Playback Theatre

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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. Playback Theatre is sometimes considered a modality of drama therapy.

Contents

[edit] History

Founded in 1975 by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. Fox was a student of improvisational theatre, oral traditional storytelling, psychodrama and the work of Paulo Freire.

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. Playback companies now exist on five continents. The International Playback Theatre Network was founded in 1990 to support Playback activity throughout the world. As of 2004, the IPTN has 100 company and 300 individual members from 40 countries.

International Playback conferences have taken place in Sydney, Australia (1992), Christchurch, New Zealand (1993), in a village north of Helsinki, Finland (1993), in Olympia, Washington USA (1995), Perth, Australia, (1997), York, England, UK (1999), Shizuoka, Japan (2003) and São Paulo, Brazil (2007).

To meet the demand for training which this level of growth has created, Jonathan Fox, Jo Salas and guest faculty run the School of Playback Theatre, which has provided beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of training in Playback Theatre since 1993.

[edit] Resources

  • Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre - Jo Salas, 1993
  • Acts Of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre - Jonathan Fox, 1986
  • Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre - Edited by Jonathan Fox & Heinrich Dauber, 1999
  • 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

[edit] See also

[edit] Locations of Playback theatre companies

Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay, USA

[edit] External links

[edit] Networks

[edit] Schools

[edit] Playback companies

Languages