For Kids | PIC

Schedule of Programs at a Glance

Registration now open for: April Vacation Camp and PIC Kids Summer at Bombyx

APRIL 20-24 ages 7-18 April Vacation Camp:

The Writer's Room and The World of Clown

JULY 27 - AUG 14 2nd-9th grade PIC Kids Summer:

Improvise and Devise, Theatrical Toolkit,

and Playmaking Journey

Registration coming soon for:

MARCH 28 - MAY 31 ages 13-18 The Brave Space Youth Theater Project- A Co-production with Academy of Music

Program starting soon:

FEBRUARY 24 - APRIL 9 PIC Kids Play Lab

3rd grade at Jackson Street School

At PIC Kids Vacation and Summer Programs...

young artists gain valuable theatrical skills and make meaningful connections with their peers and counselors. Each one or two-week program follows its own structure and theme, but the foundation of all of the programs is a celebration of the creative process with an emphasis on building ensemble skills and nurturing artistic expression.

Using the beautiful indoor and outdoor spaces at Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity, the participants have lots of opportunities for outdoor free play/time in nature mixed into the day. The number of participants in each program is capped at 14 (16 for the teen programs) with an average 1:4 instructor/counselor to participant ratio.

For 7-12-Year-Olds

April 20-24, 9am-3pm

The World of Clown

Instructor: Meem Mattei

Cost: $350

For 13-18-Year-Olds

April 20-24, 12pm-3pm

The Writers’ Room

Instructor: Anna Fox

Cost: $180

All sessions will be held at Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity, 130 Pine St, Florence

Click to register!

Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity is a non-profit organization established to steward the property at 130 Pine Street, in Florence, Massachusetts - a historic gathering place founded by abolitionists who championed anti-slavery, gender equity, and religious tolerance. Carrying these values forward, we serve our community as a venue for transformative arts experiences, spiritual growth, and challenging conversations.

We are currently raising money for a scholarship fund for this year to ensure that all young artists who would like to attend PIC Kids Vacation and Summer Programs are indeed able to. If you would like to contribute to this effort, please click the "Give Today!" button below.

If you wish to apply for the scholarship, you can do so here.

Additionally, Scarlet Sock Foundation offers grants for youth arts programs. You can learn more and apply here.

If you would like to make a financial contribution to Scholarship Fund, click the button below.

Give Today!

Meem Mattei Carry is a performance artist and educator based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Their artistic work specializes in dramatic clown, puppetry, interactive theater, and the animation of public space. Meem performs as a highly expressive, nonverbal character named Moimus who is constantly experiencing conflict, failure and injustice, as a way to generate empathetic dialogue between the performer and audience. Meem collaborates with children to create performances, spectacles and installations featuring original puppets and clown characters. Trained in the Reggio Emilia Approach to education, Meem’s teaching emphasizes children’s right to their own time, and centers each child’s interests, curiosity, and capability as co-researchers of the fundamentals of puppetry and clown. Meem has experience with the Suzuki Method of actor training, as well as the somatic practices of Krsitin Linklater, Trish Arnold, and the theatrical clown frameworks of Merry Conway, Jacques Lecoq and Philippe Gaulier.

Anna Fox (she/her) is a playwright, performer, teacher and astrologer. Her work has been performed at a variety of locations around the country, including her play “The Sarahs” at PIC PIPS, and she has also been a mentor for YPF. She’s worked with kids and teens ages 3-18 the majority of her adult life, nannying, working in preschools, and teaching improv, playwriting, satire + parody writing and screenwriting to teens and adults. She received her MFA in Playwriting from UCLA, where she was invited back to teach undergraduate playwriting courses. She is currently an Assistant Preschool Teacher at The Common School in Amherst, and The Early Childhood Coordinator for their summer farm-themed program. She also enjoys taking improv classes at Happier Valley Comedy in Hadley and working in their box office, so if you’re curious about improv, come see a show. www.annapfox.com.

Click to register!

The World of Clown

For 7-12-Year-Olds

9am-3pm

Instructor: Meem Mattei

You are invited to enter the joy-filled, rule-bending world of the clown! In the world of clown, nothing is impossible and everything is very serious; you will build a glorious toolkit of failure, suspense, awkwardness, and surprise. You’ll spend the week playing theater games and exploring movement and costumes with the goal of creating your own unique clown character. All skill levels are welcome, whether or not you’ve done a theatrical clown camp in the past. The skills you develop this week will not only help you become a better performer but will help you celebrate the wonderful uniqueness of your loveable human self.

