Intro to Playback Theatre

A participatory workshop of basics and applications of Playback Theatre.
Gain tools to build and strengthen community.

Intro to Playback Theatre

Facilitated by Rosalyn Smith Stover & Zhaleh Almaee 

No one escapes the need to be seen and heard. Playback Theatre is a beautiful approach to getting these (and other) needs met in a personal and collective way. The guides: artistry, deep listening and the most common way humans have known to connect since the beginning of time, sharing stories.
  — Zhaleh Almaee, Playback Theatre practitioner

 

Playback Theatre, also known as “theatre of compassion”, is one of the most widely known and utilized forms of interactive social change theatre. Participants will receive a basic introduction to some key aspects of Playback: deep listening, story sharing, and the embodiment of feelings to honor experiences that are shared. We also explore how to apply Playback in social justice settings and other contexts.

This experiential day-long workshop welcomes both community members from the Olympic Peninsula and surrounding areas as well as participants from across the county who will have just completed the week-long 2022 Theatre of the Oppressed Training. People ages 15+ are invited to participate in this interactive and fun workshop to explore this powerful form of theatre activism and community building.

(Please note this is an in person event. Masks are encouraged, but  not required.)

• Explore creative, embodied approaches to creating authentic connections.
• Cultivate presence in playful, mindful ways for yourself and others.
• Get a basic introduction to Playback Theatre to apply in any community context.
• *All are welcome; no theatre experience is necessary.

Thank you for the opportunity to ‘play with purpose’. I was amazed how deep it went in such a short amount of time. I really appreciated the encouragement and gentle guidance since I was new to Playback. I went to my edge and grew in surprising ways! It was a great day with a perfect balance of technique, application, and fun!
  — Workshop Participant

Playback Theatre is a form of Applied Theatre. Improvisational in its approach, audience or group members share moments from their lives and watch them re-enacted on the spot by a group of actors using music, movement and dialogue. This embodied reflection attempts to honor the heart of the story.

Be they comic or tragic, our life stories are full of important moments worth sharing and remembering. Telling our stories can be both redemptive and invigorating. Listening to the stories of others is crucial as we collectively strive towards a world of understanding and humanity; one that welcomes the wisdom of the past to inform our present and future actions.

Inspired by the experimental theatre movement, psychodrama, and oral tradition of indigenous cultures, Playback Theatre was created in upstate New York in the 1970s by theatre practitioners and social activists Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. The method is now practiced across the world in sixty countries, and is used in a variety of settings including  schools and universities, prisons, hospitals, service agencies, and public theaters among others. Click here to learn more about Playback Theatre, further training and its history.