Playback Theatre
Encyclopedia
Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre
in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot.
, oral tradition
al storytelling
, Jacob Moreno's psychodrama
method and the work of Paulo Freire
. Salas was a trained musician and activist. Both had served as volunteers in developing countries: Fox as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, Salas with New Zealand's Volunteer Service Abroad in Malaysia.
The original Playback Theatre Company made its home in Dutchess and Ulster Counties of New York State, just north of New York City, USA. This group, while developing the basis of the Playback form, took it to schools, prisons, centers for the elderly, conferences, and festivals in an effort to encourage individuals from all walks of society to let their stories be heard. They also performed monthly for the public-at-large.
The Playback Theatre idea has inspired many people. As an immediate result of a teaching and performing tour by some of the members of the original Playback Theatre Company to Australasia
in 1980, companies were founded in Sydney
, Melbourne
and Perth
in Australia
, and Wellington, New Zealand. All four companies still exist, and are now the oldest extant companies in the world.
Since that time the form has spread throughout North America
and Europe
, and Playback companies now exist on six continents. The International Playback Theatre Network was founded in 1990 to support Playback activity throughout the world. As of 2010, the IPTN has 100 company and 300 individual members from 40 countries.
A network was started in January 2011 for people interested in Playback Theatre in North America. As of January 2011, 73 active companies perform, predominantly in their local communities. Playback North America is hosting a public Festival in Boston June 16–19, 2011.
International Playback conferences have taken place in Sydney, Australia (1992), in a village north of Helsinki, Finland (1993), Christchurch
, New Zealand (1994), in Olympia, Washington
USA (1995), Perth, Western Australia
(1997), York, England (1999), Shizuoka, Japan (2003) and São Paulo, Brazil (2007). An international conference will take place in Frankfurt, Germany, in November 2011.
To meet the demand for training which this level of growth has created, in 1993 Jonathan Fox founded the School of Playback Theatre to provide beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of training in Playback Theatre. The School was renamed the Centre for Playback Theatre in 2006, expanding its focus to worldwide development of Playback Theatre. Sarah Urech is now the executive director.
Other schools for training exist in Italy, Germany, Japan. and São Paulo, Brazil
United Kingdom, Israel, Hungary, Hong Kong, and Sweden.
In a playback event, someone in the audience tells a moment or story from their life, chooses the actors to play the different roles, and then all those present watch the enactment, as the story "comes to life" with artistic shape and nuance. Actors draw on non-naturalistic styles to convey meaning, such as metaphor or song.
Playback performers tend to specialise in one of several roles - conductor, actor, or musician. Some companies also have members who specialise in other roles, such as lighting. For audiences, the active performers can seem preternaturally gifted, as they create their performances without a script or score. Following the practice of the original company, most companies do not consult or "huddle" prior to beginning the story, trusting instead to a shared understanding of the story they have heard and a readiness to respond to each other's cues.
The role of conductor, by contrast, can seem relatively easy, involving as it does conversing with the audience as a group or individually, and generally involving no acting. However, it is recognised within the community of playback performers as the most difficult role to fill successfully.
A current project in Afghanistan trains victims of violence to enact each other's stories in the context of transitional justice.
A project in (Melbourne) Australia trains youth to enact stories of refugee youths' experiences in the context of interactions with police; and to enact stories of police experiences in the context of interactions with refugee youth. The purpose of which is to bridge understanding between these two groups (2010, 2011).
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...
in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot.
History
The first Playback Theatre company was founded in 1975 by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. Fox was a student of improvisational theatreImprovisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...
, oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
al storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
, Jacob Moreno's psychodrama
Psychodrama
Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients utilize spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where...
method and the work of Paulo Freire
Paulo Freire
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy.-Biography:...
. Salas was a trained musician and activist. Both had served as volunteers in developing countries: Fox as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, Salas with New Zealand's Volunteer Service Abroad in Malaysia.
The original Playback Theatre Company made its home in Dutchess and Ulster Counties of New York State, just north of New York City, USA. This group, while developing the basis of the Playback form, took it to schools, prisons, centers for the elderly, conferences, and festivals in an effort to encourage individuals from all walks of society to let their stories be heard. They also performed monthly for the public-at-large.
The Playback Theatre idea has inspired many people. As an immediate result of a teaching and performing tour by some of the members of the original Playback Theatre Company to Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
in 1980, companies were founded in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and Wellington, New Zealand. All four companies still exist, and are now the oldest extant companies in the world.
Since that time the form has spread throughout North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and Playback companies now exist on six continents. The International Playback Theatre Network was founded in 1990 to support Playback activity throughout the world. As of 2010, the IPTN has 100 company and 300 individual members from 40 countries.