The Writers' Room

For 13-18-Year-Olds

12pm-3pm

Instructor: Anna Fox

Have you ever dreamed of being on SNL? Want to work with a group of your peers to write and perform in a series of original sketches? Then The Writers’ Room is the place for you. We’ll eat lunch together and spend the first half of each workshop session in a mock writer’s room, going over comedy essentials and drafting up sketch ideas as a group. Then, we’ll spend the second half of the afternoon on our feet, playing improv games, and exploring the acting components in the sketches we’ve just imagined. The goal is to leave the week with new connections, and several new comedic ideas, in hopes that you’ll be inspired to continue exploring these ideas beyond the workshop.

Click to register!

Rachel F. Hirsch (she/her) Rachel has found a creative home in the Pioneer Valley where her passion for new play and musical development lead her to co-found Play Incubation Collective. She is also a voice-over artist and musician. In 2016, Rachel started the music and storytelling outfit-Golden Bird- which engages the youngest kiddos in their own creative storytelling through picture books, imaginative adventures, and folk and jazz inspired original tunes. As a performer, Rachel has appeared locally with PIC projects, in commercials, Northampton 24 hr Theater, Double Take Fringe, and Youth Performance Festivals, and virtually with Chester and Silverthorne Theatre Companies. Previously, Rachel worked on new theatrical works in DC, NYC, and around the country and as a teaching artist with Spellbound Theater Company in Brooklyn.

Sarah Marcus (she/her) Sarah is a Northampton-based theater artist and educator who has been creating and teaching drama programs to children of all ages since 2002. She attended Tufts University, where she was a member of the children’s theater troupe Traveling Treasure Trunk, and she received her M.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. She is the co-founder of Play Incubation Collective (PIC) and the director of the Youth Performance Festival, at the Northampton Center for the Arts. From 2016-2019, she ran Valley Performance Playground summer camps with Felicia Sloin, and from 2010-15, she ran the 6th–9th grade drama program at The Bement School in Deerfield. She has also run theater programs at the Smith College Campus School, Greenfield Public Schools, Girls Leadership Institute, Enchanted Circle Theater, and at schools throughout the boroughs of New York City.

Click to register!

For Rising 2nd-5th Graders

JUL 27-31 Theatrical Toolkit: a 1-week session AUG 3-14 Playmaking Journey: a 2-week session

9am-3pm each day

$350/week

For Rising 6th-9th Graders

AUG 3-7 Improvise and Devise

9:00am-3:00 pm each day

$350/week

All sessions will be held at Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity, 130 Pine St, Florence

Click here to register!

Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity is a non-profit organization established to steward the property at 130 Pine Street, in Florence, Massachusetts - a historic gathering place founded by abolitionists who championed anti-slavery, gender equity, and religious tolerance. Carrying these values forward, we serve our community as a venue for transformative arts experiences, spiritual growth, and challenging conversations.

We are currently raising money for a scholarship fund for this year to ensure that all young artists who would like to attend PIC Kids Summer are indeed able to. If you would like to contribute to this effort, please click the "Give Today!" button below.

If you wish to apply for the scholarship, you can do so here.

Additionally, Scarlet Sock Foundation offers grants for youth arts programs. You can learn more and apply here.

If you would like to make a financial contribution to Scholarship Fund, click the button below.

Give Today!

Richie Barshay began drumming inside kitchen cabinets at an early age, and continues banging on things worldwide to this day. He has performed with Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Esperanza Spalding, The Klezmatics, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Natalie Merchant, Bobby McFerrin, Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz, Donald Harrison, Lionel Loueke, Julian Lage, the Curtis Brothers, Gabriel Kahane, Pete Seeger, and the Tony Award winning musical The Band’s Visit on Broadway and national tour.

As an Arts Educator, he trained at New England Conservatory of Music, and Lincoln Center Education Summer Forum, and has taught groups and individuals of all ages about global rhythms, body percussion, improvisation, and drumming in general. Based in Northampton, Massachusetts and New York City, he is an AmSAT certified Alexander Technique teacher helping performing artists and others develop more body-mind coordination and ease of movement.

Tracy Einstein (she/her/hers) is excited to return to PIC Kids Summer for the third year. She loves facilitating spaces for young people to make art and connect through theatrical play. Before moving to Northampton in 2020, she worked as a theater & movement Teaching Artist in NYC at Public Schools in all 5 boroughs for nearly a decade. Since 2018, Tracy has been Associate Faculty of Movement & the Alexander Technique at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC where she’s been responsible for educating hundreds of emerging artists in the Alexander Technique and Movement for the Actor. She's also taught for the Public Theater, the Hunts Point Shakespeare Ensemble, LeAp NYC, Arts Ignite (formerly ASTEP), Redbull Theater Company, Completely Ridiculous Conservatory, Fairfield University, Barnard College, Smith College, and UMass Amherst (theatre & dance departments).

