ABOUT
ESIC was born of the idea that there is more going on in the imaginative lives of children than we normally acknowledge. So much of our entertainment culture for children is passive - navigating worlds created in a video game when they are just as capable of creating the worlds themselves. Our programs are designed to nurture and develop the inherent creativity of children while fostering a sense of (and value of) collaboration. Working together to stage their own stories also fills kids with a sense of their own agency - they learn the value of their own ideas and learn how to stage/share them with the world. ESIC shows that if we let kids tell their own stories/experiences, we will see how funny, poignant, relevant, and insightful they already are.
Theater camp was first started in 2008 with 9 kids by Dr. Peter Civetta, a former professional actor with a PhD in Theater Studies from Cornell University. His dream was not only to create a way of helping kids to devise their own shows, but also to make transparent how shows are made. Each part of the creative process is shared with the kids in order to empower them to do it on their own. By showing how to make theater, Peter wanted kids to do it on their own, creating their own shows with cousins/friends/anybody, on sidewalks and in backyards, at Thanksgiving and family picnics. .
Camp grew quickly, and for a while, we had a winter sessions on Saturdays. However, with the creation of the high school Secret Grandpa Improv Company, we settled into one week of summer camp. Promoted only through word of mouth from camp families, we grew to bursting (try writing a play with 27 leading roles in one night, and you will see what we mean!).
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Founder and Artistic Director, Peter Civetta was a professional actor who now works as the Director of Northwestern University's Office of Undergraduate Research after receiving his PhD in Theater Studies from Cornell University. He is also an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Northwestern's Theater Department. He started ESIC for his children Sophie and Eli, who now help him run it.