File type: application/pdf - International Playback Theatre Network

Newsletter Title
Volume XIII. No.2
Dec
2008
Special points of interest:
Playback de teatro en Cuba—
growth and development of the
Cuban Playback Theatre Network
Featuring stories by
Cuban practitioners
Milagros T Prado
Evelyn Q Fernandez
Cuban Playback’s mentor and sponsor
El Milagros y Teatro Cuerpo Adentro cuentan de un
año ocupado y el Festival Callejero de Matanzas …
ABOVE
Susan Metz
Teatro Cuerpo Adento
[www.projektpurpur.de]
grar una presentación variada, rápida y dinámica
devolviendo sentimientos o historias no importaba
que....... lo que importaba era llegar a la persona
desde su realidad y que lograra compartirla
en aquel
espacio nada pequeño y nada
Estos meses han trans currido con bastante trabajo,
íntimo, el tiempo que nos habcada vez son más las propuestas de trabajo y cada una
ían dado era solo de 30' y
ha constituido un nuevo reto por las características
todo el tiempo de pie, sin más
propias de cada espacio. Desde niños, jóvenes,
rodeos. Fue una experiencia extraadultos, ancianos y grupos de ayuda,
ordinaria, fue un crecer como actores,
hemos transitado desde los espacios
desde la conducción y la espontaneidad. Fue
corto el tiempo para todos, ya terminábacerrados hasta los espacios
y
mos y las personas se quedaban ahí con
abiertos en comunidades
o
o
rd ntr
deseos de más, no se rompía ese hechizo
a
urbanas y rurales
. P Ade
mágico que se crea entre nosotros y los esT
intrincadas. Pero
pectadores. Los niños fueron un regalo, conectan
ros po
lo que
ag Cuer
l
tan rápidamente con lo que hacemos que no tiene
i
queríamos
M ro
explicación, su mundo es tan libre que en realidad
t
a
compartir se
se crea un espacio de profunda libertad entre ellos
Te
inició con
nuestra
participación
y nosotros. Así han transcurrido más presentacioen el festival callejero de
matanzas en el mes nes en espacios abiertos en barrios, en zonas rurade marzo. Deseábamos que nuestra modalidad de
les y con un público variado desde la niñez hasta la
teatro formara parte de aquella fiesta de las artes
adultez. Lo cierto es que es posible llegar a estos
escénicas pero no teníamos ni idea de cómo haríamos espacios y vivir la armonía del abierto como yo le
porque evidentemente no sería un performance con
digo, espacio abierto, corazón abierto, pensamiento
las características acostumbradas, ni idea..., sólo nos
abierto, cuerpo abierto, brazos abiertos y un espírillevaba adelante el deseo de trascender un nuevo
tu abierto que en el ir y venir de la reciprocidad va
espacio con nuestro teatro, hacerlo conocer y comescribiendo la hermosa poesía de la vida de cada
partir esta experiencia de apertura y espontaneidad
uno y la de todos.
con la gente. Acordamos entre nosotros mantener el
breve espacio de nuestra presentación, un cierre recontando lo sucedido y según la respuesta de las per- Milagros T. Pardo practica el teatro playback desde el año
2004 y es miembro del grupo Teatro Cuerpo Adentro en La
sonas un canto final y por último nos dijimos hareCiudad de la Habana.
mos la mayor cantidad de técnicas posibles para loENGLISH VERSION p.12
2008 Trainers in Cuba
Sarah Urech
La compañía Teatro Cuerpo Adentro quisiera compartir con ustedes una grata experiencia que ha tenido durante este año.
ia
r
o
st
i
H
ca
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t
c
a
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Markus Hühn
Inside this issue:
CUBA
7-22
Practitioner Training
Miller: College-based Playback
Training in US
5
New Generation of Practice
Celebration of diversity in
Sydney’s Playback commuStories of practice
Playback NZ
From the Board
IPTN Financial Report
What’s been happening
UK gathering milestone
New Group News:
Brazil
36
23
31
25
27
From the Editor .
This issue welcomes reports on the work
of playback practitioners and trainers in
CUBA and documents their reflections on
the last 9 years with specific reference to the
events in 2008.
Significantly, the issue includes the voices
of two Cuban practitioners—Milagros T.
Prado and Evelyn Q Fernandez..
I must acknowledge the work of Ramiro
Salas, Mario Palma, Sarah Urech and
Susan Metz in helping to create an issue
that includes these significant contributors
on the Cuban story and also presents visiting playbackers stories alongside the Cuban
story in both Spanish & English. Thank you.
The issue also features stories about the
growth and development in playback beyond
Cuba—new work in Brazil; dedicated attention to sustainable practice in Sydney, and
celebrations of growth in UK.
New Zealand contributors share stories of
practice including one very moving event
where playback featured significantly in a
memorial ceremony.
The discussion about Training continues
in this issue with Ron Miller’s piece about his
techniques from his USA College Theatre
Programme.
Translation in this issue by:
Sheila Donio — Portuguese/English
Michele Chung — Chinese
Ramiro Salas — Spanish/English
Mario Palma — Spanish/English
Meanwhile, INTERPLAY will hit the Christmas/holiday mail despite our best efforts. I
must apologies, however took the decision
to extend the deadline for contributors from
Cuba to ensure that the detail required was
included.
Letters and Stories to
Interplay Editor
REA DENNIS
rea@cia.com.au
From the president
A time of thanks—
the gift of a network
Dear Friends
Once again I write from my homeland after having traveled to
other countries sharing my playback knowledge. It gives me
great pleasure to experience the deep sense of belonging and
friendship during these meetings and to witness the growth
and richness of PB development in so many countries and
regions in the world. Made possible by people like you and me
networking and sharing our love and knowledge of playback.
For me, the playback network has been a 'gift'. I was thinking
of this on my way back from Moscow recently, having been
invited there by Jozef Paradi from Hungary whom I have known since the Finnish Conference in
1993. So for me the network is also HISTORY and opportunities; where I can be part of the PB
movement of people making small contributions to make the world a better place to live.
Ecology is a 'hot topic' usually associated with 'saving' the planet. For me PB is a kind 'social
ecology' that can help make the community a better place to live. Rather than recycling bottles and
papers, we are telling and performing stories, listening with respect and tolerance, love and
generosity, making a small contribution to human ecology.
The International Playback Theatre Network helps us keep connected. Sustaining the network has
been the focus of the latest membership renewal period. Our membership secretaries have been
working with Bev Hosking, Anna Chua and Simon Gurney to bring all your updated information onto
the website for another two years.
As part of the network activities, Interplay acts as a guide as we do this beautiful and exiting work of
social ecology. A place to go, to find an article, to read about how someone on the other side of the
world has experienced this or that in their practice? Interplay makes available practice and research
tradition, innovation, friendship and support. As playback activity grows and diversifies it offers us a
way to share our stories about workshops, gatherings, conferences, seminars, festivals, schools
and training, books, research papers and personal experiences.
The membership directory and website provide complimentary points of connection. Helping us
keep in touch, reminding us of where we can meet those colleges we met at a gathering or
conference, or as a way to make new contacts. Maybe even a place where I can find a host for a
great vacation - be with my PB community in another country, another culture. Most importantly how
I can access training and support in upcoming events like regional gatherings and trainings,
Continental events like the 2009 European Gathering in Ukraine organized by the new Russian
playback community, the 2009 Asian conference in Taiwan, and the 2011 international conference
in Frankfurt Germany. Just go to the web and read.
I love this connection and I have it because of the people who are working voluntarily with love and
dedication. It is the Jewish New Year and our tradition at this time is to express our gratitude. I take
this opportunity to say thank you to … Simon as he finishes his voluntarily Webmaster work (and to
welcome Martin, the new support!).
To Rea, our Interplay editor, for keeping us updated with interesting materials and articles translated
into so many languages.
To board members who so recently traveled to Finland for a face-to-face meeting and others
handling memberships and money and who spend hours on the chat with Mountaine our treasurer
so that money transfers may be accomplished and memberships renewed. Thank you all.
With your hard work means we enjoy the gifts of the Playback community around the globe.
SHANA TOVA—a good new year to you all
Love
Aviva
Page 2
Un tiempo de gracias—
los regalos de la red
Queridos amigos,
Otra vez les escribo desde mi patria después de haber viajado a otros
países compartiendo mi conocimiento de “playback”. Me da un inmenso
placer experimentar el sentido profundo de amistad y de familia durante
estas reuniones y ser testigo al crecimiento y enriquecimiento del
desarrollo de “playback” en tantos países y regiones en el mundo.
Para mi, la red de “playback” ha sido un regalo. Estuve pensando sobre
esto en mi regreso de Mosco recientemente. Fui invitada por Jozef
Paradi de Hungría, el cual conocí durante la conferencia Finlandesa en
1993. Pues para mi, la red también significa historia y oportunidades;
donde puedo ser parte del movimiento “playback” donde personas hacen
contribuciones pequeñas para hacer el mundo un lugar mejor para vivir.
La ecología es un tema muy popular usualmente asociado con el rescate
del planeta. Para mi, “playback” es una ecología social que puede ayudar a
convertir el mundo en un lugar mejor para vivir. En vez de reciclar
botellas y papeles, compartimos y actuamos relatos, escuchando con
respeto y tolerancia, amor y generosidad, haciendo una contribución
pequeña a la ecología humana.
La Red Internacional del Playback nos ayuda a mantenernos conectados.
Sosteniendo esta red ha sido el foco principal del periodo reciente de
renovación de membresía. Nuestras secretarias han trabajado con Bev
Hosking, Anna Chua, y Simon Gurney para traerles paginas electrónicas
con información reciente para dos años mas.
Como parte de la actividad de la red, Interplay actúa como guía,
mientras hacemos un trabajo bello y excitante, de la ecología social. Es
un lugar a donde ir cuando queramos buscar artículos, o por ejemplo leer
sobre como otra persona en cualquier otro lado haya experimentado una
cosa o la otra en su práctica. Interplay hace disponible la práctica e
investigación, tradición e innovación, amistad y apoyo. Mientras la
actividad “playback” crece y se diversifica, nos ofrece una manera de
compartir nuestros relatos sobre talleres, reuniones, conferencias,
seminarios, festivales, escuelas y entrenamientos, libros, artículos de
investigación, y experiencias personales.
La directoria de membresías y página electrónica proveen puntos de
conexiones complementarios. Estas nos ayudan a mantenernos
comunicados, recordándonos a donde podemos encontrar estas colegas
que conocimos en una reunión o conferencia, o como forma de hacer
nuevos contactos. Esta página también nos puede ayudar a encontrar un
huésped para unas vacaciones o a lo mejor estar con nuestra comunidad
de “playback” en otro país y otra cultura.
Mas importante que todo, nos enseña como encontrar acceso a
entrenamientos y apoyos en los próximos eventos, como conferencias y
entrenamientos regionales, eventos continentales como la conferencia
europea del 2009 en Urania, organizada por la nueva comunidad de
“playback” Rusa, la conferencia de Asia del 2009 en Taiwán y la
conferencia Internacional de Playback del 2011 en Francfort, Alemania.
Lo único que deben hacer es ir a la página Web y leer.
Yo amo esta conexión parcialmente por las personas que han trabajado
Es el nuevo año judío y nuestra .voluntariamente con amor y dedicación
Tomo esta .tradición en este momento es expresar nuestra gratitud
oportunidad para decir gracias a… Simón mientras termina su trabajo de
...!y atraer el nuevo apoyo(paginas electrónicas)Webmaster
…a Rea, nuestra editora de Interplay, por mantenernos actualizados en
materias y artículos nuevos e interesantes, traducidos en diferentes
idiomas. A los miembros de la junta que recién viajaron a Finlandia para
atender reuniones negociando y inaugurando a nuevos miembros, y
quienes también pasan horas comunicando con Mountain, nuestro
tesorero, para asegurarse que trasferencias monetarias puedan ser
completadas y membresías renovadas. Gracias a todos.
Su gran esfuerzo significa que continuaremos disfrutando los beneficios
de la comunidad de “playback” en todas partes del mundo.
Your hard work means we shall continue to enjoy the gifts of the
Playback community around the globe.
Un próspero año nuevo a todos -SHANA TOVA””
Con amor
Aviva
Traduzido por Mario Palma
感激時刻──一個網絡的禮物
親愛的朋友們：
我又再一次從其他國家分享一人一故事劇場回來，坐在家中給你們寫信。
在這些分享中，讓我深深感受到強烈的歸屬感及友誼，加上能夠見証一人
一故事劇場在全球那麼多國家與地區的發展及成長，都讓我感到非常欣
喜。這一切，全因為有像你和我一樣的人，互相聯繫及分享我們對一人一
故事劇場的所愛所知才可以成就。
對我來說，一人一故事劇場的網絡是一份「禮物」。從莫斯科回來的路
上，我就一直想著這事。去莫斯科是應匈牙利的約瑟夫．巴洛迪（Josef
Paradi）所邀──一位我於一九九三年的芬蘭會議中相識的朋友。因此這個
網絡對我來說，是歷史，也是機遇──讓我能夠成為一人一故事劇場這個行
動中的一員──令世界變成一個更美好的地方而作出些微的貢獻。
生態學是一個「熱門話題」，一般被聯想與「拯救」地球有關。於我而
言，一人一故事就像是一種「社會生態學」，用以幫助整體社區成為一個
更美好的地方。我們以分享及演繹故事，代替了回收膠樽（塑料瓶）及紙
張，並以尊重及包容的心聆聽、加上愛與慷慨，為人類的生態作出少許的
貢獻。
一人一故事劇場國際網絡幫助我們互相聯繫，近期的會籍更新正好是我們
再次聚焦的時刻，以維繫這個網絡為首要，我們各地的會員秘書與貝芙．
荷絲琪（Bev Hosking）、蔡莉莉（Anne Chua）及西蒙．葛爾尼（Simon
Gurney）這段時間一直合力為你們把最新的資料上載至網站，直至兩年會
員期屆滿。
作為網絡其中一個環節，Interplay就成了我們這個美麗又振奮人心的社會生
態學工作的指引，一個讓我們去尋找文獻，閱讀關於世界另一端的朋友如
何經驗他們一人一故事劇場的實踐；Interplay融合了實踐、研究、發明、友
誼及支援各項元素，當一人一故事劇場一路成長及變得更多元發展，這份
期刋給予我們一個途徑去分享關於工作坊、聚會、會議、研討會、慶典、
學院及訓練、書本、研究文章及個人體驗的故事。
會員指南及網站提供了一個連結點，讓我們保持聯絡，提醒我們可以在哪
兒再遇上我們在聚會中及會議中相識的朋友，又或成為我們接觸新相識的
起點。也許我甚至可以在這裡找到下一次假期的落腳點──在另一個國家、
另一個文化之中參與一人一故事的社群！最重要的是，我還可以知道可以
如何得到更多相關訓練及支援，像下次的地區聚會及訓練日期，又或州聚
會如由新的俄羅斯一人一故事社區在烏克蘭舉辦的二零零九年歐洲聚會、
在台灣舉行的二零零九年亞洲聚會，以及二零一一年於德國法蘭克福舉行
的國際會議。只要上網，就可閱覽。
我喜愛這個連繫，而我擁有這個連繫因為有人願意投以愛及獻身於這些工
作。這是猶太的新年，也是我們的傳統在這時候表達謝意，我借此機會向
西蒙（Simon Gurney）說謝謝！感激他過去為我們自願當網站的站長，在
他光榮引退的這時，我獻上謝意，也順道歡迎新的支援！還有莉亞（Rea
Dennis），我們Interplay的編輯，感謝你為我們帶來及更新那麼多有趣的資
料及文章，並想法把它們翻譯成不同的語言。至於最近去到芬蘭面對面開
會的各位委員會成員，謝謝！此外還得謝謝處理會籍及財政，並花大量時
間跟我們的司庫梅坦尼爾（Mountaine）通話，好讓銀行的轉匯及會籍更新
能順利完成，謝謝你們！
你們的努力代表著我們可以繼續享受這個環宇的一人一故事社區的許多禮
物。
SHANA TOVA──祝你們有一個美好的新年！
Love,
艾非花（Aviva）
翻譯：鍾勵君（香港）[Translated by: Michele Chung (Hong Kong)]
Page 3
Zeit um Danke zu sagen—
Das Geschenke eines Netzwerks
Liebe Freundinnen und Freunde,
nachdem ich wieder einmal in anderen Ländern mein Wissen über
Playback geteilt habe, schreibe ich Euch nun von zu Hause. Ich
freue mich sehr über das tiefe Zugehörigkeitsgefühl und die
Freundschaft während dieser Begegnungen. Ich kann die
vielfältige Entwicklung und Verbreitung von PB in so vielen
Ländern und Regionen beobachten. In die Welt gebracht von
Menschen wie Du und ich, die sich vernetzen und ihre Zuneigung
und Wissen über Playback miteinander teilen.
