What is Playback Theatre?
Description
Playback Theatre turns stories offered by audience members into dramatic pieces.
Playback Theatre is an innovative and inspiring style of improvisational theatre. It is "theatre without a script." Audience members are encouraged to share stories from their lives and watch them enacted, or "played back" on the spot. A Playback conductor helps each willing audience member tell a story--casting actors as people, places, things, animals, feelings--whatever the story requires. Then, without consultation, the Playback actors play the story back using only cloth, boxes, music and themselves. The results are often as unexpected as they are engaging.
No Playback performance is like any other and no one knows quite what to expect when they walk through the doors. That's the spontaneous nature of Playback, for actors and audience alike. Unlike comedy improv Playback performance mirror the mood and tone of the stories that get told whether comical or mundane, tragic or heroic. Playback is improvisational drama that honors the personal stories of the audience members, celebrating both our commonality and our uniqueness.
History
Playback Theatre was created by Jonathan Fox. The first troupe was started in 1974 by Jonathan and Jo Salas. Most of the members had backgrounds in psychodrama, although only some had experience in conventional theatre. However, they all had the willingness to experiment and to listen closely to both their audience and to the form of drama that was being born.
Playback Theatre today
Currently, there are over 100 troupes worldwide. Groups are based in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand. Because of the flexible nature of Playback Theatre, these troupes differ widely in style and mission. Some troupes focus on using Playback in therapeutic settings, while others prefer using Playback to assist organizations, such as corporations and churches in building community and understanding.
Yearly international conferences, a website, and a newsletter help the troupes keep in touch and share innovations.
To learn more about Playback Theatre, including information about other Playback troupes around the world, visit the International Playback Theatre Network website.
Member of the International Playback Theatre Network.
Last updated March 1, 2004