In addition to being a Teaching Artist, Tracy helps grownups to feel at home in their bodies so they can do what they love, through her work as a certified Alexander Technique Teacher and Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner. You can learn more at www.tracyeinstein.com.

Anna Fox (she/her) is a playwright, performer, teacher and astrologer. Her work has been performed at a variety of locations around the country, including her play “The Sarahs” at PIC PIPS, and she has also been a mentor for YPF. She’s worked with kids and teens ages 3-18 the majority of her adult life, nannying, working in preschools, and teaching improv, playwriting, satire + parody writing and screenwriting to teens and adults. She received her MFA in Playwriting from UCLA, where she was invited back to teach undergraduate playwriting courses. She is currently an Assistant Preschool Teacher at The Common School in Amherst, and The Early Childhood Coordinator for their summer farm-themed program. She also enjoys taking improv classes at Happier Valley Comedy in Hadley and working in their box office, so if you’re curious about improv, come see a show. www.annapfox.com.

Brianna Sloane is a director, actor, teacher, and maker based in Huntington MA. Brianna has worked as a teaching artist in all sorts of ways and places - camps and schools with young children; teaching, coaching, and directing high school-aged students; offering theater classes for older adults at community centers; working as a visiting professor at colleges; and teaching master-level workshops for professional actors.

Brianna has an extensive background in physical comedy, mask, and the Italian Commedia dell'Arte and loves working on movement for theater. She is co-founder of TheatreTruck, a mother-owned company crafting mobile & site-specific performance and making new work in Western Ma. In Chicago, Brianna served as Education Outreach Director for Piccolo Theatre as well as working artistically with companies around the city for over a decade.

Click here to register

July 27-31 Theatrical Toolkit: a one-week session

Rising 2nd-5th graders

Instructors: Tracy Einstein and Richie Barshay

Theater lovers unite! In this one-week workshop, you’ll get to build your skills as a performer and join a supportive community of creative kids. Through theater games, movement and scene improvisations, songwriting and prop and set design, you’ll explore key elements of performance and ensemble building. The work will culminate in an end-of-week sharing where you’ll get to showcase your theatrical toolkit!

August 3-14 Playmaking Journey: a two-week session

Rising 2nd-5th graders

Instructor: Brianna Sloane

This fun-filled two-week workshop will guide participants through all of the elements of theatrical storytelling as you get to create your own original play. The first week will be spent building our ensemble and exploring theater, improv, and movement games in order to generate stories, dialogue, and characters. Inspired by all of that idea generation, the director will create a script for the second week and participants will experience all aspects of the rehearsal process culminating in a short performance on Fri Aug 14th. Through it all, there will be lots of space for collaboration, imaginative play, learning new skills, and making new friends!.

August 3-7 Improvise and Devise

Rising 6th-9th graders

Instructor: Anna Fox

Enjoy making things up on the spot, working as a team, and creating your own performances? Whether you’re new to improv or very experienced, this session welcomes all skill levels and will provide plenty of opportunities for growth We will spend the mornings each day playing comedy improv games, and then apply those skills and concepts to our afternoon sessions, working as an ensemble to create (devise) our own original performance. The exciting part of improv is that it’s all made up, so while the games have structures and rules, we won’t know what will happen until we’re all in the room exploring together. So let's take risks, laugh and figure it out as we go!

Click here to register

Rachel F. Hirsch (she/her) Rachel has found a creative home in the Pioneer Valley where her passion for new play and musical development lead her to co-found Play Incubation Collective. She is also a voice-over artist and musician. In 2016, Rachel started the music and storytelling outfit-Golden Bird- which engages the youngest kiddos in their own creative storytelling through picture books, imaginative adventures, and folk and jazz inspired original tunes. As a performer, Rachel has appeared locally with PIC projects, in commercials, Northampton 24 hr Theater, Double Take Fringe, and Youth Performance Festivals, and virtually with Chester and Silverthorne Theatre Companies. Previously, Rachel worked on new theatrical works in DC, NYC, and around the country and as a teaching artist with Spellbound Theater Company in Brooklyn.

Sarah Marcus (she/her) Sarah is a Northampton-based theater artist and educator who has been creating and teaching drama programs to children of all ages since 2002. She attended Tufts University, where she was a member of the children’s theater troupe Traveling Treasure Trunk, and she received her M.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. She is the co-founder of Play Incubation Collective (PIC) and the director of the Youth Performance Festival, at the Northampton Center for the Arts. From 2016-2019, she ran Valley Performance Playground summer camps with Felicia Sloin, and from 2010-15, she ran the 6th–9th grade drama program at The Bement School in Deerfield. She has also run theater programs at the Smith College Campus School, Greenfield Public Schools, Girls Leadership Institute, Enchanted Circle Theater, and at schools throughout the boroughs of New York City.