Für mich ist dieses Netzwerk ein Geschenk. Mir kam dies auf dem
Weg zurück von Moskau in den Sinn, wohin mich Josef Paradi aus
Ungarn einlud. Wir kennen uns seit der IPTN Konferenz 1993 in
Finnland. Für mich hat das Netzwerk etwas mit GESCHICHTE und
Gelegenheiten zu tun, in denen ich ein Teil derer in der PB
Bewegung sein kann, die einen Beitrag leisten, die Welt zu einem
lebenswerteren Ort umzugestalten.
Ökologie ist in aller Munde, wenn es um die Bewahrung unseres
Planten geht. Für mich ist Playback eine Art „sozialer Ökologie“,
die zu einem besseren Klima innerhalb der Gemeinschaften
beiträgt. Und es führt weiter, als Flaschen und Papier
wiederzuverwerten, wir erzählen und spielen Geschichten, hören
respektvoll und tolerant, wohlwollend und großherzig zu, und wir
leisten so einen kleinen Beitrag zu einer Ökologie der Menschen
untereinander.
Das Internationale Playback Theater Netzwerk hilft uns dabei, in
Verbindung zu bleiben. Um das Netzwerk zu stärken lag unser
Fokus auf der Erneuerung der Mitgliedschaft. Unsere nationalen
Sekretäre haben mit Bev Hosking, Anna Chua und Simon Gurnsey
an der Aktualisierung der Informationen auf der Webseite für die
gearbeitet, wie es alle zwei Jahre geschieht.
INTERPLAY, als ein Teil unserer Netzwerkaktivitäten, begleitet und
dokumentiert für uns, die wunderbare und aufregende Arbeit im
sozial-ökologischen Kontext. Hier kann man Artikel finden, die
über die Erfahrungen von einem anderen Kontinent berichten.
INTERPLAY ermöglicht einen Zugang zur Playback-Praxis und
deren Erforschung und Innovationen, Freundschaften und
Unterstützung. Während sich Playback immer weiter verbreitet
und ausdifferenziert bietet diese Zeitschrift einen Weg unsere
Geschichten zu teilen und verweißt auf Workshops, Seminare,
Festivals, Lernorte, Trainings, Bücher, Forschungsberichte und
persönliche Erfahrungen.
Das Mitgliederverzeichnis und die Webseite sind eine weitere,
ergänzende Möglichkeit um Verbindungen herzustellen. Sie helfen
uns in Verbindung zu bleiben, erinnern an Menschen, die wir
vielleicht auf Konferenzen oder anderen Veranstaltungen getroffen
haben. und geben die Chance zu neuer Kontaktaufnahme.
Vielleicht finde ich hier einen wundervollen Gastgeber innerhalb
der Playback-Gemeinschaft an meinem nächsten Urlaubsziel? Und
ich kann so Zeit in einer anderen Playbackgemeinschaft in einer
unbekannten Kultur verbringen. Ganz wichtig kann es auch sein,
wo ein Training stattfindet oder wann die nächsten regionalen
Treffen und Veranstaltungen geplant sind; z.B. das europäische
Treffen 2009 in der Ukraine, organisiert von den russischen
Playbackern, die Konferenz der asiatischen Freunde und
Freundinnen in Taiwan oder die IPTN Tagung 2011 in Frankfurt.
Du kannst einfach auf die Webseite schauen und Dich selbst
informieren.
Ich liebe solche Art der Verbindung, und halte sie aufrecht, weil
die Menschen freiwillig mit Liebe und Einsatz bei der Sache sind.
Hier ist gerade jüdisches Neujahrsfest und unsere Tradition ist es,
unsere Dankbarkeit auszudrücken. Ich nutze die Gelegenheit
Simon ein ganz besonderes Danke zu sagen: Er hat seine
ehrenamtliche Tätigkeit als Webmaster des IPTN abgeschlossen
(und ein Willkommen an den neuen Webmaster Martin!) Ein
großes Dankeschön an Rea, die Herausgeberin von INTERPLAY, die
uns mit Neuigkeiten und interessantem Material in
unterschiedlichen Sprachen auf dem Laufenden hält. Dank auch an
die Mitglieder des IPTN-Vorstandes, die kürzlich nach Finnland
kamen, um ein Treffen zu ermöglichen. Dank an jene, die unsere
Mitglieder betreuen, nicht zuletzt Dank an die, die Stunden mit
Mountain, unserem Kassenwart, im Internetchat verbrachten um
die Onlineüberweisung via Internet zu beraten. Ein großes
Dankeschön an alle von Euch! Eure harte Arbeit bedeutet, dass wir
weiter die Geschenke eines Netzwerkes genießen dürfen. Überall
auf dem Planeten.
Shana Tova – Ein erfülltes Neues Jahr Euch allen.
Von Herzen
Aviva
Translation: Markus Hühn
Page 4
Tempo de agradecimento – os presentes de uma rede
Queridos amigos,
Mais uma vez escrevo da minha terra depois de viajar por outros países
dividindo o meu conhecimento de Playback. A sensação de pertencer a uma
comunidade, de ter amigos dentro dela, e de testemunhar o crescimento e a
riqueza do PT em tantos países e lugares do mundo me traz muito prazer
durante esses encontros – que são possíveis apenas por essa relação entre
eu e você onde dividimos nosso amor e conhecimento de Playback.
Para mim, a Rede de Playback tem sido um presente. Eu estava pensando
nisso no caminho de volta de Moscou recentemente. Foi o Jozef Paradi da
Hungria, a quem conheci na Conferencia da Finlandia em 1993, que me
convidou para este evento. Então para mim, a Rede também é HISTÓRIA e
oportunidades. Posso fazer parte do movimento do PT onde pessoas fazem
pequenas contribuições para fazer do mundo um lugar melhor para vivermos.
Ecologia é um assunto “quente” hoje em dia, normalmente associado com a
“salvação do planeta”. Para mim, o PT é uma espécie de “ecologia social”
que pode ajudar a comunidade a se tornar este lugar melhor de se viver. Ao
invés de reciclarmos garrafas e papéis, estamos contando e encenando
histórias, ouvindo com respeito e tolerância, amor e generosidade, fazendo
uma pequena contribuição para a ecologia humana.
A Rede Internacional de Playback Theatre nos ajuda a ficarmos conectados.
O foco do recente período de renovação de sócios tem sido o de sustentar
esta Rede. Nossos secretários têm trabalhado com a Bev Hosing, Anna
Chua and Simon Gurney para trazer toda a informação atualizada para
nosso website por mais dois anos.
O Interplay, como parte das atividades da Rede, atua como um guia deste
trabalho lindo e emocionante que fazemos na ecologia social. É o recurso
para buscas de artigos, para leituras sobre como alguém do outro lado do
mundo viveu esta ou aquela experiência. O Interplay coloca a nossa disposição a prática e a pesquisa, a tradição e a inovação, a amizade e o apoio.
Enquanto as atividades do Playback crescem e se diversificam, ele nos
oferece uma maneira de dividirmos nossas histórias sobre workshops, encontros, conferências, seminários, festivais, escolas e treinamentos, livros,
pesquisas e experiências pessoais.
O diretório de membros e o website nos disponibilizam pontos de conexão
complementares. Nos ajuda a mantermos o contato, nos lembrando onde
podemos encontrar as faculdades que conhecemos em encontros ou conferências, e é ainda uma forma de fazermos novos contatos. Talvez até um
lugar onde eu possa encontrar alguém que me hospede nas próximas férias
– estar com a minha comunidade do Playback em outro país e outra cultura.
Mais importante ainda: como posso acessar treinamentos e apoio em eventos que estão por vir, como encontros regionais e cursos; eventos como o
Encontro Europeu de 2009, na Ucrânia, organizado por uma comunidade
nova de Playback na Rússia; e a Conferência Asiática de 2009, em Taiwan;
e a Conferência Internacional de 2011, em Frankfurt, Alemanha. Apenas
entre na página da web e leia as informações.
Eu amo esta ligação e eu só a tenho pelo trabalho voluntário, com amor e
dedicação, de algumas pessoas. É o ano novo judeu e a nossa tradição
nessa época é de expressarmos nossa gratidão. Eu aproveito esta oportunidade para dizer obrigada: ao Simon que acabou de terminar seu trabalho
voluntário na nossa página da Internet (e dou as boas vindas ao novo
apoio!); à Rea, nossa editora do Interplay, por nos manter atualizados com
um material interessante e estes artigos traduzidos em tantos idiomas; aos
membros do Conselho, que recentemente viajaram para a Finlândia para um
encontro cara-a-cara e outras tarefas ligadas aos sócios, e ao dinheiro, que
passaram horas conversando com o Mountaine, nosso tesoureiro, para que
a transferência do dinheiro seja efetuada e a bianuidade dos sócios concluída. Obrigada a todos vocês.
O esforço de vocês faz com que possamos continuar curtindo os presentes
da comunidade do Playback pelo mundo.
SHANA TOVÁ – um bom ano novo para todos vocês!
Traduzido por Sheila Donio
Com amor,
Aviva
Playback Training
PLAYBACK THEATRE FOR THE THEATRE ARTS STUDENT: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
RONALD MILLER, PH.
Teaching and training playback theatre with the Higher Education
sector was the focus of an international symposium in Canada last
year. A range of points of view were presented. Here we are able to
publish an abridged version of Ron Miller’s paper on how he has
integrated playback theatre into is college drama course. Ron codeveloped and co-teaches this course with playback colleague Joel
Plotkin.
In 2004, I created a course in Playback Theatre in a new focus area in Interactive Theatre, as part of a Theatre Arts program in the United States. Because the course was designed primarily for students majoring in theatre, an
approach to the course was developed to address the particular challenges
which playback theatre poses for these students . Playback theatre, in process and performance, requires understandings and skills not normally practiced in the theatre curriculum. Among these are:
1)
individual self-revelation;
2)
empathic listening, sharing and processing;
3)
sensitivity to group dynamics;
4)
the experience of freedom and self-constraint in ensemble work; and
5)
awareness of story structure and its relation to theatrical form.
The course design emerged from these challenges. To address the needs of
theatre students, I introduced two processes which are not part of traditional
playback training in the United States (such as that offered at the Centre for
Playback Theatre in New York). These were self-revelatory performance and
a form of autobiographical story theatre I call ‘personal playback’. In addition,
formal professor-student roles and relationships were often abandoned during class sessions in favor of a group process model of sharing, affirming and
processing.
Context: the institution and the program
McDaniel College is a small, liberal arts college located in north-central Maryland. It has about 2000 undergraduate students, of whom less than 50 are
theatre majors or minors. It attracts students interested in small classes and
individualized interactions with professors.
Interactive theatre was included in the curriculum after an external review of
the department’s curriculum. In order to create a program, I designed and
introduced five new courses over four years. Playback theatre was the last.
I considered it to be an advanced form of interactive theatre, one which tests
the abilities of experienced students to use developed skills spontaneously
and creatively in community-based performance. Playback theatre requires
a spontaneous synthesis of various practices and dispositions. Performers
must trust their abilities, respond immediately and intuitively to the opportunities and demands of the moment, and perform with sensitivity to audience
mood and the unfolding ritual structure of a performance.
Playback instruction in a theatre program
I had earlier taught playback techniques to a different cohort in a three-week
module of another course. There student performers had staged a short
performance for friends. I observed that they had particular difficulty in reflecting the mood of the teller, and in supporting each other’s offers in enactments. I felt that the students, while advanced in theatre studies, had not
been prepared by earlier coursework for the skills necessary to playback
theatre performance.
This led me to focus on three core principles in designing a full-term course
in playback theatre: group safety, reflective acting, and story form.
Safety and group. I felt that the course needed to be approached as an
exercise in creative group process. While I retained the authoritative role of
professor, in class sessions I sought opportunities to model and coach for
unconditional regard. After every story enactment, I facilitated a ritualized
group discussion in which company members first self-affirmed, then affirmed
others, and only finally processed difficulties or concerns arising from the
story enactment. Many of the corrective adjustments in the company’s approach to performing stories consequently emerged from comments by students, rather than from my own notes. When there was a choice to be made
between practicing a form and attending to group mood, I almost always
deferred to the latter. (Fox 1994)
This disposition of unconditional regard needed also to be extended to the
performers’ reactions in the ensemble. The self-revelatory act of telling requires a certain quality of listening and empathizing. Similarly, performers
must model unconditional regard in the ways that they attend to and honor
the offers made by other company members during the enactment. Nick
Rowe has called this ‘psychic safety’. (Rowe 2007)
I felt that students in the course needed to experience the role of teller early
in the term, before they were prepared to enact stories. I chose to introduce a
form of drama therapy called self-revelatory performance. (Emunah 1994;
Rubin 2007) In the playback course, I used this form as a ritual of inclusion:
an act of initiation into the playback company. Self-revelatory performance
requires students to take affective risks in performing a personal story, and
creates the opportunity to experience how sharing stories can create community. This risk occurred on two levels. Students experienced interpersonal
risk in sharing a personal story that involves feelings in front of their peers.
The second risk was aesthetic. Through what theatrical choices could they
best communicate to their peers the affective significance of their experience?
In self-revelatory performance, a performer acts alone, playing, in turn, the
role of narrator (oneself in the theatrical present), protagonist (oneself in story
time), and the roles of others involved in the narrative. He chooses which
scenes are significant (since often not all scenes can be enacted fully), and
sets each scene, using narration and available objects. He may choose to
create associations with story events through verbal commentary, music,
poetry or dance, and to integrate photographs, journals, personal belongings,
slides, video and historical artifacts.
The enacted personal stories that emerged from the first playback class were
serious and comical, profound and trivial, adept and sometimes awkward.
Each student had an opportunity to be fully in the spotlight, to reveal to others
something that was previously unknown, and to make story choices in a
performance. The students addressed the tasks with a high degree of seriousness; they began to observe and listen to the stories of others with deepening empathy.
Reflective acting. Because of their backgrounds, many of the students in
the class could step with some confidence into the role of actor. Although a
playback actor must learn forms and gain understandings not required of an
interpretive actor in a scripted performance, nevertheless playback actors are
acting. Each of the students already possessed many of the core skills necessary to play a scene with some degree of competence. Nevertheless, in
the first offering of playback theatre a year earlier, the ensemble had broken
down during the enactments. In the high stakes context of performance, they
had lost their connections to each other, and to the teller’s story. In short,
they found it difficult to act with empathy for either the teller or each other.
