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.
History
Playback Theatre was founded in upstate New York in 1975
by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas, with members of the original Playback Theatre company.
Since that time the form has spread throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Playback companies now exist on six continents. The International Playback Theatre Network (IPTN) was founded in 1990 to support Playback activity throughout the world through international conferences and the IPTN Journal (formerly Interplay). As of 2018, the IPTN has 192 group members and 320 practitioner and individual members from 40 countries.
[ International Playback Theatre Network]
Training
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 of Playback Theatre subsequently became the Centre for Playback Theatre.
Other schools for training exist in Italy,[ Italian School of Playback Theatre (Sondrio)] Germany,[ Deutschsprachige Schule für Playback Theater] Japan.[ School of Playback Theatre (Japan)] and São Paulo, Brazil,[ School of Playback Theatre (São Paulo, Brazil)][ Russian School of Playback Theatre (Sondrio)] Russia,
United Kingdom, Israel, Hungary, Hong Kong, Australasia
Many publications on Playback Theatre are available including:
Conferences and gatherings
There are regular and semi-regular Playback gatherings and conferences in different parts of the world, including in the U.S., Finland, the UK, Italy, Germany, Eastern Europe, Israel, Hong Kong, Nepal and India. The International Playback Theatre Network (IPTN) holds a conference every four years in different parts of the world. IPTN conferences have taken place in Sydney, Australia (1992), in a village north of Helsinki, Finland (1993), in Olympia, Washington, USA (1995), Perth, Australia (1997), York, England (1999), Shizuoka, Japan (2003), São Paulo, Brazil (2007), Frankfurt, Germany (2011), Montreal, Canada (2015), and Bangalore, India (2019).
, and Muldersdrift, South Africa (2023). The next international conference will take place in Mexico in 2027.
Education
Playback practitioners have used the method in schools on issues such as bullying (students tell stories about their experiences in relation to bullying, watch them played back, and then explore ways to create a respectful and safe school environment). Playback is used both by classroom teachers and by visiting performers/leaders.
[Using Playback Theatre to Address Bullying by Jo Salas. Educational Leadership, September 2006]
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.
[Public, Rea Dennis.] 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.
[ Do My Story, Sing My Song: Music therapy and Playback Theatre with troubled children by Jo Salas. Tusitala Publishing, 2008]
See also
Further reading
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Playback Theater Around the Globe - Anastasia Vorobyeva, 2022
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Introduction to Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater - Ronen Kowalski, 2021
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Personal Stories in Public Spaces: Essays on Playback Theatre by Its Founders - Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas, 2021
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Acts Of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre - Jonathan Fox, 1986
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Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre - Jo Salas, 1993. 20th Anniversary edition 2013. Also published in 10 translations.
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Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre - Edited by Jonathan Fox & Heinrich Dauber, 1999
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Public performance, personal story: a study of playback theatre Griffith University; Brisbane - Rea Dennis, 2004
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Performing Playback Theatre (training DVD) - co-produced by the School of Playback Theatre and Hudson River Playback Theatre, 2006
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Half of My Heart/La Mitad de Mi Corazón: True Stories Told by Immigrants - Edited by Jo Salas and Leslie Gauna, 2007
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Do My Story, Sing My Song: Music therapy and Playback Theatre with troubled children - Jo Salas. Tusitala Publishing, 2008
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Savinov V. V. The Role of Conductor in Playback-Interview / V. V. Savinov // Psychodrama and modern psychotherapy. – Kyiv, Ukraine, 2012. – No. 1–2. – pp. 126–129.
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A Playback Theatre toolkit: through the lens of one company's perspective. - Anne & Christopher Ellinger, 2018. 300-page training guide. Available through Playback Theatre Resources
External links
