Playback Theater

Playback Theater, developed by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas, is an internationally recognized form of improvisational theater. During a Playback performance, audience members are invited to share significant personal stories from their lives. Each story is then spontaneously “played back” by a team of actors and musicians, allowing for the individual and collective witnessing of each teller’s experience.

This class offers a supportive and fun introduction to Playback Theater’s profound process of listening, sharing, and performing each other’s stories. Sessions begin with guided warm-ups, such as movement, sound, theater games, and guided group interactions. We then focus on specific Playback Theater skills and techniques, including fluid sculptures, pairs, flairs, chorus, three-person story, and full-length story enactment.

Students will be supported to experiment with and practice the full range of Playback Theater roles: actor, musician, conductor, teller, and witness.

All will have the opportunity to share their own stories and to take part in playing back the stories of other participants. No performance experience is necessary.

Class for Adults, and Class for Kids, ages 10-13, currently being taught on Zoom. Contact Judy for details.