Page 5
I deconstructed empathic, or reflective, acting as a set of skills described
clearly in sociodramatic role theory: mirroring, doubling, role taking and role
playing. Mirroring is the ability to perform a scene from a storyteller’s life that
the ‘teller recognizes as ‘true’. Doubling is the ability to imagine thoughts,
feelings and sensations associated with that scene of which the teller may
not be fully aware. Role taking is the ability to step immediately into a role in
the scene with whatever information is available, even if it seems insufficient.
Role playing is ability to enter fully into that role with commitment, concentration, and creativity, and to adapt to new circumstances within the scene as
they emerge. (Blatner 1996; Sternberg and Garcia 2000)
made them more effective members of creative groups, and more confident
and mature performers. Several students with career ambitions in acting
noted that the course was a milestone in their development as actors in
scripted drama. All valued the opportunity to work within a process that attended to group and individual well-being. Most students, in fact, chose to
continue as a performing company and maintained a regular schedule of
practices and performances for a year after the end of the course. This company performed publicly on campus, at schools, and at a McDaniel College
faculty retreat. At the end of its ‘run’, the company was invited to perform at
the Kennedy Center American College Theatre regional festival in New York.
To introduce these skills, a second learning experience introduced. Personal
playback is a hybrid which blends elements of self-revelatory performance
and story theatre. In this form, the teller/actor begins to tell a personal story
which they have prepared, but not practiced. As the telling begins, members
of the ensemble step into the theatrical space to take roles or to create environments, sounds, or images. The teller/actor steps in to play himself in the
story, returning again to the role of narrator as it becomes necessary to introduce a new scene or character, to correct inaccurate offers made by members of the ensemble (these moments can then be immediately replayed, or
simply acknowledged by the actors), or to create emotional distance by commenting on the events of the story. The teller can also perform inner states—
cognitive or affective—such as an inner monologue or an affective sound-and
-movement.
The playback theatre course experience at McDaniel College suggests that:
This form allowed the students to experience a sense of safety in ensemble
while practicing the skills demanded by playback performance: mirroring,
doubling, role taking and role playing. They also began to experience the
rhythms of spontaneous ensemble creation: offering, responding, pausing,
reflecting, observing, offering again. Because the personal playback story is
not pre-told, but emerges in the telling, students practiced these skills spontaneously. Finally, students in the role of teller/actor were able to anticipate the
role of teller’s actor. In many cases, these were some of the finest story
enactments of the semester. Despite the fact that the actors had no time to
prepare for the enactment, the performances were often rich, textured and
sometimes sophisticated.
Story form. The semester culminated in a series of public performances.
Three of these were formal performances, one at a private school and two on
campus. In these, I served as primary conductor, but sometimes rotated into
the musician’s position to allow a student to conduct. Although all students
were expected to act in performances, a few students had identified conducting as primary area of interest; others focused on music or lighting.
The first story played-back by the student ensemble was from a 7th-grade
student who remembered when his dog had died. The ensemble responded
with a simple, playful and feeling performance. The first story in the campus
performances was in some ways similar. A college student told of a time
when she was left in her parents’ car while they went into the store to shop.
A man approached the car, knocked, and speaking words she could not
understand, motioned for her to unroll the car window. As conductor, I chose
not to enroll the perpetrator, who emerged from the ensemble (but asked the
teller to choose someone to play Raggedy Andy, her oversized doll who was
in the car with her). I felt that the personal playback experiences had prepared the company for spontaneous role-taking even in this post-traumatic
telling. In this case, again, the performance was simple and intense. The
actors took time. They allowed the danger to become palpable through silence.
These were distanced stories from the past, often from childhood. In general, stories of this kind were performed effectively by the ensemble. They
did less well when faced with present-time stories, or with stories that included characters they knew in their lives, or with stories about college life. It
seemed that the temporal and affective distance provided by old memory
stories were useful to these young playback actors, as they began to work
with strategies for creating a reflective story forms. Being too close to the
stories shared by tellers seems to have made them conscious about details
which might require accuracy as opposed to empathic intuition. In stories
that provided distance, however, they were able to find simple and affective
ways of shaping human experiences in theatrical form. They were much
more challenged by stories that were more immediate, more open, and more
charged with the detritus of everyday life.
Observations and applications
Students reported that the skills and understandings they had developed
Page 6
1) Students in traditional theatre departments in the US may not have highly
developed sensitivity to group issues. Although theatre students work intensively in group settings, it is rare for them, and indeed often for their professors, to have much training is this area. Theatre departments often do not
provide the culture of safety necessary to effective listening, empathizing and
spontaneous and enacting personal stories. The student experience reported here suggests that it is essential for theatre-based students of playback theatre to be introduced through appropriate group rituals to a culture of
sensitivity in areas of self-disclosure and story performance.
2) Students who are used to interpretive acting in scripted drama may have
difficulty adapting to the spontaneous and empathic reflective acting required
in playback performance. Elements of sociodramatic role theory, especially,
were helpful to me in structuring core concepts for training the students at
McDaniel College. In this context, it was especially valuable to develop special strategies for approaching theatrical storytelling which combined selfdisclosure and spontaneous ensemble improvisation.
3) Theatre students do not necessarily have a supple grasp of story form.
Because of the emphasis on interpretive acting in traditional theatre departments, student actors often attend primarily to the challenges of the role they
are assigned, rather than to the structures, styles, forms and emotional layers
of the story itself. This skill must be taught from scratch, and represents a
challenge for student playback performers.
4) Within a theatre arts context, playback theatre may serve effectively as a
keystone course in interactive theatre. At McDaniel College, playback theatre performances served as an effective tool for education and outreach
about interactive theatre at McDaniel College, introducing students and faculty spectators to its core values. Audiences were responsive and positive,
interacted in an engaged way, developed spontaneous ‘community’, and
shared openly their own stories and feelings. At McDaniel College, public
performances won faculty and administrative support for interactive theatre
and helped recruit students for other interactive theatre courses.
In sum, playback theatre teaches and reinforces skills that are not taught in
traditional courses in theatre. Because playback theatre is a ‘high-stakes’
form, performed in public, and with a significant potential for failure, students
learn that there are important reasons to attend to the skills that they have
learned, and to apply them individually and as a creative ensemble. Consequently, it can serve as a valuable component of interactive theatre education, and as measure for evaluating the skills and understandings of advanced students.
WORKS CITED
Blatner, Adam. (1996) Acting-in: Practical applications of psychodramatic
methods. (3rd ed) New York: Springer.
Emunah, Renee. (1994) Acting for real: Drama therapy process, technique
and performance. Routledge.
Fox, Jonathan. (1994) Acts of service: Spontaneity, commitment, tradition
in the Nonscripted Theatre. New Paltz, NY: Tusitala.
Rowe, Nick. (2007) Playing the other: Dramatizing personal narratives in
playback theatre. London: Kingsley.
Rubin, Sheila. (2007) Self-revelatory performance. Blatner, Adam (ed).
Interactive and improvisational drama. New York: iUniverse.
Sternberg, Patricia and Antonina Garcia. (2000) Sociodrama: Who’s in your
shores? Westport, CT: Praeger.
Ron Miller, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts,
McDaniel College, Westminster MD USA, and director of the Interactive Theatre focus area and of McDaniel Playback, an undergraduate playback theatre company.
INTERPLAY
SPECIAL FEATURE
16 PAGES
Playback for Solidarity with the Forbidden Island
Building Solidarity with the Playback movement in Cuba
Susan Metz
In January this year 61 people attended the Playback meeting over two weeks in Havana, Cuba. A historic event, attracted 23 visitors from 7
different countries. Susan Sandy (aka Metz) tells...
Twenty three foreign visitors came from 7 countries,
and 38 Cubans came from 6 provinces. Sixty-one people participated in the two-week gathering in Havana
during January 2008. Each person came to different
segments of the program. There was a two-day cultural tour of the city, a three-day workshop (actually
two held simultaneously - one for beginners and another for people with experience), performances by
each of the four companies doing Playback in the capital, an international conference (at which we presented) and a trip to the countryside to visit a theatre
company there that is using Playback.
The goal was
to bring together individuals from different backgrounds, economic circumstances, cultures, ages and
abilities using Playback to build relationships of solidarity. Participants wrote on their applications that they
came because they wanted to know Cuba, because
they wanted to know Playback and because they
wanted to know Jonathan.
We had been presenting Playback on the island for 9
years. Playback came to Cuba in 2000 to prepare for
the filming of 11 stories of people living with HIV that
would sensitize viewers to the lives of victims of the
epidemic. The results were a full-length documentary
film, a series for Cuban TV and an hour-long video with
three stories and their full Playback enactments (which
is available on DVD). After two Cubans attended the
School during the summer of 2000, the Minister of Culture invited me to do further trainings. I taught the
beginners – 16 groups in all over 9 years. I was able to
help the movement take firm root and develop in accordance with Playback’s core values. 10 other experienced trainers offered Cuban players classes on a variety of themes and skills, each one lasting about 25
hours over 5 days during January or February.
2008 was an opportune time for the event described
here – an ambitious experiment. The NGO that has
offered institutional support to develop playback on the
island was planning the second international conference ‘For World Balance’ about environmental sustainability in collaboration with UNESCO.
For several months consultations were held with anyone who would sit still long enough to hear about
planning an international gathering with an international conference as the centerpiece.
The Playback Theatre project in Cuba enjoys the institutional support of the Sociedad Cultural Jose Marti, a
well known and influential NGO on the island. As a
project of theirs, we had a natural place in the program
of the conference. Jonathan was invited onto a plenary
panel. Participating in this large event offered the
possibility of reintroducing Playback into the intellectual
dialog on the island and internationally, especially in
Latin America.
The greatest challenge to producing a solidarity gathering was dealing with finances. We were determined to
create a safe and comfortable space in which individuals from diverse economies and personal circumstances could share stories and play together. It required several months to identify what these conditions
would be and how much providing them would
cost. Working with a retired accountant and several
members of the Cuban movement who served as the
local organizing committee, we estimated how many
visitors could be accommodated and how much each
would have to pay to cover the expenses.
Cuba is a poor country. Schools, hospitals and cultural
centers are open to all free of charge. Individual Cubans
have very little expendable income.
...Cont p. 10
ESPANOL p. 8
Susan Metz (aka Sandy) is a playback practitioner from USA. She has worked in Cuba for over 9 years teaching playback theatre. She is
committed to building playback there and advises that she writes about the playback work there because the complex political situation in
Cuba makes it difficult for Cubans to write. “Propaganda and misinformation about Cuban Socialism in virtually all international corporate
media is slanderous. This is my sincere effort to explain the political context and articulate my critical support, which I call Solidarity.”
A longer version of her article is available online.
Page 7
Playback de Solidaridad en los Prohibida Island
Construir de Solidaridad a través del playback en Cuba
Susan Metz
En enero de este año 61 personas participaron de una reunión de Playback de dos semanas en Havana, Cuba.
Un evento histórico, atrajo 23 visitantes de 7 países diferentes. Susan Sandy nos cuenta…
Veintitrés visitantes de 7 países diferentes y 38 cubanos de 6 provincias vinieron. Sesenta y una personas participaron en la reunión de Playback en La Havana en enero del 2008. Cada persona participó de segmentos diferentes del programa. Hubo una visita cultural de la ciudad de dos días, un taller de 3 días (dos talleres simultáneos, uno para principiantes y otro para gente con experiencia), funciones de cada una de las 4 compañías que
hacen Playback en la capital, una conferencia internacional (en la que nosotros hicimos una presentación) y un
viaje al campo para visitar a una compañía que usa Playback. La meta era juntar a personas de ambientes, circunstancias socioeconómicas, culturas y edades diferentes y usar Playback para crear relaciones solidarias. Los
participantes escribieron en sus solicitudes que venían porque querían conocer Cuba, porque querían conocer
Playback y porque querían conocer a Jonathan.
Hemos estado presentando Playback en la isla ya 9 años. Playback vino a Cuba en el 2000 para preparar la filmación de 11 historias de gente que vive con SIDA, para sensibilizar a la audiencia acerca de las vidas de las
víctimas de la epidemia. El resultado fue un documental, una serie para la televisión cubana y un video de una
hora con 3 historias y sus actuaciones en Playback (este video se puede conseguir en DVD). Dos cubanos fueron a la Escuela de Playback en el verano del 2000, y el Ministerio de Cultura me invitó para seguir con el entrenamiento. Le enseñe a los principiantes (16 grupos en estos 9 años). Pude ayudar al movimiento a echar raíces y desarrollarse de acuerdo a los valores de Playback. Otros 10 entrenadores con experiencia enseñaron una
variedad de temas específicos. Cada clase fue de 25 horas en unos 5 días en enero o febrero.
El 2008 fue un momento oportuno para el evento que describo, que fue un ambicioso experimento. El NGO
que había ofrecido apoyo institucional para desarrollar Playback en la isla estaba planeando la segunda conferencia internacional “para el balance del mundo” acerca del medio ambiente en colaboración con la UNESCO.
Durante varios meses hubo charlas con cualquiera que se quisiera sentar el tiempo suficiente para oír sobre una
reunión de Playback con una conferencia internacional como parte principal.
El Proyecto de Playback en Cuba tiene apoyo institucional de la Sociedad Cultural Jose Martí, una NGO conocida e influyente en la isla. Dentro del proyecto de ellos, nosotros teníamos un lugar en el programa. Ellos querían darle a Jonathan un espacio para una sesión plenaria. Los participantes en este evento ofrecieron la posibilidad de reintroducir Playback en el diálogo cultural en América Latina y en la isla.
El mayor desafío para crear una reunión acerca de solidaridad fue la parte financiera. Estábamos decididos a
crear un espacio seguro y cómodo en el cual gente de diversas economías y circunstancias personales pudiera
compartir historias y jugar. Nos llevó varios meses poder identificar esas condiciones y entender cuánto nos
costaría. Trabajamos con un contador retirado y con varios miembros del movimiento cubano que nos ayudaron como comité
organizador local. Estimamos la cantidad de visitantes y cómo alojarlos, y cuánto debería pagar cada uno para cubrir los gastos.
Cuba es un país pobre. Las escuelas, hospitales y centros culturales están abiertos a todos, gratis. La gente en Cuba tiene muy poco
dinero. No recibimos ayuda financiera ni de afuera de Cuba ni del gobierno cubano, por lo tanto el evento debió ser completamente pagado con el dinero que pagaron los visitantes.
El precio fue publicado en Internet junto con una descripción del programa y las condiciones de vida que podíamos ofrecer. La
solicitud para participar incluía una sección preguntando si uno tenía problemas con el costo. Las consideraciones de situaciones
individuales fueron balanceadas para que la experiencia fuera rica. Como la ley de Estados Unidos mantiene a Cuba afuera del
sistema financiero, los participantes debían traer efectivo.
Muchos asuntos políticos impactan en el desarrollo de la comunidad de Playback en la Cuba socialista, en el marco de las relaciones entre Cuba y Estados Unidos. Estos problemas no son parte de este reporte. Una versión más larga que toma estos asuntos en
consideración en detalle se encuentra en inglés y español en la página web de Interplay.
Grandes amistades que serán duraderas fueron creadas durante la reunión. A juzgar por las fluidas comunicaciones con los participantes de todas partes, la reunión fue un gran éxito. Ahora que las 4 compañías han sido observadas por 3 miembros de IPTN y
por Jonathan, han sido invitadas a unirse como miembros de la red de Playback. Ellos han formado un comité nacional de Playback, uniendo a varios grupos de la capital y de las provincias. Ahora están negociando con el Ministerio de Cultura para definir su
espacio dentro del sistema.
