Yes! And...'s SHADOW Company, a high school performing arts company

About Us

We are a performing arts company made up of high school students from around the Philadelphia area. SHADOW Company is a part of Yes! And... Collaborative Arts iMagination Programming. Many of us have been involved with Yes! And... for several years, having been a part of other programs.

SHADOW Company is led by a "core" of 4 - 5 high school students that have been involved in SHADOW Company programming for a few years, exhibit a desire to grow and learn, and have expressed a desire to be in leadership. This Leadership Core is responsible for planning events, creating the yearly calendar, and making creative decisions that lead to our productions.

SHADOW Company works all year long on the craft of theatre-making. We are ensemble-based in our methodology which means we work together in whatever ways necessary to produce plays, dances, performance art, and more. SHADOW Company members are expected to learn about all aspects of the theatre-making process, including on stage and off stage roles.

SHADOW Company performs in two “main stage” productions a year. The first is our own production for the annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival and the second is as a support to the rest of Yes! And... with their Winter Sort of Thing (an annual new musical event held in conjunction with Eastern University Theatre).

SHADOW Company members are also given the opportunity to become junior staff members for our other (mostly summer) programming. Junior staff are chosen from SHADOW Company members who have been in SHADOW for at least 1 year, have shown leadership and a willingness to learn, work collaboratively with others, and possess a desire to work with younger children. Junior staff are given job training classes for a week every summer and paid a stipend for their work.

About our logo

Our logo was designed and created by SHADOW Company member Demitre Rodriguez. It is a take on the classic comedy/tragedy masks, placed beneath a street light. Not only does the light cause a shadow of the masks on the ground, the very location of being on the street represents the type of gritty, honest, truth-telling theatre we try to create.

Our sure thing: Death

As an example of the work we do, we got together one Saturday and read a short one-act play and then quickly wrote, directed and acted in original one-acts that followed the style of the original. Here is "Our sure thing: Death"