Personal Play Back

Sharing personal stories and acting them out in a dramatic improvisational piece is one way to describe Playback Theatre.

Now there is a new playback theatre troupe on the Queen Charlottes. Alan Caplan and I came up from Saltspring Island Playback Theatre to train an adult group and a youth group, with the aim of forming a north and a south end troupe that could work together to serve the community.

The setting for playback is almost ritualistic. There is a teller's chair and a conductor's chair. The teller comes from the audience and shares a true and personal story. With the conductor's guidance the important characters of the story are cast. Inanimate objects, such as a meteorite or a radio voice, may also be cast depending what is important to the essence of the story. The conductor then says, "Let's watch."

The music starts and the actors gather what they need to begin without taking to one another. The enactment then begins. Actors use colored fabrics, sounds, movement and creative dialogue to portray the atmosphere and essence of the teller's story. The teller simply sits in the chair and watches. The audience is witness to the story, and also gets to watch the teller watch the story.

The story could be a poignant moment or it could be a devastating, life-changing incident. It can come from childhood or from last week. It is magical seeing your own story played out. The multi-leveled richness of story, the playback actors expressing subtleties and nuances that perhaps the teller is not totally conscious of, can create an unforgettable experience.

Stories stay with people. Like the story from man who drives an ambulance, who shared going on two calls in one night: the first to a woman who was much loved, surrounded by loved ones and friends whose life she'd shared; the second call to a man who had no friends, and no one had discovered him for four days. Or, the story about a woman who was at a party in France and knew no one except the host. A man stared at her all evening and she rebuffed him. Finally he stared at her one last time and ran across the living room to the balcony and jumped to his death. She'd never shared that story with anyone, even though it had happened 10 years ago.

Playback can be used in a variety of settings. Any interest group can have their stories played back. It's great entertainment for a birthday or anniversary. It can be used with cancer support groups, disabled people, to air environmental issues, or used for any group that has stories to share. In a workshop setting, the safety makes space for even deeper stories.

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