El proceso de planear la reunión fue arduo y llevó mucho tiempo. Hubiera sido mucho más fácil si hubiera habido una comunicación más fluida entre los que habíamos decidido dar nuestro apoyo al evento. Hubo problemas afuera de nuestro control, por
ejemplo, por el bloqueo de EEUU, en Cuba no pueden usar el cableado submarino que provee Internet al resto del Caribe. Ellos
deben usar satélite, que es demasiado caro para los individuos cubanos y para muchas agencias estatales. Por lo tanto, los cubanos
no podían mantener correspondencia con aquellos interesados en ir, ni podíamos consultar acerca del tremendo número de cuestiones logísticas que necesitábamos. Habiendo asumido tal responsabilidad, no pude participar junto con los demás de las partes
divertidas de la reunión.
Aquellos que habían tomado responsabilidad por varias partes del programa no asumieron una evaluación sistemática para aclarar
algunos malentendidos. Mucha energía emocional no tuvo lugar donde expresarse. lo que podíamos.
…/09
Page 8
Playback de Solidaridad en los Prohibida Island…
Metz/Sandy
… desde 8
Algunos dejaron de lado su trabajo y familia durante semanas, y al final estábamos todos demasiado cansados.
Funcionamos al borde de nuestra capacidad, arriesgándonos esperando que todo saliera bien. Todo salió bien.
Poco a poco desde el fin de la reunión, vamos pasando en limpio lo que ocurrió. A través del email y en conversaciones personales, nos hemos ido explicando a nosotros mismos, escuchando unos a otros, y estamos reparando
nuestras amistades para poder pensar otra vez en el futuro.
Ya hay propuestas para este invierno del 2009, que será el décimo aniversario del proyecto. No veo la hora de una
graduación, con todos los honores, para todos aquellos que aceptaron al teatro Playback como un modo de vida y
luchan por mantenerlo. Los cubanos presentarán sus progresos y harán las invitaciones. Siempre tendremos un
lugar en nuestro corazón para cada uno a quien hemos tocado a través de Playback, y una profunda gratitud por el
conjunto.
Vamos a ver. Let’s Watch.
Susan Metz enseña Inglés Artes del Lenguaje y Psicología en Brooklyn escuela secundaria pública de 27 años. Comenzó el
Playback y el psicodrama en 1977 para mejorar su medio ambiente de aula. Se graduó de la Escuela de Playback en 2006.
Susan ha presentado en numerosas conferencias internacionales sobre los métodos de enseñanza humanista, el Playback y
en la cultura cubana.
Page 9
Playback for Solidarity with the Forbidden Island
Building Solidarity with the Playback movement in Cuba
Metz
...cont
… from p. 7
We received no outside financial assistance nor did the Cuban government provide any support. The
event was entirely sustained by the fees that visiting Playbackers paid.
That price was published on the web along with the description of the program and the living conditions that we could offer in an open invitation that went out into cyberspace. The application to
participate included a section asking whether you would have difficulty with the cost. Considerations of individual situations needed to be balanced with the expenses that would make the whole
experience rich. Assessments were sent out shortly before participants were to leave for the island. Because US law keeps Cuba outside of the western banking system, participants carried their
fee in cash.
Many political issues impact on the development of the Playback community within socialist Cuba,
and within the international context of US-Cuba relations. These are outside of the scope of this
brief report. A longer version which considers those issues in more depth is available in both English and Spanish on the Interplay website.
Strong and supportive relationships were built that will last. Judging by the continued communication with participants from all over, the gathering was a success. Now that the four companies have
been seen and appreciated by three members of the IPTN Board and by Jonathan, they have been
invited to join as full members of the Network. Their participants, along with representatives of the
several practice groups in the capital and in the provinces, have formed a national committee. They are now negotiating with the Ministry of Culture to define their proper place within their
system.
The process of planning the gathering had been arduous and time consuming. The process would
have greatly benefited by closer communication than was possible among those of us who were
committed to working on the event. There were conditions outside of our control. One manifestation of the US blockade is that Cuba is prohibited from using the underwater cable that provides
internet access throughout the Caribbean. They are forced to use satellite capacity, much too expensive for individuals and for most Cuban agencies. As a result the Cubans were not able to correspond with participants interested in coming. Nor were we able to consult about the tremendous number of logistical details nor the needs and desires of guest participants. Having assumed so much responsibility, I was not able
to participate alongside others in the fun parts of the gathering.
Those who had taken responsibility for various parts of the program and logistics did not undertake a systematic review to clear some misunderstandings. Much emotional energy was left un-hanneled. Maybe we bit off more than
we could chew. People had put aside work and family responsibilities for several weeks, and we were all very
tired. We functioned at the edge of capacity, taking risks that things would turn out well. They did turn out well.
The debriefing is happening - little by little since the end of the gathering. By email and in personal conversations,
we have been explaining ourselves and listening to each other, repairing our relationships and once again, thinking
ahead.
Proposals for this winter are being discussed - Winter ’09, year 10 of the project. I am looking forward to a
graduation - with all the honors due to those who accept Playback as a way of life and struggle to maintain it. The
Cubans themselves will report on their progress and do their inviting. We will always have a place in each heart for
each one we have touched and a profound appreciation for the whole.
Vamos a ver. Let’s Watch.
Susan Metz (aka Sandy) taught English Language Arts and Psychology in Brooklyn public high school for 27 years. She came to Playback in
1977 through psychodrama in search of action methods to enliven her classroom. She graduated from PT School in 2006. Susan has presented at numerous international conferences on humanistic teaching methods, Playback on and on Cuban culture.
A longer version of her article is available online.
Page 10
A Call for Support
Donaciónes se pueden enviar a la cuenta de la Red de
Donations can be sent to the German Playback Network
Playback Alemán:
account:
Cuenta: Playback-Theater-Netzwerk e.V.
Banco: Vereinigte Volksbank Maingau
Numero de Banco Alemáno: 50561315
Numero de Cuenta: 44016
IBAN: DE92 5056 1315 0000 0440 16
BIC: GENODE51OBH
Account/Konto: Playback-Theater-Netzwerk e.V.
Bank: Vereinigte Volksbank Maingau
German BLZ/Bank number: 50561315
Kontonummer/ Account number: 44016
IBAN: DE92 5056 1315 0000 0440 16
BIC: GENODE51OBH
Keyword/Stichwort: "Seedmoney Cuba"
Palabra clave: "Seedmoney Cuba"
German-based IPTN Board Member Markus Hühn has set up dedicated accounts to in order to raise
money to ensure a Cuban presence at the 2011 International Playback Theatre Congress in Frankfurt.
For more information on how to express interest or get involved contact Markus on— projektpurpur@gmx.de ABOVE: Cuban Playbackers with J. Fox and other visiting teachers, [photo credit M Hühn]
More photos of Conference for World Balance and 2008 Training Events at:
www.projektpurpur.de
Page 11
Milagros and Teatro Cuerpo Adentro tell of a busy year and the Festival Callejero de Matanzas
The company Teatro Cuerpo Adentro wants to share a great ex‐
perience we had this year. These months we have had a lot of work, with more work proposals all the time, and each one has been a new challenge. Each group has unique characteristics, as we have worked with kids, adults, and aging populations, in several settings such as the city and rural areas. ce
i
t
c
a
r
f p do y ro share our experience with the Festival Callejero de Matan‐
gathering) during March. We wanted to participate in ABOVE: Cuerpo Adento
We want to specifically zas (a street arts r
t
Pa den
.
that per‐
forming arts festivity but we had no idea how to do so, s T po A
o
because ours would be an unusual form. We wanted to show our r
r
lag ue
art in a new venue, and to share the spontaneity and openness of Mi ro C
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a
our form with the people. We agreed to keep our performance short, with Te
an ending to re‐tell what just happened, and using as many different forms as possible to get a dynamic show with variety and a fast pace. The place is neither small nor intimate, and we had only 30 min, without even chairs. It was an amazing experience for us, and our spontaneity grew a lot as actors and conductor. The time was not enough and we felt at the end that the audience was in need of more, the magic spell could not be broken. There were children, and it was a gift for us to see how fast they con‐
nected, we have no explanation for how free their world is, how free is the space that is created between them and us. St
o
s
e
ori
After that, we have had more performances in open spaces in neighborhoods and in rural areas, and with a very diverse audience including children and adults. We believe now that it is possible to reach those open spaces, and to live the harmony with the open: open space, open heart, open thinking, open body, open arms and open spirit. In the back and forth of reciprocity, the beautiful poetry of everyone’s life is written. espanol p.1 RIGHT: Mila in workshop with J Fox, 2008 [PHOTO: M Huhn]
Milagros T. Pardo has been involved in playback theatre in Cuba since 2004 and is a member of Teatro Cuerpo Adentro
in Havana.
Page 12
Eine Reise in die künstlerischen Möglichkeiten von Playback –Cuba 2008
Markus Hühn
“Nach sechs Jahren Training mit cubanischen Künstlern, Pädagogen und Sozialarbeitern wird Playback Theater in Schulen, Gefängnissen, Krankenhäusern, in der HIV‐Prävention und im Community‐building eingesetzt. Vier Playback Theatergruppen existieren bereits und in sechs Landesteilen entstehen gerade weitere Projekte. Es wäre wundervoll, wenn sich jede dieser Initiative in eine aktive Company verwan‐
delt, Playback Theater sich weiterverbreitet und die Gemeinschaften überall auf der Insel unterstützt.“ (Aus dem Einführungstext für die Conference for World Balance 2008, Havanna)
Es war eine einmalige Gelegenheit, die mir Susan Sandy eröffnete: Playback Theater auf Cuba. Ein vielversprechendes, wenn auch
volles Programm, erwartete mich. Es beinhaltete Trainings mit und für cubanische PlaybackerInnen, Workshopleitung an der Universität
der Künste in Havanna, eine Konferenz mit Präsentation, Auftritte aller existierenden Gruppen Havannas, Vorträge und ein wenig Urlaub auf dem Lande. Alles zusammen mit Gästen aus Argentinien, Chile, Deutschland, Spanien und den USA.
Ankommen auf Cuba
Sanft begrüßt mich die feuchtwarme Luft, ein leichter Windhauch begleitet meine ersten Schritte auf festem Boden nach einem 14
stündigen Flug. Susan und Alberto fischen uns sofort aus der Menge. Eine Frau mit ohne Haaren, Birte und meine Mähne sind ein
unabgesprochenes Erkennungsmerkmal. Alberto, Fahrer und Übersetzer in einem, geleitet uns durch ein Gewirr von dunklen Strassen.
Laternen sind Luxus, ebenso Leuchtreklame, die bei uns die Energie verschlingen. Ich betrete eine riesige Villa in spanischem Still.
Beschämt über den Komfort, der uns in der Einfachheit gewährt wird, blicke ich auf die krude Mischung der Einrichtung. Von antiken
Gebrauchsgegenständen über die Hummelfigur, bis zum Gipsabguss von Tut-Ench-Amun ist alles vorhanden. Noch immer einen halben Schritt entfernt von der Realität auf Cuba. Drei Tage später finde ich mich auf einem 60zig Jahre alten Stockbett wieder, dessen
metallener Rost trotz der zwei Matratzen um mehr als eine Körperbreite in der Mitte durchhängt. Hier sind wir alle untergebracht, Gäste,
wie Cubaner, aus vielen Landesteilen.
Viva la Revolution!
Randvoll mit Rum geht das Glas solange herum, bis der Spender es wieder von neuem befüllt. Ein kleine Geste
während des Begrüßungsabends, alles wird hier mit allen geteilt. Und überall Che, der trotz unvollendeter Revolution für die Unabhängigkeit Kubas steht und geliebt wird. Das Feuer und die Leidenschaft der cubanischen Revolution erfasst mich gleich zu Beginn. Nach fünf Tage weicht dieses Gefühl einem Schmerz. Alte Männer sitzen
beschäftigungslos vor ihren Wohnungstüren und scheinen sich auch nach Stunden nicht vom Fleck bewegt zu
haben. Das Leben ist ein Fluss, der ständig vorüber fließt. Dieses Bild in Italien würde mir weit weniger zu denken
geben. Aber hier, in Havana?
Und doch ist überall Musik um mich. Der Son, der cubanische Salsa, hüllt die Insel ein. Jeder, der einen CD
Player besitzt dreht ihn laut. Die Rhythmen mischen sich mit der Livemusik der Bars und Restaurants zu einer
lebendigen Mixtur. Alles scheint dann am Leben zu sein. Besonders die Menschen. Freude geschaffen aus
scheinbar Nichts. Nichts, aus der Sichtweise eines weißen Europäers.
Die erste Geschichte
60 Menschen füllen den Raum der kleinen Bühne in der Casa de Tango. Ein Gitarrist spielt die ersten Akkorde
eines alten Tangos. An die 90 ist der Cubaner, der an das Mikrophon tritt. Sekunden vorher schleppte er sich auf
den Stock gestützt hinter die Bühne. Nun wirkt er wie ein junger Mann. Die kehlige Stimme füllt den Raum mit
Leidenschaft und mich mit Mitgefühl. Ich halte den Atem an. Zwei Minuten später wische ich mir die Tränen aus
den Augen.
Das Feuer auf der Bühne
Allen vier Gruppen dürfen wir bei einem Auftritt in unterschiedlichen Settings beiwohnen. Voller Energie, der Körper als Instrument, Geräusche, Musik und Gesang, das wissende experimentieren mit den soft-rules des Playback lassen kraftvolle, künstlerische Kompositionen im Zusammenspiel entstehen. Hier ist Playback Theater voller Leben.
Folgende Ausgabe: Teil zwei beschäftigt sich mit der politischen Situation auf Cuba
Markus Hühn, M.A. ist Boardmember des IPTN und leitet die Playback Theater Gruppe PurPur in Kassel. Er ist selbständiger Thea‐
termacher und gibt Workshops in Playback Theater. Markus hat alle Fotographien für diesen speziellen Lift‐ auf dem PLAY‐BACK IN KUBA zur Verfügung gestellt. Dafür sieh mehr seine Website www.projektpurpur.de Page 13
Un Teatro de Vesinos
Apoyando al Teatro “Playback” en Cuba
Sarah Urech
Mi relato de “playback” se cruza con el relato del Teatro Playback en Cuba. He viajado allá
tres veces desde el 2005, enseñando y entrenando artistas y compañías. He observado su
desarrollo admirable en áreas de habilidad, ritual, consolidación a la vida interna de compañía y la capacidad de conectar y colaborar con lugares diversos y organizaciones. Han podido
manejar todo esto a pesar de todas las condiciones adversas tales como la falta de materiales, la mínima transportación y la pobre infraestructura tele comunicativa. He sido testigo
de lo que considero la búsqueda del conocimiento y orientación, y a la misma vez la determinación creciente del cubano para seguir su labor independientemente.
Cuando entrenadores extranjeros del “playback” llegan a Cuba, la excitación es palpable.
Hay calor y afección natural en los cubanos, su gratitud por el esfuerzo que toma el llegar a
Cuba, el interés por la gente de otras culturas, y placer al conectarse con practicantes internacionales del
“playback”. Hay influencias mezcladas del sensual clima caribeño, envolventes ritmos afrocubanos, el peculiar
contexto sociopolítico de la influencia castrista de más de 40 años, y la fuerza vibrante de la creatividad de
gente idealista comprometida a hacer la diferencia en sus comunidades a través del teatro social.
