Children and adults worked on their storytelling skills Tuesday night at Hope of Christ Presbyterian Church in Summit Hill.

Three actors from the Pig Iron Theatre Company, based out of Philadelphia, led the workshop that taught how to dynamically tell and change a story to meet the goals of a performance. The actors are graduate students with the University of the Arts in Philadelphia."We tell stories for lots of reasons," Parker Matthews said, actor with the company. "We tell them to remember, to frame our experiences, to understand the experiences of others, and sometimes we tell them to get to know ourselves more."The workshop was part of a weeklong day camp held at the church. Participating children learned visual and performing art skills with the actors and volunteers from the community.The workshop began with a game called Pass the Clap, where participants had to clap in time with others without speeding up or breaking the rhythm. The game got participants working with the other storytellers and helped energize them.Afterward, participants compiled prompts about what they think about summer. Each participant had to choose one of the words and think of a story associated with it.The participants were then partnered up and had to tell their respective story to one another first in 60 seconds, then in 30, 15 and 5 seconds. The exercise was meant to get participants thinking about how to tell stories in different ways and what the most important elements of a story are to tell."We used to tell stories professionally," said Matthews. "That's sort of fallen away in our culture. There used to be people who told them professionally or sometimes as part of a tribe, but we don't have that anymore."We still tell stories all the time, but it's a lot more casual now," Matthews said.Matthews said Pig Iron Theatre Company works mostly with original stories like the ones told at the workshop.Barbara Derr, 11, of Summit Hill, is part of the summer camp and took part in the workshop Tuesday. Barbara, who has been a member of Hope of Christ for a year, said she joined the camp to learn about God through different ways."I've learned ways to be more open minded so far," Barbara said. "I've learned to be proud of myself through art and acting."The camp runs throughout the rest of this week.