A network was started in January 2011 for people interested in Playback Theatre in North America. As of January 2011, 73 active companies perform, predominantly in their local communities. Playback North America is hosting a public Festival in Boston June 16–19, 2011.
International Playback conferences have taken place in Sydney, Australia (1992), in a village north of Helsinki, Finland (1993), Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand (1994), in Olympia, Washington
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
USA (1995), Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
(1997), York, England (1999), Shizuoka, Japan (2003) and São Paulo, Brazil (2007). An international conference will take place in Frankfurt, Germany, in November 2011.
To meet the demand for training which this level of growth has created, in 1993 Jonathan Fox founded the School of Playback Theatre to provide beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of training in Playback Theatre. The School was renamed the Centre for Playback Theatre in 2006, expanding its focus to worldwide development of Playback Theatre. Sarah Urech is now the executive director.
Other schools for training exist in Italy, Germany, Japan. and São Paulo, Brazil
United Kingdom, Israel, Hungary, Hong Kong, and Sweden.
Theatrical form
The Playback 'form' as developed by Fox and Salas utilises component theatrical forms or pieces, developed from its sources in improvisational theatre, storytelling, and psychodrama. These components include scenes (also called stories or vignettes) and narrative or non-narrative short forms, including fluid sculptures, pairs, and chorus.In a playback event, someone in the audience tells a moment or story from their life, chooses the actors to play the different roles, and then all those present watch the enactment, as the story "comes to life" with artistic shape and nuance. Actors draw on non-naturalistic styles to convey meaning, such as metaphor or song.
Playback performers tend to specialise in one of several roles - conductor, actor, or musician. Some companies also have members who specialise in other roles, such as lighting. For audiences, the active performers can seem preternaturally gifted, as they create their performances without a script or score. Following the practice of the original company, most companies do not consult or "huddle" prior to beginning the story, trusting instead to a shared understanding of the story they have heard and a readiness to respond to each other's cues.
The role of conductor, by contrast, can seem relatively easy, involving as it does conversing with the audience as a group or individually, and generally involving no acting. However, it is recognised within the community of playback performers as the most difficult role to fill successfully.
Applications
Playback Theatre is used in a broad range of settings, in addition to theatres and community centres where performances take place for the general public.Education
Playback practitioners use the method in schools to address curriculum (students tell stories of characters in literature or social studies, and enact their stories); literacy (students tell stories from their lives and are motivated to write them down); and social issues such as bullying (students tell stories about their experiences in relation to bullying and explore ways to create a respectful and safe school environment). Playback is used both by classroom teachers and by visiting performers/leaders.Social change
Playback Theatre is used to provide a forum for the exchange of diverse experiences in such contexts as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; Dr Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday celebrations, on racial conflict and reconciliation; incarcerated men and women; immigrant and refugee organizations and their host communities; events honoring human rights, etc.A current project in Afghanistan trains victims of violence to enact each other's stories in the context of transitional justice.
A project in (Melbourne) Australia trains youth to enact stories of refugee youths' experiences in the context of interactions with police; and to enact stories of police experiences in the context of interactions with refugee youth. The purpose of which is to bridge understanding between these two groups (2010, 2011).
Business
Since the mid-1990s Playback Theatre and allied techniques have increasingly been used as an effective tool in workplace training of subjects such as management and communication skills and diversity awareness. In some cases, participants describe events which have taken place in the workplace, often events which gave rise to conflict or difficult feelings. Playback actors "replay" the events described and the facilitator orchestrates discussion about the replay, from which many participants describe valuable learning outcomes. A workplace performance can also invite any kind of stories, from out of the work environment.Therapy
Although Playback Theatre is not primarily a therapeutic technique it is adaptable for use by therapists who are also trained in Playback Theatre. Clients can gain insight, catharsis, connection, and self-expression through telling their stories and participating in enacting stories of others.External links
- PlaybackTheatre.org Resources and information on the practice of Playback Theatre worldwide
- Tusitala Publishing which specializes in books about Playback Theatre
Further reading
- Acts Of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre - Jonathan Fox, 1986
- Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre - Jo Salas, 1993
- Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre - Edited by Jonathan Fox & Heinrich Dauber, 1999
- Public performance, personal story: a study of playback theatre Griffith University; Brisbane - Rea Dennis, 2004
- Performing Playback Theatre (training DVD) - co-produced by the School of Playback Theatre and Hudson River Playback Theatre, 2006
- Half of My Heart/La Mitad de Mi Corazón - Edited by Jo Salas and Leslie Gauna, 2007