! And… collaborated with teachers working in the classroom, finding ways to teach academic curriculum using the collaborative arts.  In the spring of 2005, we developed a six-week long after-school program at the Camden Forward School at UrbanPromise, as well as numerous Professional Development workshops.

Click on these images to get to the three camp's picture pages: CBC | UrbanPromise | Trinity

With Love from the campers and staff at CBC - an example of how we traded laughs and fun with the campers across the river!