What is Playback
Theatre?
Playback Theatre is created through a unique collaboration
between performers and audience. Someone tells a
story or moment from their life, chooses actors
to play the different roles, then watches as their
story is immediately recreated and given artistic
shape and coherence.
Building community through personal stories
Playback Theatre creates a ritual space where any
story - however ordinary, extraordinary, hidden
or difficult - might be told, and immediately made
into theatre. And where each person's uniqueness
is honored and affirmed while at the same time building
and strengthening our connections to each other
as a community of people.
Origins
The original Playback Theatre Company came together
in 1975, with Jonathan Fox as its director. This
was in the mid-Hudson valley of upstate New York
and part of the experimental theatre explorations
of the 1970s - looking for ways of reaching out
to its audience, bringing theatre closer to everyday
reality, and breaking away from the tradition of
scripted theatre. Since then, Playback Theatre has
spread across the world with companies and practitioners
in over 30 countries. It thrives in a variety of
settings, existing as community theatre gatherings
as well as a professional service to both the business
and social sector.
Influences
* Community ritual & theatre: Jonathan Fox had
lived in Nepal and experienced these deeply embedded
into the rhythms of everyday life.
* Oral tradition of storytelling: where people gather
together to hear and share the old stories - the
world of myths and legends and folktales.
* Psychodrama: while there are differences in form
and practice, there are many shared values in Playback
Theatre and psychodrama. For example,
o spontaneity and the release of creative energy
o inclusiveness ñ every individual has a
place in the collective.
Basic structure
Whether in the classroom, hospital, at a business
conference or in a theatre, there is always the
familiarity of this basic set-up for Playback Theatre.
Actors sitting on boxes or chairs
Cloth tree
Acting area
Tellers chair
Musician
Conductors Chair
Artistic additions
Each company may have some additional features,
for example: a cloth 'tree' at the upstage right
corner - a selection of coloured cloth draped over
a rail or ladder which can be used in the action.
Or upstage there may be a simple curtain on a rail
to create a hidden area for the actors to use in
the action. These are optional extras.
Rhythm of a performance
There is no script, but there is a rhythm and sequence
to a Playback Theatre performance. The Conductor
is the host and facilitator of the process. After
a period of introductions and warming up, someone
will volunteer to tell a story. It could be a short
moment, or about a longer event. They may be past,
present or future stories. They could be about a
very special time or about something that happens
everyday. In the course of a performance 3, 4 or
5, maybe more, people will come forward to tell
a story in this way. Towards the end of a performance,
the conductor may invite reflections on the process,
and the team will create some sort of closure appropriate
for the event.
Threads of meaning
Sometimes a Playback performance may begin with
an explicit theme, and the stories are offered following
this thread. Sometimes there is no theme to begin
with, and the underlying concerns and interests
of the community will reveal themselves through
the deeper |
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of the stories. This is not always obvious, and
a skilful conductor may be able to bring this
to consciousness at the end of the performance.
Sequence of story
The heart of the playback performance is in the
sharing of stories. When someone volunteers to
tell, this person, called the Teller, will cross
from the audience area to the Teller's chair.
The story is told from this place with the support
of the Conductor.
* During the interview, the Teller chooses actors
to play roles in the story. As the actors are
chosen, they stand. When the story is told, the
Conductor will say 'Lets watch'.
* The performers take this as their cue to set
up for the beginning of the enactment. There may
be music to set an atmosphere and mood; the actors
may use their boxes or chairs to define the space.
* During the enactment, the actors and musician
will spontaneously improvise a re-enactment of
the story, and this may happen in different artistic
forms, aiming to present and capture the essence
and heart of the story.
* At the end of the enactment, the actors look
to the Teller as an act of acknowledgement.
* Then there is a closure with the Teller - an
opportunity to say something more if they feel
moved to. Sometimes nothing more need be said
or perhaps a few words, sometimes the Teller is
offered a chance for a correction or a transformation
of the scene. And the actors will replay it accordingly.
The conductor thanks the Teller who returns to
their seat. And then another person is invited
to tell the next story, and so on.
The simple rules of this sequence form part of
the ritual that is an essential aspect of Playback
Theatre.
Ritual
The ritualistic aspect of Playback Theatre provides
an important container for the whole experience.
The ritual creates a framework, a definition for
the process, within which the unpredictable and
the miraculous can manifest. When the ritual is
held well by the conductor and the performers,
there is a subconscious sense of safety amongst
the audience. And in this atmosphere, the most
profound as well as the most mundane of personal
stories will feel welcomed and honoured.