Paralela a esto, estoy teniendo otra experiencia- el conocimiento del exagerado privilegio económico que tengo
al ser una ciudadana norteamericana blanca. Mientras estaba en Cuba automáticamente participaba en la economía turística, literalmente una moneda diferente y completamente fuera de proporción comparada a la que
usan los cubanos día a día. Yo cojo taxis para turistas, como en restaurantes para turistas. Hay un abismo entre mis circunstancias y las del cubano, y hay, me imagino, otras diferencias de las cuales todavía no tengo conocimiento.
¿Cómo todo esto afecta mi trabajo como una entrenadora del “playback”? ¿Cómo puedo usar mis privilegios y
mi poder para apoyar lo que ellos están desarrollando allá? Tengo mas preguntas que respuestas. Con las barreras de cultura, lenguaje y rango, ¿cuán bien puedo escuchar? ¿O con cuánta precisión podré escuchar? Como
siempre, las historias demandan que se escuchen cuidadosamente.
Una aparentemente historia rutinaria de frustración con la lata diaria de bañarse, en realidad podrá significar
una crisis. La dificultad en la transportación para llegar a la presentación u obra de “playback”, aunque brevemente mencionada, apunta hacia un fuerte tema social. Historias de la niñez acerca de travesuras y haciendo
frente a la autoridad de los adultos puede indicar una dinámica política oculta. Temas muy comunes acerca de
relatos sobre separaciones de los miembros de la familia y seres queridos, ciertamente reflejan la realidad
diaria en la experiencia cubana.
Hay tanto que aprender y entender, y yo me siento como una principiante. Mis valores y los valores intrínsecas para el “playback”
son útiles aquí: valores como la humildad. Si yo admito mi ignorancia y el deseo de aprender, puedo traer mi humanidad y reconocimiento de las injusticias en como yo relaciono y en como yo actúo.
Estoy conciente en la necesidad de una completa orientación y guía para útil información de trasfondo. Afortunadamente yo he
confiado en la coordinadora. Ella se ha dedicado a introducir el “playback” y apoyar su crecimiento en Cuba desde el año 2000. Su
sabiduría y experiencia fueron tremendamente provechosos para mi preparación.
He disfrutado ser parte del proceso del crecimiento de “playback” en esta manera. Creo que hay gran valor en dar apoyo: observando, reconociendo, y apreciando lo que esta trabajando bien. Cuando se me ha solicitado, felizmente he ofrecido crítica constructiva, cuidadosamente enmarcándola dentro del contexto de mejoras del futuro. Ha sido muy satisfactorio ofrecer sugestiones,
por ejemplo acerca del ritual de conducir, y luego ver las sugestiones incorporadas en la práctica cuando vuelvo el próximo año.
Sentí este tipo de apoyo durante el intercambio de “playback” en enero 2008. Pude ver que fue muy gratificante a los cubanos tener practicantes de “playback” de siete diferentes países en sus audiencias. El éxito de las varias obras de “playback” discutidas
en los artículos de Susan y Markus, y también la alegría evidente de los visitantes internacionales y miembros de la comunidad local
en la audiencia observando compañías cubanas de “playback” en acción, fue un gran reconocimiento del entrenamiento sustentado y
práctica en curso.
Es un gran reto sustentar las relaciones que han sido creadas a través del intercambio internacional, y mantenerse conectado con
los practicantes cubanos de “playback”. La mayoría de los cubanos no tienen acceso al Internet directamente; quizás podrán usar
la computadora de un amigo o compañero de vez en cuando. Esto podrá ser un día si, otro no, semanal, o menos todavía. (Yo recientemente recibí un mensaje de correo electrónico que tuvo que ser dictado en el teléfono a un pariente que tenia acceso a una computadora y lo podía mandar.) También, problemas de tecnología previenen transmisión fácil de mensajes de correo electrónico. Lo
la página 17 de contened
que resulta es correspondencia lenta y errática.
Page 14
Theatre of neighbours
Supporting playback in Cuba
Sarah Urech
My playback story intersects with the story of playback theatre
in Cuba. I have traveled there three times since 2005, teaching
and coaching playback practitioners and companies. I have seen
their admirable growth in the areas of artistry, ritual, commitment to ongoing company life, and the capacity to reach out to
and collaborate with diverse venues and organizations. They
have managed all this despite the many challenging conditions
there, such as lack of material resources and minimal transportation and telecommunications infrastructure. I have witnessed
what I consider is a quest for knowledge and guidance, and at
the same time a growing determination by the Cubans to carry
the work forward independently.
When foreign playback trainers arrive in Cuba there is palpable
excitement. There’s the warm and affectionate nature of the
Cubans, their gratitude for the effort it takes to get to Cuba,
their interest in people from other cultures, their pleasure at
connecting with international playback practitioners. There are
mingling influences of the sultry Caribbean climate, compelling
Afrocuban rhythms, the unique sociopolitical context of over 40
years of Castro’s influence, and the vibrant force of creative,
idealistic people committed to making a difference in their communities through social theatre.
Parallel to this, I am having another experience – a heightened
awareness of my immense economic privilege as a white U.S.
citizen. While in Cuba I automatically participate in the tourist
economy, literally a different currency and completely out of
proportion to the currency that local Cubans survive in day to
day. I take tourist taxis, I eat in tourist restaurants. There is a
chasm between my circumstances and theirs, and there are I
imagine other differences that I do not even tune into.
How does this affect my practice as a playback trainer? How
do I use my privilege and power to support and sustain what
they are growing there? I have more questions than answers.
With barriers of culture, language, and rank, how well can I
listen? Or how accurately will I hear? As always, the stories
demand that we listen carefully.
A seemingly mundane story of frustration with the daily chores
of bathing may actually signify a crisis. The transportation difficulty in getting to a playback show, though only briefly mentioned, points to a strong social theme. Childhood stories
about making mischief and facing up to adult authority may
indicate an underlying political dynamic. A very common
theme of stories there, those of separation from family members and loved ones, certainly reflects a daily reality of the Cuban experience.
There is so much to learn and understand, and I feel like a
beginner. My values and the values intrinsic to playback are
useful here: values like humility. If I admit my ignorance and
willingness to learn, I can bring my humanity and recognition
of the inequities into how I relate and how I perform.
I am aware of the need for a thorough orientation and guidance on useful background information. Fortunately, I have
relied on the coordinator. She has devoted herself to introducing playback and
supporting its growth in Cuba since 2000.
… cont p.16
BELOW: ESCENA VERTICAL [PHOTO CREDIT M
Page 15
Theatre of neighbours Sarah Urech cont...
Cont from p.15
Her knowledge and experience were tremendously helpful for my preparation. I have enjoyed being part of the process of growing playback in this way. I believe there is great value in giving encouragement: observing, acknowledging, and appreciating what
is working. When requested, I gladly offer constructive criticism, carefully framing it within the context of future improvements. It has been satisfying to offer suggestions, for example on the ritual of conducting, and then see these points incorporated into the practice when I return the following year.
I felt this kind of encouragement during the playback exchange in January 2008. I could see that it was immensely rewarding
for the Cubans to have playback practitioners from seven different countries in their audiences. The success of the various
performances discussed in Susan’s and Markus’ articles, as well as the evident delight of international guests and local audience
members witnessing Cuban playback companies in action, was a great recognition of the sustained training and ongoing practice.
It is a major challenge to maintain the bridges that have been built through international exchange, and stay connected to Cuban
playback practitioners. Most Cubans do not have direct internet access; they may be able to use a friend or colleague’s computer
on occasion. This could be every few days, weekly, or even less. (I recently received an e-mail that had to be dictated over the
phone to a relative who had computer access and could send it.) Additionally, technological problems prevent easy transmission
of e-mails. As a result, correspondence is slow and erratic. Letters by post do not arrive at all, and phone calls are prohibitively
expensive. Then there is the language barrier. My intermediate level of Spanish is at times insufficient, though better than
communicating exclusively through a translator, as the majority of guest trainers have needed to do.
Both in my role as trainer and as IPTN board member, I am strongly committed to staying in contact and supporting those who
can or choose to communicate, but the current method is far from smooth. Playback trainers who have visited Cuba know the
value of bringing the Cubans’ voices and selves into connection with the international community, and yet it is not a simple feat.
It is an ongoing project, requiring long-term commitment. This is another way I can use my privilege in service: I can send e-mails repeatedly from the convenience of my own home, and make the extra effort of responding even when I have other pressing commitments.
The Cuban playback community has started a new chapter in its history, as you will read in the accompanying
report by Milagros. They are committed and organized, led by a ‘coordinator group,’ comprised of company
leaders. Several companies as well as numerous practitioners are practicing playback in a variety of settings
– schools, community centers, conferences, festivals, as well as theatres. They are also communicating with
each other, in my opinion a key to continuity. They have eagerly sought IPTN membership, wishing to expand
contact with the international community.
At the 2007 international playback conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I thought often of the Cuban playbackers. Their absence at the first international playback theatre gathering in Latin America, primarily due to
economic reasons, was poignant. The Cubans have much to offer, including a powerful physicality in their acting, a fervently passionate, youthful enthusiasm for playback, and a unique perspective on the role of art in
communities, gleaned from their particular political/social/cultural context. There are currently fundraising
efforts underway to help bring a few members of the Cuban playback community to the next International
Playback Theatre Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2011.
Sarah Urech is a member of Hudson River Playback Theatre since 1994 and currently serves on the board of the International Playback Theatre Network. She has traveled to Cuba to conduct research on playback theatre and community
healthcare. Sarah performs playback theatre in English and Spanish as part of Hudson River Playback Theatre’s multiyear Immigrant Stories project.
Sarah says: “The international playback community has a wonderful opportunity
to support the Cuban playback movement in this way, and I invite you to participate by making a donation to support the Cuban delegation to Frankfurt.”
—see details page 11
11—
—
Page 16
eine willkommene aufgabe
Danke Susan
Was die Playbacker auf Cuba benötigen ist jegliche
Unterstützung: Kommunikation, finanzielle Hilfe,
Training und Unterstützung beim Aufbau eines
demokratischen Netzwerkes. Susan Sandy organis
ierte mit all ihrer Energie über die letzten sieben Jahre
alle Trainings und die Kommunikation in und von der
Insel. Nun hat sie sich entschlossen sich langsam
Zurückzuzie hen, den Playbackern dort die Verant
wortung zu übe geben und anderen die Unter
stützungsaufgabe zu übertragen, wie dem IPTN und
dem Playback Netzwerk. Die Playbackbewegung
auf Cuba wird er wachsen und geht Schritte in die E
igenverantwortung. So ist für das Frühjahr 2009 ein
Workshop geplant.
Un Teatro de Vesinos
a welcome task
thanks to Susan
What the Cubans need is our support in any
way: Communication, financial support,
training and help in finding a way to create
a democratic network. Susan Sandy man
aged over all the years all the trainings and
also this gathering in her very energetic way.
Without her it wouldn’t work. She decided to
retire in a while. Now others are walking in
her shoes, like the IPTN and the Playback
Network for example but MOSTLY, the
Cubans are ready and willing to take this
task, too.
Sarah Urech
cont...
… de la página 14
Cartas mandadas a través del correo no llegan por nada, y llamadas telefónicas son gravemente caras. Y luego hay una barrera de
lenguaje. Mi conocimiento de español básico a veces no es suficiente. Sin embargo, es mejor que comunicar exclusivamente a
través de un traductor, como la mayoría de entrenadores visitando han tenido hacer.
En ambos papeles de entrenadora y miembro del junta de IPTN, estoy fuertemente cometida al mantener en contacto y apoyando
los que pueden o los que deciden comunicar, pero el método utilizado hoy en día no es soportable. Practicantes de “playback” que
han visitado a Cuba conocen el valor de conectar las voces y seres cubanos a la comunidad internacional, y además no es una hazaña fácil. Es un proyecto en curso, que requiere compromiso a largo plazo. Esto es otra manera que puedo usar mi privilegio sirviendo. Puedo mandar mensajes de correo electrónico repetidamente de la conveniencia de mi propia casa, y hacer el esfuerzo extra
de responder aunque tenga otros compromisos importantes.
La comunidad cubana de “playback” ha empezado un capítulo nuevo en su historia, el cual leerás en el acompañado reporte de Milagros. Están cometidos y organizados, dirigido por un “grupo coordinador”, compuesto de líderes de varias compañías. Estas compañías y muchos practicantes están practicando el “playback” en una variedad de lugares--escuelas, centros de comunidades, conferencias, festivales y teatros. También están comunicando uno a otro, y en mi opinión, son la clave para continuidad. Han pedido
ser miembros del IPTN, deseando expandir el contacto con la comunidad internacional.
En la conferencia internacional de “playback” del 2007 en Sao Paulo, Brasil, pensaba en los practicantes de Cuba. Su ausencia en
la primera reunión internacional de “playback” en Latino América, principalmente por razones económicas, fue doloroso. Los cubanos tienen mucho que ofrecer, incluso una poderosa habilidad física cuando actúan, un entusiasmo juvenil y fervientemente apasionado por el “playback”, y una perspectiva única acerca del papel del arte en comunidades, extraídas de su contexto político,
social, y cultural. Recién han habido esfuerzos para una recaudación de fondos para ayudar a traer algunos miembros de la comunidad cubana de “playback” a la próxima conferencia internacional del teatro de “playback” en Fráncfort, Alemania, en 2011. La
comunidad internacional de “playback” tiene una gran oportunidad de apoyar el movimiento cubana de “playback” en esta manera,
y les invito participar por hacer una donación para apoyar la delegación cubana a Fráncfort.
Sarah Urech es miembro de Hudson River Playback Theatre desde 1994 y ahora es miembro de la junta del Red Internacional del Teatro
Playback (IPTN). Ha viajado a Cuba para investigar el teatro “playback” y cuidado médico de la comunidad cubana. Sarah actua
“playback” en ingles y en español como parte del proyecto de Historias de Inmigrantes del grupo Hudson River Playback Theatre.
Sarah dice: “La comunidad de repetición internacional tiene una maravillosa oportunidad de
apoyar el movimiento de repetición cubano de esta manera, y le invito a participar haciendo
una donación para apoyar la delegación cubana para Frankfurt.”
—ver la página 11 de detalles
detalles—
—
Page 17
......DESDE CUBA ANIMO
CUBA LES ESPERA.
............FROM CUBA
CUBA IS WAITING FOR YOU
Mila
Hola amigos.
Transcurridos los días de encuentro,
gracia, formación y alegría que vivimos
en enero durante la jornada 2008, el
movimiento de playback en Cuba vive
una búsqueda de lo que quiere ser y
cómo ser, desde las características de
nuestro movimiento acá en Cuba, la
diversidad del trabajo de cada grupo y
las posibilidades y potencialidades de
todos y cada uno de los que de una manera u otra desean hacer este tipo de
teatro.
Al finalizar el mes de febrero convocamos a todos los miembros de compañías y amigos que estuviesen interesados
en compartir sus criterios sobre la realidad del movimiento en este momento y
sobre cómo continuar desde nosotros
mismos, a una tarde de trabajo, de
compartir y de decisiones. Esto nos
condujo a la propuesta de un equipo
coordinador que realizaría un servicio
para todas las compañías e iniciativas
existentes en el país para mantener la
comunicación entre todos, rescatar la
historia del PLAYBACK en Cuba y propiciar espacios de encuentro y formación.
La realidad del equipo coordinador está
siendo hoy por hoy una búsqueda desde
el incierto del día a día y de un intento
tras otro que quiere descubrir qué ser
para el bien de todos desde la participación de todos.
