Bring Your WholeSelf!: Theatre and Storytelling

This workshop will introduce participants to Playback Theatre, a form of improvisational theatre where audience or group members tell stories from their lives and see them enacted on the spot. Participants will learn simple playback forms and have the opportunity to perform playback during Gathering. As Southeastern Yearly Meeting’s field secretary for Earthcare, I and…

Workshop Description

This workshop will introduce participants to Playback Theatre, a form of improvisational theatre where audience or group members tell stories from their lives and see them enacted on the spot. Participants will learn simple playback forms and have the opportunity to perform playback during Gathering.

As Southeastern Yearly Meeting’s field secretary for Earthcare, I and my partner and anchor, John Heimburg, have used the arts over the last six years to share the urgent story of Earthcare, writ large. Both John and I have theatre experience. This has led to training and membership in a playback theatre troupe, Living Mirror Playback, and collaboration with Climate Change Theatre Action. In addition, we have experience in conducting and participating in Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) workshops. Both AVP and playback build on experiential practices, which will be central to our sessions. Finally, both of us have experience in educational instruction.

For those not familiar with AVP, it is “[a] grassroots, worldwide movement dedicated to building peace in ourselves and in our homes, schools, institutions and communities. [AVP seeks] to release everyone’s innate power to positively transform [themselves], and in so doing, transform the world.” This takes place in workshops where everyone participating shares experiences on how injustice, prejudice, frustration and anger can lead to aggressive behavior and violence. Workshop participants explore humans’ innate power to respond in new and creative ways. AVP was founded at Greenhaven Prison in New York by inmates and Quakers.

Playback is a form of improvisational theatre where audience or group members tell stories from their lives and see them enacted on the spot.  Based on the stories of the audience, playback can promote any voice, bring concerns to the surface, and stimulate dialogue by making different perspectives visible and heard. Because there is no set play, it is adaptable to the needs of many kinds of groups and organizations.  It has been used in schools, private sector and nonprofit organizations, prisons, hospice centers, day treatment centers, conferences of all kinds, and educational institutions.  A sample of playback themes include transitional justice, human rights, refugees and immigrants, disaster recovery, climate change, and celebrations. Playback theatre is practiced in over 50 countries.”¨

Climate Change Theatre Action, begun in 2015, is a worldwide festival of short plays about the climate crisis presented biennially to coincide with the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings. Professional playwrights from around the world are commissioned to write five-minute plays. The collection of plays is made available to collaborators to present. Presentations can be in-house readings, public performances, radio shows, podcasts, adaptations, etc.

Our goal is to introduce and share skills among participants on using theatre as a means of storytelling, particularly difficult concerns, e.g., racism, climate collapse, ableism, gender discrimination, and so forth. This experimental workshop will lift up the voices of participants through the use of playback improvisational forms. As the workshop progresses, we will provide guidance on various playback forms and roles to interested participants. This will include telling [stories], acting, “directing” or conducting, providing music, and performance support.

As a starting prompt and as an example of collaborative action, we may perform or read from Climate Change Theatre Action plays or other sources. To further collaboration, we will seek to support the Quaker Earthcare Witness Center, Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts, Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), and others during the 2024 Gathering. This support may take the forms of opportunistic, e.g., strolling performances around campus, and planned performances.

Our days will be structured as follows:

• Opening worship;
• Agreements and agenda setting;
• Gathering/grounding activity (prompt: play reading, leftovers from previous session(s), emerging concerns);
• Playback based on grounding activity:  acting, learning forms; music; review and feedback;
• Evaluation of the session
• Planning next session or activity
• Closing

Participants will be provided readings on Playback Theatre, including a chapter written by John and me. Additional materials will include, but are not limited to plays by Friends, e.g., Peaceful Heroes by Rosalie Regen, Climate Change Theatre Action, the Alternatives to Violence Project, etc. Throughout the workshop, we will share ideas on collaboration via theatre, especially playback, and AVP to build community and otherwise speak to conditions. As playback includes movement, participants will be encouraged to wear comfortable clothes. Boxes or stepstools and scarfs may be used as furniture, props, sets, etc. Persons with disabilities are encouraged to participate. As are musicians, singers, storytellers, listeners. We will laugh, cry, dance, and sing. Bring your wholeselves!