Click here to register

PIC Kids Play Lab

PIC is excited to pilot its first in-school theater residency with third graders at Jackson Street School in Northampton from Feb 24th- April 9th, 2026. The PIC Kids Play Lab residency is made possible thanks to grants from the Northampton Education Foundation and the Scarlet Sock Foundation.

This program brings PIC’s collaborative playwriting process into the schools. Twice-a-week Play Lab sessions use participatory movement and theater games to explore bodies, senses, and feelings as well as writing exercises to learn the structure of how to write a short play. Throughout the sessions, the students will be introduced to the elements of playwriting (character, setting, plot structure, dialogue) and guided by PIC teaching artists Sarah Marcus, Brianna Sloane, and Anna Sobel. The third grade students will work towards creating original short plays to be performed by the honors acting students at Northampton High School. Each session builds artistic skills and confidence, while also fostering literacy, problem-solving, and communication, and the process will culminate in celebratory public performances for families and the whole school community on Mon 4/13 8:30-9:30am at JSS and Tues 4/14 6-7pm at NHS.

The Brave Space Youth Theater Project

A Co-production of Academy of Music and

Play Incubation Collective

Queer-Identified Youth
Ages 13 – 18
Tuition: Cost: $30 ($15 Tuition + $15 Registration Fee)
Saturdays 10am – 11:30am
March 28 – May 31, 2026
Performance Sunday, May 31, 2026
Instructed by Sarah Marcus
Rehearsals will take place at the Academy of Music Theatre, and occasionally at another nearby location (TBA).

The Brave Space Project is a unique opportunity for queer teens to create an original ensemble theater project, and is a collaboration between the Academy of Music Theatre and Play Incubation Collective.

Inspired by their own stories, interests, and imaginations, teens will explore improvisation, writing exercises, movement, poetry, and more in order to build a cohesive ensemble performance piece to be shared at the end of the program. Emphasis will be on collaboration and building performance skills.

No previous experience necessary, just a willingness to be part of a creative ensemble.

This program will be an opportunity for local queer youth to amplify their individual and collective voices and share their own stories. Unlike more traditional youth theater experiences where the material is written by adults, the Brave Space Project empowers and centers the participants as makers. The ensemble will work together to create and perform their own original theater piece that speaks directly to the community, exploring the themes that are most important to them.

This program aims for participants to:

Collectively create a piece of devised and improvised theater, from inception to performance, based on their own stories and experiences instead of using a pre-existing script or being confined to expectations from previous productions (theater by the youth, not just for the youth).
See themselves as “makers” of art and as storytellers.
Gain collaboration, improvisation, and performance skills.
Foster a strong sense of community and build a network of peer support amongst queer teens.
Experience a supportive and uplifting in-person creative outlet for queer teens.

Refund Protocol: The $15 registration fee in addition to 50% of tuition is considered a deposit to claim your spot and is non-refundable.
No refunds will be given after March 14, 2026.

Register today!

Youth Performance Festival

The Youth Performance Festival is a collaborative program of Play Incubation Collective and the Northampton Center for the Arts at 33 Hawley, in partnership with Holyoke Media. Having just completed its 7th year, YPF is a FREE opportunity for youth artists ages 8-18 to create original performance pieces with the guidance of mentor artists in the fields of music, dance, theater, poetry/spoken word, video/animation, and more. YPF centers the creative agency of young artists, and is committed to supporting them as they discover their own creative processes. For YPF 2026, we partnered with Holyoke Media to offer a Holyoke-based youth cohort in addition to the Northampton cohort as part of our ongoing commitment to expanding YPF in Western Mass. YPF is an outstanding festival experience that warms hearts and inspires creativity in audience members of all ages!

Additional Annual Youth Programs

PIC’s annual All-Ages Salon is a celebration of the artistic process.This sharing of new, original works created and performed by youth and adult artists is always a big hit with the whole family! Past locations have included Park Hill Orchard, The Workroom at 33 Hawley St., and Creation Station.

Schedule of Programs at a Glance

PIC Kids Play Lab

The Brave Space Youth Theater Project

A Co-production of Academy of Music and

Play Incubation Collective

Youth Performance Festival

Additional Annual Youth Programs

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This work is made possible with support from The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts,the Northampton Arts Council, and individual community donors, and the Workroom Cooperative- a pilot program of A.P.E. We are so grateful for their support.