Por lo pronto las cuatro compañías existentes en La Ciudad de la Habana, el
grupo Teatro Comunitario de Mario Flores y las iniciativas de Santa Clara,
Cienfuegos y Santiago de Cuba, mantenemos una comunicación mensual por
correo electrónico de las presentaciones
u otras actividades que se realizan en
cada grupo, regalándonos la oportunidad de compartir los unos con los otros
desde nuestro trabajo su diversidad,
peculiaridades y nuevas experiencias
que nos traen los distintos espacios que
hemos
=> p19
Page 18
Mila
Hi friends,
After the days of grace, training and happiness we lived during the meeting on January 2008, the Cuban Playback movement is
on a quest to define what it wants to be.
We want to define the characteristics of our
movement here in Cuba from the diversity
of each group’s work and the possibilities
and potential of all of us who want to participate in this kind of theatre.
At the end of February we held a meeting
with all company members and interested
friends, to share their views about the
movement as it is right now and about how
to move forward. After a day of work, of
sharing ideas and making decisions, we decided to form a team to coordinate services
to all the companies and initiatives in our
country, to coordinate communication
among us, to rescue the history of Playback
in Cuba and to help in the creation of
spaces for meetings and training.
This coordinating team is now in the search
of the uncertain day by day work. We are
trying to find our way to become useful for
the good of all, with participation from all.
So far, the four companies in La Habana,
the group Teatro Comunitario de Mario Flores, and the initiatives of Santa Clara, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba are communicating monthly, by email, about the presentations and other activities in each
Group. This gives us the opportunity to
share our work and highlight the diversity,
uniqueness, and the new experiences that
the different spaces that we conquer thanks
to Playback open up for us.
The team is currently working on the meeting for 2009. We want it to be a space for
renewal and gathering. We know it might
be hard for many to find the necessary financing to attend, but we encourage every
one to try. We will give our full support. We
will give our full support to try to make this
meeting a reality. We are looking forward
to share, learn, and grow as human beings.
=> p19
ABOVE: PT at El Isa/ University of fine arts [photo credit M Hühn www.projektpurpur.de]
hola
ido conquistando desde la riqueza y amplitud del teatro PLAYBACK.
El equipo está trabajando en este momento en la preparación de la
jornada 2009
que quiere ser como siempre un espacio para todos de renovación y
encuentro. Aún no hay ninguna confirmación cierta de las personas
que se han brindado para compartir con nosotros, sabemos desde
acá que las condiciones de autofinanciaminto pueden ser exigentes
pero esperamos contra toda esperanza que puedan venir y para ello
cuentan con todo nuestro apoyo y disposición para que las cosas resulten lo mejor posible y una vez más gocemos la dicha de intercambiar, aprender y crecer como personas, desde lo que hacemos y
en número.
ANIMO, CUBA LES ESPERA.
Un abrazo fuerte y un hasta pronto.
CHAoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Mila
Milagros T. Pardo practica el teatro playback desde el año 2004 y es miembro del
grupo Teatro Cuerpo Adentro en La Ciudad de la Habana.
hi
CUBA IS WAITING FOR YOU
Un abrazo fuerte y un hasta pronto.
CHAoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Mila
Milagros T. Pardo has been involved in playback theatre in Cuba since 2004 and is a
member of Teatro Cuerpo Adentro in Havana
Page 19
[photo M Hühn]
RIGHT: Teatro Espontaneo de la Habana
A Journey into the stagecraft of Playback Cuba 2008 Part one
Markus Hühn
Markus Hühn reports on his experience of working alongside
Susan Sandy to Havana, Cuba: a mix of intensive training and
performances with the Cuban playbackers, a conference and a
little bit vacation in the countryside with other visitors from Argentina, Chile, Germany, Spain and USA.
“After 6 years of training Cuban artists and human services
professionals, Playback is used in schools, prisons, hospitals,
HIV prevention and in open community events. Four Playback Theatre companies exist with initiatives growing in 6
provinces. Our goal is that each initiative blossoms into a
practicing company which seeds new initiatives that serves
their communities throughout the island” (Introduction
paper, Conference for World Balance 2008)
Arriving in Cuba. Softly greetings by humid air, smooth winds
are the first impressions after 14 hours flight from Germany.
Two heart fully playback people Susan and Alberto, identified
us spontaneously at the airport. Birtes very short haired and
my long ones where a good sign for playbackers. Alberto, the
driver and translator drove through an incredible labyrinth of
dark glowing streets. We found our casa particular. I stepped
into a huge villa a little bit ashamed about the comfort. But that
changed very soon. The rest of the two weeks we spend all
together in also quit unusual rooms – but they had nothing to
do with luxury. In the beginning the Cuban revolutionary fire
kept me, sharing everything the people have, dealing with difficult circumstances and the revolutionary spirit of Che. After 5
days many things are hurting me. Old and poor people sitting in
front of their doors. Many times I passed them, still sitting at the
same place. Live is a river. It is all the time passing. In Italy I
wouldn’t think about this. But here, now in Habana?
Music is al around me. The sounds of son and salsa spread
Page 20
over the city. Everybody who is an owner of
an CD Player is turning it on, loud. Combined with the sound of the livemusik fom
the bars and restaurants it becomes an incredible mixture. Everything seams to be
alive. Specialy the people. Having joy out of
nearly nothing. Nothing from my point of
view as an European.
First Story
60 people are crowding the little stage at the Casa de Tango. A
guitar player starts the first cords of an old Tango. A nearly 90
years old Cuban steps to the microphone. Seconds before pillowed on his walking stick he hobbled backstage. Now he
wakes up in young energy. The throaty voice filled the room
with passion and myself with compassion. I stopped breathing.
Two minutes later I cried, affected from that passion.
The fire on stage
We saw all the four Cuban Playback companies on stage in
different settings as open public Performances or as intimate
welcome event for us. The Playback I’ve seen is full of energy.
Body moving, sounds, Music and voices, breaking the soft
playback rules, developing unbelievable compositions and all
the time a great aesthetic teamwork. In Cuba Playback is full of
life.
Part two in the next issue—about politics and building up
a network in and with Cuban Playback.
Markus Hühn, M.A.. is a board member of IPTN and leader of the
playback theatre group PurPur in Kassel. He is an independent theatre producer and gives workshops in playback theatre. Markus has
provided all of the photographs for this special lift-out on PLAYBACK in CUBA. For more see his website www.projektpurpur.de
FACTS ABOUT THE 2008 TRIP TO
CUBA
EINIGE AKTIVITÄTEN DER 2008 UNTERSTÜTZUNGSREISE:
Playback at the Segunda Conferencia International
Por el Equilibrio del Mundo
Performance—Jonathan conducted a performance of
the Cubans
Talk—Jonathan Fox presented Playback Theatre in
a panel of the Conference
Projects—Sarah Urech gave a talk about the work of
Hudson River Playback Theatre and their community
work AND Markus Hühn presented the mobile Playback Bus Project of Projekt PurPur
Workshop- pat the university for the fine arts EL ISA
in Habana, with students and faculty of the theatre
department, facilitated by Markus Hühn AND three
day introductory workshop in Playback, held by
Jonathan Fox
Playback während der Second International Conference for
World Balance 2008:
Auftritt—Jonathan Fox leitete eine Aufführung
einer gemischten, cubanischen Gruppe
Vortrag—Jonathan Fox hält einen Vortrag im
Rahmen der Konferenz
Projektvorstellungen—Sarah Urech (USA) stellte
die Arbeit des Hudson River AND Playback
Theatre vor. Markus Hühn (D) präsentierte das
mobile Playback Bus Projekt von Projekt PurPur.
Trip to Teatro los Elementos, in the Escambry mountains.
Workshops—an der Universität der Künste EL
ISA in Havanna, mit Studenten und Professoren
der Abteilung Theater, gehalten von Markus
Hühn AND drei tage einführungsworkshop von
Jonathan Fox
Guests from Argentina, Chile, Germany, Spain
and the USA.
Besuch des Theaterprojektes Teatro los Elementos, in Escambry
Markus Hühn, Hegelsbergstr. 26
34127 Kassel
www.projektpurpur.de
mail welcome@projektpurpur.de
Gäste kamen aus Argentinien, Chile,
Deutschland, Spanien und den USA.
BELOW: Adoquines 7.0 photo credit M Hühn
Page 21
When strangers come to play:
The serious business of intercultural political performance training
Rea Dennis
In her paper “The Politics of Improvisation and Free Expression” published in prominent Theatre & Performance
Studies Periodical, TDR (The Drama Review) in the winter of 2007, anthropologist and Latin American theatre
scholar, Laurie Frederik Meer reflects on the seminal work of the various visiting teams of playback practitioners to
Cuba. Fredrick Meer has been researching theatre in Cuba for ten years, about the same length of time Playback
leader Susan Metz has been teaching and mentoring the development of playback there. Over these previous pages,
this issue of Interplay has attempted to recognise and honour the sustained development of playback practice in
Cuba since Susan first went there in 2000. Her first entry was to offer workshops for people living with HIV. The
success of this early work and Susan’s sustained commitment has resulted in her teaching 16 groups on the island
over the nine years. Fredrick Meer says of Metz’s approach:
Practitioners of Playback Theatre were the first to take a more grassroots approach .. [She] learned Spanish, lived with Cubans, and worked with Cuban actors and audiences on a long-term basis, returning to the
island annually for several months at a time. (Frederik Meer: 109).
UK scholar, Helen Nicholson (2005) writes about theatre and performance practitioners who work within complex contexts outside their
own cultural home. She says they must take account of their values and motives in working in another culture.
The values of the practitioners obviously have a major impact on the processes of working, and they are very
often motivated by a desire to make a real difference to the lives of others. This is not, however, an easy role
to negotiate particularly where practitioners are regarded as cultural outsiders. (Nicholson: 28).
The work of the playback visitors to Cuba has attempted to pay attention to the possibility of oppressive action in their approach. In
addition to Metz, inside this issue, Sarah Urech has reflected on her positioning in the context. Urech questions what roles the visitors
must shift to in order to honour the local leadership that has emerged (see Milagros, this issue). That 2008 has seen the clear emergence of
local leadership is a testament to the vision of Metz and others alongside her—there has been significant support from the international
playback community through the work of practitioners from Argentina, Chile, Germany, Spain and the USA (earlier years from Brazil,
England and Uruguay).
Significantly in this issue, Playbackers from Cuba speak briefly about their experience. It is not easy for them to speak publicly about
their work as there can be significant consequences if they violate the rules of their own social systems. Frederik Meer’s reflections (see
also Susan’s full article online) shed light on the complexity of a radical performance form like Playback Theatre on the island. She reminds us of the distinct political potency in playback practice “in a country of state-supported artists whose “stories” are usually rehearsed and must be submitted before the debut for official approval or censorship” (107). The Cubans have immediately seen the political power in the playback method. Before the introduction of playback on the island, Cubanos had already had an established practice of
theatre with a community focus, with a revolutionary feel, where the “emphasis on the creative process; audience participation; dialogue
and content over aesthetic imagery; the importance placed on collective work; and most importantly, the expressed need for individual
stories to be told and “retold” (enacted, sometimes with text, sometimes not) in performance” (Frederik Meer: 108).
The project in Cuba continues under the leadership of local theatre companies and local independent artists. Susan continues to mentor
with additional support from IPTN board members – see page 12 this issue for requests for financial support. With the 2009 visiting
trainers selected, the Cuban playback community has expressed their interest in continued support for 2010 and beyond with a dream to
be present at the 2011 World Congress in Frankfurt.
References
Laurie Frederik Meer 2007. The Politics of Improvisation and Free Expression. TDR: The Drama Review 51:4 (106-120),
Nicholson, H. 2005. Applied Drama: The gift of story. London: Palgrave Macmillian
Rea Dennis is Editor of Interplay. A performer and teacher of playback, she also works as a drama lecturer at the University of Glamorgan, UK
Page 22
What’s been happening?
NEW ZEALAND
A time to mourn, to shout, to lament and to celebrate.
Sandra Turner
We didn’t know how many would come. We relied on text messaging, a newspaper notice in the memorial section and links through the school counsellors
to let people know there would be a memorial service at the local marae, a service to remember the life of Emma. The shock of her suicide last year compounded the four other suicides that had assaulted this community of teenagers and their families.
A year ago the tangi for Emma had stretched to seven days as we waited for her dad to arrive from overseas. But this was no empty waiting as streams of
16 and 17 year olds came to witness and be present with the family and their friend. It was an extraordinary time as 200 or 250 teenagers or more came,
many visiting more than once. The shock and distress could be seen as it tore through each of their lives. For many of these young people this was their
first experience of death, a death that was even more frightening given that this vibrant young woman was a mirror for each of them. Making sense of what
happened stretched the minds of everyone. For most it was also their first time of being immersed in Maori culture, of experiencing the Karanga, the call to
the ancestors, the waiata, karakia and speech making. There was much that was unfamiliar.
A year on and our thoughts turned as to how to mark this first anniversary. There were those who were anxious that feelings would again overwhelm them
and that suicide would be given an unbefitting glory. And there were others who wanted to seize the
opportunity for healing that this anniversary offered. A ritual was needed but without a head stone to unveil and it being too early yet to scatter the ashes the usual rituals were unavailable. A new ritual was
called for - one that would mark this first year, that would assist with the grieving still to be done and one
that would affirm life. The offer of a playback performance was readily accepted and then we worked to
Glossary
establish a format for the night that would give the best chance for healing to occur. This is the story of
that night.
Karakia Prayer
People gathered in the whare, sitting quietly as if in church. Those who came in early found a seat, others
Karanga A call, summon, welcome
stood along the back walls, squatted in the front or squeezed in as best as they could. There weren’t
KaumatuaAn elder man or woman
twenty, or fifty but over 200 people that had come for this night of remembering. Some say there were
Marae The meeting place for
many more. The Kaumatua welcomed everyone with karakia and spoke of this time of mourning and
families and the
transition. We then stood to sing a waiata. This waiata, known to most usually lifts the ceiling from the
community. A collection of
roof, but on this night it was choked off as people struggled to find their voice.
buildings
For me as the conductor this was a big performance to hold. In rehearsal we had spent time telling our
Rakau
Wooden
stick
own stories relating to life, death and loss. We had prepared as much as we could, ready now to listen to
Tangi
Time of mourning and
the stories from this community. Whilst this was a memorial service for Emma we also knew there would
lamentation
be stories from throughout people’s lives. I started with an invitation to name all the people who had been
Waiata Song, psalm, song poem
lost to suicide. As the names were called out, one by one from the audience, we knew we were here to
Whare Meeting House
grieve for many more than Emma. From this place the fluid sculptures came easily as people told of their
experience. “Shocking” “Angry” “Distress at the blaming that went on” ”Wanting to be here and yet anxious as well”
The first story comes though the teller is not sure if it is the “right” story to tell. They are concerned that it
is not about Emma. Trusting that it will be the right story we hear the story of his brothers slide into death
as alcoholism claims him. This story of slow suicide is also a story of familial love and regret. In the next
story a woman tells of drawing on her strength to leave an abusive relationship when she sees the effect on her children. This is a story of choosing life. A
hush falls as a young man steps forward to tell his story. There is heightened anticipation as the voice of the young people is heard when a young man tells
the story of the suicide of his friend, one week after Emma. Disbelief, shock, anger and utter distress are all present.
We finish with some more fluid sculptures that give expression to the many feelings that people are sitting with. The last person to speak calls out their
anguish challenging all those who chose death over life with “Do you think it was still a good idea”? This is the last fluid sculpture played back.