Art
Whether performed as a naturalistic scene, or
through abstract movement or sound, or as a dance,
or with puppets and song (or a combination of
these forms), when the heart of the story is captured
with a high level of artistry, there can be profound
impact and another level of transformation and
healing. When this is witnessed as a spontaneous
ensemble creation, it offers a deeper experience
of our humanity and collective potential.
Social Interaction
Alongside the fundamental principles of Ritual
and Art, Playback Theatre gives attention to social
interaction. The ritual and artistic response
is only meaningful when there is a good awareness
of the whole group experience. This theatre form
is in direct service to healing relationship,
communication and understanding between people.
This is an underlying value, so the conductor
interacts directly with the audience with respect
and human warmth, and is sensitive to the larger
social context of the Playback event. By listening
to personal stories we feel and weave the deeper
web of our story as a community of people and
thus tap into the collective and universal experience.
Social change and transformation begins here,
as we make space for the stories of the community,
through individual voices, and are affected by
them.
The Playback Actor
Authenticity in the spontaneous moment underlies
Playback Theatre practice. The notion of the 'citizen
actor' is very much part of the Playback world
- that anyone has the natural capacity to perform
Playback Theatre in a satisfying way. Playback
Theatre challenges the actors to listen, allow
intuition and inspiration to arise, trust and
support each other, and to call upon their innate
personal wisdom and experience. So in Playback
Theatre training, in addition to theatre skills,
there is a need to develop greater personal |
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awareness, and
self-understanding. Playback performers come from
many different backgrounds - social workers, administrators,
educators. Some are professional actors; many
are creative artists, trainers and therapists.
The Playback Company
The norm is for a group to practice together,
perhaps one evening a week, for a period of time,
before performing openly. Many groups make a commitment
to performing regularly, monthly or bimonthly,
for their community in a public venue. When a
group becomes more skilful, they will offer performances
for special commissions. It is an interesting
phenomenon that members of Playback companies
tend to stay in a company for many years often
for little or no remuneration for their time or
service. Somehow the values and work of Playback
Theatre - the orientation of theatre in direct
service to the community - gives more than sufficient
reward to the members of a company. And the investment
of shared experience over a period of time creates
an artistry that can be extraordinary.
The diversity of contexts and audiences
The flexibility of the Playback form permits a
high degree of sensitivity to the needs of specific
groups. Here are a few examplesÖ
* Social change & action: A group in the Northern
Territories of Australia performed to Aboriginal
communities as part of a programme to enhance
self-esteem and recovery from substance abuse.
Playback has been used in hearing from both sides
on the Palestinian/Israeli issue. In Argentina,
playback helped reconstruct collective memory
of their social/political history.
* Corporate contexts: An audience of Swiss engineers
and accountants shared stories through Playback
Theatre about organizational re-structuring; an
audience of Post Office workers in Washington
DC were facing redundancy.
* In education: In Alaska, schoolchildren used
Playback Theatre to deal with their grief over
the death of a fellow student. Hong Kong teenagers
perform playback as part of their community service
programme.
* In therapy: Playback Theatre is also used as
an additional tool for psychotherapists in their
group work. In Chicago, a group of schizophrenics,
outpatients at a psychiatric unit, met regularly
to do Playback Theatre for each other, and told
stories of coping with everyday life.
* Community events: In Sydney, Playback Theatre
was part of a wedding celebration. In London,
it was performed at a Remembrance Evening. In
Japan, a Playback group performed for mentally
handicapped people and their friends and family
every month.
* Public performances: Playback Theatre is performed
to the general public at theatres and art centres
all over the world. It has been said that Playback
is a theatre of neighbours. You may have come
into the theatre as a stranger, but almost certainly
by the end of the evening, you will feel a sense
of aliveness and ease in talking to the people
around you.
Grounding the Transpersonal
One could say that Playback Theatre is a form
of healing, even sacred, theatre which creates
an opportunity for the divine to enter in to an
experience shared by a gathering of people. However
one conceives this, it is nevertheless grounded
in everyday life and stories, where the spontaneous
enactment of personal experience builds connection
between people by honoring the dignity, drama
and universality of their stories.
Books on Playback Theatre
Many articles & theses have now been written
about Playback Theatre. However three seminal
books are available ñ
* IMPROVISING REAL LIFE: Personal Story in Playback
Theatre
by Jo Salas 1993
* ACTS OF SERVICE: Spontaneity, Commitment Tradition
in the Nonscripted Theatre
by Jonathan Fox 1986
* GATHERING VOICES: Essays on Playback Theatre
by Jonathan Fox & Heinrich Dauber 1999 (also
in German)
Contact: Tusitala Publishing at Fax +1 914 255
1281 email tusitala@hvi.net |
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