The performance finishes and we share food together. People break away to have their grief privately with friends. Staunch young men and women find
places behind the building to sob in the arms of a friend. As with all playback performances the telling of stories continues long after the performance. After
food we gather again in the whare, this time in three large concentric circles. The kaumatua has a finely carved walking stick, which he generously makes
available for this next part. His rakau becomes the “talking stick” and is passed around the gathering. No-one can speak unless they are holding the rakau.
The invitation is given for people to keep telling their story. Emma’s mum wants to know how the young people have got themselves through this year; she
is committed to hearing their stories and to valuing each of them. The stories continue to flow, slowly at first and then with more vigour, humour and open
sharing of distress and struggle. By nights end we are spent, ready only for one last waiata.
A week later I met again many of the people who had attended the memorial service, this time at a concert that celebrated the family and called for the
ending of domestic violence. It was a chance to find out what impact the ritual that we had created might have had. This is what they said;
“The actors scream helped me to know my own scream”
“At funerals I go in the door, hold my breath and breathe out when I leave. This time I could breathe all the way through”
“I got to have my feelings – it wasn’t so frightening”
“I was surprised that the adults could express themselves”
“The talking stick brought everything together”
“It was good to talk about the good times”
“It was good to see the adults not blaming the kids”
Submitted by:
“It was good to hear about the adult’s fears about who was going to be next”
Sandra Turner
This event was community healing in action. Through the ritual of Playback Theatre
Dunedin Playback Company
we were able to offer a framework that enabled the stories to be told, a place for
New Zealand
people to have their feelings with an overall focus on valuing life.
Sandra.turner@xtra.co.nz
*
* Page 23
Playback in New Zealand
—a personal view
Rosemary Lawrence
Rosemary Lawrence shares a story about a performance at a conference for Anglican Ministers that grew into more than she could have imagined
as she watched every nuance of the action from the musician’s chair.
We at Auckland Playback Theatre received an invitation from the Auckland Anglican Diocese to provide an interactive workshop as part of a two day
conference, with the theme of “Connecting with our Context?” Working with the conference organising committee we learned that church membership
was dwindling and for a growing number, churches are not the choice of venue for weddings and funerals. The conference was to focus on this with
conference delegates looking at ways to look outwards and to make connections in the community.
We were a team of five and they were 150. We introduced ourselves one by one:
“Hello I'm Richard and when I lived in Oxford I used to go the cathedral to listen to the choir, and
was transported by the beauty of the music.
“Hi I'm Jane and as a generation xer, a bit suspicious of organised religion.” Jane finished her introduction with a big smile and during the playback one actor stared around the audience and said,
“they look quite normal.” This line and other facial expressions drew some laughs.
Hello I'm Julie and on a recent visit to France my small daughter Ella declared she wanted to find a
relic. So we went on a relic hunt and ended up buying what we were assured was a piece of St Catherine's shinbone!
Hello I'm Rosemary and while living in New Caledonia I conducted a church choir. The singers
were either Tahitian or Melanesian and always sang forte. They didn't do loud and soft but by the
time I left they did !! One actor conducted the rest with hugely exaggerated rising and falling hand
*
To our amazement
one by one, then
group by group, they
rose to their feet
clapping
* movements. The voices of the “singers” rose and fell in pitch and volume, following the conductor
religiously, their faces registering compliance and non comprehension!
Hi I'm Jessica and I once sat in a packed church for a Christmas service with my back to the altar and remember feeling most uncomfortable
about it.
This showed playback in action. There was laughter and many of the tired, dubious looking faces in the audience visibly relaxed.
Now came the time for audience participation. In the large auditorium Jessica our conductor had decided to use a microphone and to move around the
audience. This worked well. Jessica has a friendly relaxed style which inspires confidence and hands went up to recount “moments.” One of the organisers had a nightmare that he had forgotten some vital preparations, a delegate from Fiji was feeling the extreme cold, some women from an outer Auckland suburb said they felt like country cousins come to town, when walking the streets of Auckland city. Someone spoke about a church break in and
another about a couple for whom creche facilties were the deciding factor for attending church.
Stories came more slowly but as the process of playback began to weave its magic the energy level rose and we were on a roll. One very shy and rather
large woman bravely told of attending an annual Ceremony of Light evening in her parish, dressed as a painted apple moth, in leggings, a too tight top
and gossamer wings. She felt awkward but the children loved her and swarmed around leading her in a moth dance. She laughed delightedly as she recalled the scene and the played back version was sheer comedy that had most shrieking with laughter. The actors made creative use of cloth to dress
Richard as the painted apple moth and his Pied Piper dance was inspired. As is often the case, humour proved to be freeing for the group. One of them
commented later that they had not had many reasons to laugh together as a group until our session.
Some potentially divisive and sticky issues and questions were aired with great honesty. The place of children in church, and the place of loud music
which many young people enjoy. Are museums more relevant than churches? For example: One woman recounted how her young niece had sat patiently next to her through a long service before whispering with a sigh, ”when are they going to tell us who has won the t trophy.” “What do you mean
the t trophy,” she asked? The child pointed to the cross (crucifix) standing on the altar Funny on one level but also food for thought.
Playback was giving time to reflect. Time for new insights to emerge. This was what the conference organisers were hoping for.
One story in particular and its playback illustrated that this was indeed happening. A vicar related an incident which had worried him ever since it happened because it brought up issues about which he was still puzzling. He was very young at the time and new in the parish. The pastor of a neighbouring
Christian fellowship group came to him to ask whether he could use the Anglican church for a wedding. The vicar was keen to be community minded
and agreed, no questions asked. On the day of the wedding he called in to the church to check that all was going well and was shocked to find the group
had moved the altar and taken down the crosses and moved icons and candles out of sight. A wave of anger engulfed him for which he then felt
ashamed. He told the pastor that this one wedding was fine, but not to ask him again. The actors played this back to the teller with such sensitivity, skill
and synchronicity that the teller rocked with laughter and then shed quiet tears.
Richard, as tellers actor with a piece of material draped around his neck as a stole moved around the church lovingly arranging the actors coloured
boxes, “the green one here, lovely, the yellow one here, “ to give a sense of order and Anglicanism. Then Julie and Jane appeared as two of the pastor's
helpers. They threw the boxes unceremoniously aside and cleared surfaces and walls with energy and efficiency.
“Oliver Cromwell has been here,” wailed Richard with a huge gesture as he entered “his” now bare church. Julie then moved in behind him to be the
voice of his conscience, teasing out the issues behind his worry and indecision, as he spoke to the pastor. Finally Richard twirled on the spot shouting
“unresolved,” while his conscience spun off to one side as the pastor waved a puzzled good bye from the other.
If we needed proof that we had connected well with this group, and merited the trust they placed in us by telling their stories, then it came when we lined
up to take our bows and clap the audience. To our amazement one by one, then group by group, they rose to their feet clapping. It was the first standing
ovation any of us had received. We felt at once humble and privileged. It was a fitting tribute to the power of Playback to gather people into a closer
understanding of their shared humanity and send them out more able to grow in their individual humanity.
Rosemary Lawrence has been a member of Auckland PT (New Zealand) a company of 25 years with seven members for one and a half years. A trained
teacher, she is both actor and musician and since discovering Playback has realised, “this is my thing: improvisation + true stories + connection.”
Page 24
What’s been happening?
Report from the UK Gathering
UNITED KINGDOM
Plymouth 30/10 — 2/11 2008
By Amanda Brown
The 4th UK Playback Gathering was held at a wonderful waterside
location in the city of Plymouth this autumn, and hosted by four core
members of Mirror Mirror Playback Theatre Co. The purpose was to
enjoy a long weekend together and create an opportunity for those
involved in Playback Theatre to meet and to share practice and think
about this dynamic and evolving art form.
The weekend was a mixture of workshops led by some of the UK’s
leading Playback teachers, and performances by established companies and one night only groups, and facilitated discussions.
Ideas that were explored in workshops included metaphor, actors
singing the story, artistic structure, conducting for beginners, emotional awareness, the body’s stories, stories and sculpture-making as
well as new Playback forms. Discussions explored were engendered
narratives, privilege and power, and communities in crisis. Opportunities to watch performances were offered by Mirror Mirror, True
Heart and Tarte Noire, and two for one night only performances - an
impromptu men only group at the same time as the women only performance, and an invited group from several different companies.
The conductors we were able to experience all together were Alison
Fairlove, Veronica Needa, Rea Dennis and Amanda Brown.
Those who gathered this year were members of new groups, people
at the beginning of their journeys in playback theatre, people who are
re-visiting the meaning of playback in the world, people waiting for a
group to join, people ready to start a group and a continuum of people whose lives are connecting with playback theatre in myriad ways.
We heard many stories and many more were told at meal times. The
strength of connections being made was palpable on entering our
shared space.
For Mirror Mirror, organising this gathering on our home turf became a natural continuation of the playback theatre work that is
evolving in the south west region of England.
…. next page
Reflections on the men’s group
It can be a touchy subject for us Mirror men when the Mirror women
close the doors and collect their ‘Tartes’ around them. I was let in to take
some photographs and was struck by how vibrant, unified and powerful
they looked. They have matching T shirts. But with familiar inevitability I
was soon banished from their sacred clearing, the space they create
away from us. My camera lens full of rust, red, strength, beauty and
unity.
So it was that a ragbag of men gathered in the circular tower room and
after several minutes of shrugging, in Yves Postic’s case, Gallicly, we
furtively decided to do some Playback. Not only was it my first time with
an all male group, it was my first time as a conductor.
In true, hard-core male fashion, my first teller was encouraged up to the
teller’s chair, no need for any short forms when the boys start opening
up. Quang, Yves and Max all shared fulsomely and there was something
tangibly different about our experience together. We were wonderfully
supported by Brian as musician, and the boys from True Heart kept the
metaphors rich and powerful. It was great to have Yves up as an actor
and there was some tender artistry on display.
The stories were not exclusively about a unique male experience but it
was a uniquely male experience. It certainly had Arnet, Richard and I
from Mirror Mirror casting glances at each other, pondering the potential
for more of the same please.
The question hangs there for us as a company, blessed as we are with a
tantalising balance of three men and three women. Why is it so important, or even necessary, to create these spaces for men or women?
Alison, Amanda and the massed ranks of Tarte Noire know. I lack their
clarity as a man; perhaps you could help me out boys. Answers on a
luggage label.
Andy Blackwell
The 2008 UK Regional Gathering was
hosted by Mirror Mirror (left with guest,
French playback artist, Yves Postic—
centre—left to right Alison Fairlove,
Arnet Donkin, Andy Blackwell &
Amanda Brown.
The Company is based in Devon and also
includes: Richard Dealler and Kate Hewitt.
Formed in 2005 their vision has been to
introduce and sustain exciting and innovative playback practice to audiences in the
Southwest of England. They have a very
strong presence across multiple disciplinary boundaries in the region and are leading the new generation in playback’s development within the UK, as evidenced by
this dynamic and diverse event.
http://www.mirrormirrortheatre.co.uk/index.html
Page 25
Happening in UK
Report from the UK Gathering cont
Alison Fairlove and Amanda Brown have been travelling this Playback Theatre journey
alongside each other since 1995, fortunate enough to learn from Jo Salas and Francis Batten
in the UK with Veronica Needa, and in the last three years developing series of workshops
that give people basic skills and understanding of the form. One outcome of these workshops
is the creation of a women only company, Tarte Noire, who give local performances touching
on women’s issues that come from exploring the collective experiences in the lives of the
Amanda Brown [above left,
with Alison Fairlove]
Women members. Alongside this co-leadership in south west, Mirror Mirror, formed itself in 2005 and have been performing locally and for third sector, voluntary and business organisations. We are particularly keen on the work we do within the mental health services and the use of Playback Theatre to engage
people in a consultation process to improve services in their communities. Mirror Mirror is working in the city of Plymouth, and soon to be delivering “The Play
and Replay Project’ that is working alongside a college to start a young people’s company, and the university to have conversations between students and
refugee/ asylum seekers. This work will feed into an international Playback Theatre Responds training in Plymouth led by Jonathan Fox, in one year’s time –
“Encounters at the Crossroads”, and continue this work beyond.
*
An exciting added
element to this
gathering was that
True Heart Playback
Theatre Co came
early to Plymouth to
give a workshop and
a performance to the
local Chinese
community.
* An exciting added element to this
gathering was that True Heart Playback Theatre Co (pictured right)
came early to Plymouth to give a
workshop and a performance to the
local Chinese community.
This
opportunity was organised by Arnet
Donkin and has opened a door for
future collaborations between True
Heart and the local Chinese community. An inspired idea!
A huge vote of thanks goes to Veronica Needa for gently but surely
encouraging us to take this step and
for all the fires her enthusiasm and
generosity have lit in people’s hearts
for Playback Theatre in UK, and for
continuously promoting the value of
coming together nationally. This
gathering built on all previous UK gatherings and there is a hope that a continuity of UK gatherings will open up the way for conversations between all those
who are practicing Playback Theatre in UK about good practise, good relationships and art. We have even found the host for the next UK gathering.
No profits are made from UK Gatherings and traditionally any monies left after expenses go to the next UK Gathering organisers, in the hope of creating the
means to offer more bursaries as time goes by. So, “let’s watch” and do all we can to grow these national gatherings under the right conditions that includes
everyone.
email: mirrormirrorplayback@yahoo.co.uk
4th UK PLAYBACK GATHERING
Asked the question...
How can Playback Theatre respond to the needs of diverse
communities in the UK?
Companies that were represented
from:Breathing Fire in Bristol
Findhorn Playback Theatre
Liverpool Playback Theatre
London Playback Theatre
Mirror Mirror in Plymouth
Spirit Level in Cornwall
Stroud Playback Theatre
Tarte Noire in Totnes and Exeter
Theatre de Bouche a l’Oreille in Paris
RIGHT: Simon Floodgate leads the evocative
‘wolf story’ enactment during the performance
on the last evening
Page 26
What’s been happening?
BRAZIL
O nascimento do grupo de playback numa companhia de teatro
Clarice Steil Siewert
A primeira vez que vi uma apresentação de teatro playback foi em 2001, no meu
primeiro ano da faculdade de Psicologia. O condutor era o então professor de
Psicodrama da Instituição, prof. Antonio Vitorino Cardoso, de Curitiba. Fui assistir
porque soube que era algum tipo de teatro, e isso me interessava. Sou atriz há
mais de dez anos e, naquela ocasião, levei também o diretor da minha companhia,
Silvestre Ferreira, para assistir à apresentação. Ficamos encantados com o que
aconteceu naquela noite. Foi muito emocionante o envolvimento das pessoas,
tanto da platéia quanto dos atores que estavam no palco, transmitindo um carinho
e um respeito com as histórias.
Saímos da apresentação intrigados com aquela forma de fazer teatro, que
não sabíamos bem se era Psicodrama ou não. Perguntávamos-nos se atores
profissionais poderiam fazer, se havia alguma restrição e como seria. Depois disso,
levei cerca de cinco anos para entrar em contato novamente com o teatro
playback.
Nosso “terreno fértil”
Minha atuação profissional, desde 2000, sempre foi como atriz na minha
companhia, a Dionisos Teatro. Temos mais de 10 espetáculos em repertório, 4
atores, 2 diretores e 1 produtor trabalhando integralmente com a companhia.
Dirigimos grupos de teatro dentro de empresas, escolas e projetos sociais, onde
trabalhadores e alunos experimentam o fazer teatral. Levamos nossas peças para
dentro de fábricas, para a rua, para comunidades carentes.
Nossa linha de trabalho para montagem de espetáculos tem sido a partir
Autor (centro) e colega de companhia Helio
de histórias reais das pessoas. Em 2004, tivemos nossa primeira experiência
(frente), que trabalha durante a oficina com
nesse sentido quando montamos a peça “Histórias de São Chico”, contando a
atores de Teatro de Playback de Curitiba
história da cidade de São Francisco do Sul a partir de entrevistas com pessoas,
encontros com grupos folclóricos e pesquisa em museus.
Em 2006, montamos a peça “Entardecer”, na qual entrevistamos pessoas com mais de 65 anos. Dessa forma, tendo a
velhice como tema, criamos um espetáculo baseado nas histórias reais que ouvimos em extensas entrevistas que fizemos em
asilos, na casa de conhecidos e até em aldeia indígena.
Em 2007, surgiu a idéia de “Migrantes”, peça desenvolvida também a partir de entrevistas com pessoas que vieram
morar em nossa cidade nas décadas de 70 e 80. Assim como em “Entardecer”, a construção da dramaturgia partiu das histórias
reais coletadas. Acredito que todo esse percurso da companhia em trabalhar tão perto das pessoas, ouvindo histórias e
transformando-as em arte, proporcionou um terreno fértil para o que estava por vir.
O contato inicial
Em 2006, já graduada em Psicologia, resolvi fazer mestrado em Teatro na Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina
(UDESC). Não sabia exatamente qual o meu objeto de pesquisa, mas me interessava o teatro feito para e com a comunidade.
Fiz uma disciplina com a minha atual professora orientadora, Dr. Márcia Pompeo Nogueira, em que estudei experiências nesse
sentido. Entendia que a minha formação em Psicologia contribuiria na pesquisa que gostaria de fazer nesse campo. Foi aí que
lembrei daquela apresentação de teatro playback. Escrevi o projeto, foi aprovado e em 2007 iniciei meus estudos.
Na Universidade ninguém da área de teatro conhecia o teatro playback, a não ser talvez por um “ouvir falar” distante. Eu
sabia que havia pouca coisa em português, e isso, na verdade, até me motivou mais, entendendo que uma dissertação de
mestrado poderia ampliar esse conhecimento. Meu professor de Psicodrama, Antonio Vitorino, estava terminando a sua
dissertação, que também teve o teatro playback como objeto de estudo, mas na área da Psicologia. Meu desejo era pesquisá-lo
enquanto manifestação artística.
Meu contato com a comunidade do teatro playback foi via internet. Li vários artigos, teses e trabalhos sobre o assunto,
busquei os livros necessários. Foi emocionante chegar no Festival Internacional de Teatro Playback, em São Paulo, e ver os
nomes que eu conhecia no papel se materializando nos crachás das pessoas vivas na minha frente! Nesse encontro me deparei
com as várias possibilidades do teatro playback, seus inúmeros campos de atuação, as particularidades de alguns grupos.
Naquela época eu ainda não sabia direito se o meu grupo poderia fazer teatro playback, se aquilo tudo não era domínio somente
de educadores, assistentes sociais, psicólogos.
Continua na pagina 34
Page 27
What’s been happening?
The birth of a Playback group in a theater company
BRAZIL
Clarice Steil Siewert
Clarice is an actress of Dionisos Teatro, in Joinville - SC - Brasil. Lately, her research for the Theater Masters at the State University of Santa
Catarina is about Playback Theatre.
The first time I saw a Playback Theatre performance was in 2001, in my first year of Psychology in college. The conductor was
then a professor of Psychodrama at the institution, Prof. Antonio Vitorino Cardoso, from Curitiba, Brazil. I went to watch it because I heard it was some sort of theater and that interested me a lot. I have been an actress for over ten years and I took the
director of my company, Silvestre Ferreira, with me to the performance. We were delighted with what happened that night. The
way people got involved was very touching, from the audience to the actors onstage that transmitted affection and respect for
the stories.
We left the performance intrigued with that way of doing theater, which we weren’t sure if it was psychodrama or not. We asked
ourselves if professional actors could do that, if there were restrictions and how that would work. After that, it took me around
five years to be in touch with Playback Theatre again.
Our “fertile ground”
My professional carrier, since 2000, has always been as an actress of my company Dionisos Teatro. We have more than 10
plays in our repertoire, 4 actors, 2 directors and 1 productor working full-time for the company. We direct theater groups inside
corporations, schools, community programs, where workers and students experiment theater making. We take our plays to industries, to the streets and to poor communities.
The starting point of working on new shows has been people’s real stories. In 2004 we had our first experience of that kind
when we performed “Histórias de Sao Chico” (Stories of Saint Chico), portraying the history of the city of São Francisco do Sul,
from interviews with people, meetings with folklore groups and researches at museums.
In 2006 we performed “Entardecer” (Dusk), for which we interviewed elders with more than 65 years of age. Through this way,
having elderly as our theme, we created a show based on the real stories we heard in long interviews at asylums, at houses of
people we knew and even in an indigenous village.
In 2007 the idea came up to put on “Migrantes” (Migrants), a play that was also developed through interviews of people who
came to live in our city in the 70s and 80s. Just as in “Dusk”, the plot was built from a collection of real stories. I believe the
company working so close to people, listening to their stories and transforming them in art, prepared a fertile ground for what
was about to come.
The approach
In 2006, after graduating in Psychology, I decided to do my Masters in
Theater, at the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC). I didn’t
know exactly what my research would be about but I was interested in
the theater made for and with the community. I took a class with my
current teacher and mentor, Dr. Márcia Pompeo Nogueira where I
studied this kind of experiences. I understood my major in Psychology
would contribute to the research I wanted to do in this field. That was
when I remembered of that Playback performance I had seen. I wrote
my application, it was accepted, and in 2007 I started my studies.
At the University no one from the theater field knew of Playback Theatre. Some might just have heard of it far away. I knew there wasn’t
much about it in Portuguese and this, actually, inspired me even more.
A Masters thesis would expand that knowledge. My Psychodrama
teacher Antonio Vitorino, was finishing his thesis that had also had
Playback as the object of study, but in the area of Psychology. I was
willing to research it as an artistic manifestation.
My contact with Playback community was through internet. I read a lot
of articles, thesis and papers about the subject. I went for the necessary books. It was thrilling to arrive at the International Playback Festival, in Sao Paulo, and see those names I knew from the papers become alive on people’s labels right in front of me! In this gathering I
faced different possibilities for Playback Theatre, its many acting fields
and the individuality of some groups. But by that time, I still didn’t know
if my group could do Playback Theatre, if that wasn’t only lead by educators, social workers and psychologists.
go to page 31
RIGHT:
Page 28
Karine (left) Naiara e (bottom) Florionopolis; Andreia (centre top), joinville
(Dionisos Teatro), Anotino (back) e Margarete (right), Curitiba.
What’s been happening?
O nascimento do grupo de playback numa companhia de teatro
continuado de página 34
A troca
No início de 2008, tomamos coragem, chamamos o
professor Antonio, e iniciamos nosso treinamento em teatro
playback. O grupo tomou conhecimento da forma do teatro
playback. Improvisamos, experimentamos. A partir dali,
paralelo aos ensaios de nossas peças, reservávamos um
ensaio por semana para o teatro playback. E gostamos
muito! O grupo percebeu que o ensaio de playback era
revigorante. Além de trabalharmos conceitos básicos do
teatro, ouvíamos uns aos outros, nos cuidávamos.
CLARICE IN A PHOTO FROM DINISOS TEATRO’S “MIGRANTES” (MIGRANTS).
Após vários ensaios e algumas apresentações, chamamos
Magda Miranda da Scripti Artes e Desenvolvimento de São
Paulo e a Rea Dennis da Austrália, para ministrar um
workshop com o grupo. Eu as havia conhecido no Festival
em São Paulo, e nos pareceu uma oportunidade única ter
duas pessoas com tanta experiência para nos orientar.
Sentíamos necessidade de um olhar sobre o trabalho que
estávamos desenvolvendo. Entendíamos a seriedade que é
trabalhar tão diretamente com as pessoas, ouvir suas
histórias, transformá-las em poesia. E foi maravilhoso. Elas
assistiram a uma apresentação que fizemos, trabalharam
diretamente com as nossas dificuldades. Mas talvez o mais
importante para nós tenha sido entrar em contato com o
pensamento delas sobre o teatro playback. Nosso desejo em
fazer arte encontrou eco nos seus trabalhos. Foi quase uma
validação, foi como se nos dissessem: “Sim, uma companhia
de teatro pode fazer teatro playback!”.
Ainda fizemos um mini encontro com grupos de teatro playback do sul do Brasil. Abrimos o workshop e recebemos o
grupo do prof. Antonio, de Curitiba, e um grupo que está se formando em Florianópolis, com alunos da graduação em teatro que
assistiram às aulas que ministrei sobre o assunto.
Em 2009, pretendo concluir minha pesquisa e disponibilizá-la para os playbackers brasileiros e para quem mais tiver
interesse. O teatro playback está espalhado pelo mundo porque tem várias facetas. Cada linha de atuação, focando um ou outro
objetivo, desde que feito com respeito, nos traz contribuições importantes para uma prática cada vez mais responsável. Eu gosto
de fazer teatro, e acredito na arte porque ela atinge o ser humano como um todo: racional, física, sensível e socialmente. Para
mim e para o meu grupo, o teatro playback é um jeito de fazer teatro, é um jeito de fazer arte perto das pessoas, para elas, com
elas. Isso, acredito, enriquece a todos.
Exponho aqui essa trajetória acreditando que as dúvidas que tive e ainda tenho sobre a prática do teatro playback
possam ser compartilhadas com toda a comunidade internacional. Também é um jeito de dizer que tem muita gente aqui no sul
do Brasil que se interessa por essa prática, e que nós todos só temos a ganhar com isso.
Clarice é atriz da Dionisos Teatro, em Joinville - SC - Brasil. Atualmente, sua pesquisa no Mestrado em Teatro da Universidade
do Estado de Santa Catarina é sobre o teatro playback. clarice.teatro@hotmail.com
www.dionisosteatro.com.br
Your comments on interplay:
I've been enjoying my hard copy of the latest Interplay - such variety of contributions. Thank you so much! (Sarah
Urech, about June 08)
WOW what a full, rich Interplay, well done for gathering such diverse stories, studies, different languages, themes
and putting it all together with so many delightful images I really appreciate the way in which you shine the light
on those that aren't in the spotight but have set the stage for the majority of us to dance in ... esp the Brazil conference translaters and the website man. THANK YOU! (Rose Thorn, about Dec 07)
PLEASE SEND COMMENTS TO HELP IMPROVE INTERPLAY TO EDITOR @ rea@cia.com.au
Page 29
Coming up … Asian Playback
Gathering
August 8, 2008,
Olympic Games
grand opening in Beijing. Do you know
what'll happen same
day 2009?
Four years after the
APG2005(Asia Playback Gathering 2005)
in Singapore, playbackers in Asia will party
again RIGHT HERE IN
TAIWAN, sharing,
learning, & having lots
of fun starting on Aug
8, 2009.†
†
APG2009 consists of 2
parts: international convention, & Master
workshops.
On 8/8 starts a 3-day
international convention, including
speeches, public forum, discussion, per
formances, small workshops, presentations, & exhibitions.
Three days before the convention are intensive workshops led by international
playback masters.
†
Sincerely we'd like to invite all playbackers
& teams who're willing to present or lead
small workshops in convention. Playbackers/teams who apply playback theatre in
any fields please take this great opportunity
to share with us your precious experience,
by presentation or "hands-on" programs.
Please contact us.
†
Pay attention for more detailed information about APG2009. To playback friends in Asia Pacific, free
your Aug 8 next year and see you soon in Taiwan.
††
††
Organizer：Even Nearer Theatre (Taiwan)
APG2009 BLOG: apg2009.blogspot.com / E-mail:APG2009@gmail.com
Page 30
The birth of a Playback group in a theater company
Clarice Steil Siewert
from p 29
Sharing
In the beginning of 2008 we had the courage to call Professor Antonio and we started our Playback training. The group learned the
form. We improvised, we experimented. From then on we had one Playback rehearsal a week in parallel with our regular theater
practices. And we loved it! The group found out how refreshing a Playback rehearsal can be. Besides working on basic concepts of
theater, we listed to one another; we took care of each other.
After many rehearsals and some performances we called Magda Miranda from Script Artes e Desenvolvimento in Sao Paulo and
Rea Dennis from Australia, to run a workshop for the group. I had met them at the Festival in Sao Paulo and it seemed a unique opportunity to have both people with so much experience orienting us. We felt we needed to look to the work we had been doing. We
could understand how serious it is to work directly with people, listening to their stories and transforming them into poetry. And it was
amazing. They watched a performance and worked specifically on our difficulties. But maybe what was most valuable for us was to
get in touch with their way of thinking Playback Theatre. Our willingness to do art was echoed by their work. It was like a confirmation. As if they were saying to us: “Yes, a theater company can do Playback Theater!”
We also had a mini gathering with Playback groups of the south of Brazil. We opened the workshop and had Prof. Antonio’s group
from Curitiba, and another group that is in formation in Florianopolis, with graduate theater students that took my classes on the subject.
I intend to finish my research in 2009 and make it accessible for Brazilian Playbackers and for those who are interested. Playback is
spread all over the world due to its many aspects. Each way of performing it, with one or other focus, when done with respect, contribute a lot to a practice with more and more responsibility. I love doing theater. And I believe in the art because it reaches the human being entirely: rationally, physically, emotionally and socially. To me and to my group, Playback Theatre is a way of doing theater. It is a way of making art close to people, for them, with them. And this, I believe, enriches all of us.
I share this journey here because I believe the questions I had and still have about the practice of Playback Theatre can be shared
among all the international community. This is also a way of saying that there are a lot of people here in the south of Brazil interested
in this practice. And that we can only benefit from it.
Clarice is an actress with Dionisos Teatro, in Joinville - SC - Brasil. She has a Masters in Theatre from the Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina about
playback theatre. clarice.teatro@hotmail.com , www.dionisosteatro.com.br
FROM THE BOARD
IPTN Financial Report
IPTN FINANCIAL REPORT
OPENING BALANCE
(Recorded in $US)
9,393
INCOME
Dues
Donations
Interest Income
TOTAL INCOME
19,957
929
29
20,915
EXPENSES
Interplay
7,034
Board Meeting
2,527
Postage
236
Web site
535
Printing and Copying
85
Bank charges
73
TOTAL EXPENSES
10,490
ENDING BALANCE
19,818
Here at long last is a report of IPTN finances for the 2 years that ended just before the last Board meeting in Brazil. The reason for the long
delay is that it was difficult to contact some key people who had information that affected these results. And the main reason why so much
money from this period was not spent is that we had fewer issues of Interplay than originally planned. Since the ending date of this report,
Interplay costs have risen substantially, so it is of great benefit that we had the money to spend on that.
submitted by Mountaine Mort Jonas, IPTN Treasurer
Page 31
Sydney Celebrates Diveristy and Collegiality
THE TWO TROUPES DIALOGUE
Steve Meagher
from 34
The impulse to spur to action however, was much more informal. It came when Jackie, who is a member of
Paperbag was leaving my house after dinner (our sons attend the same class at school) and I asked what Paperbag thought of our new flier, inscribed “Playback Theatre Sydney – the original company”. There was an
awkward silence and words to the effect that it had been talked about and was considered “interesting”.
After another pause I suggested that we have a meeting between the elders of the companies to discuss
things – perhaps three members from each company. An agenda of items for discussion was circulated via email.
Four meetings ensued over approximately six months. We did not use an external facilitator as we felt there
was sufficient experience in the group to deal with any issues that arose. However, as we discovered in the
final meeting, this feeling was not unanimous.
The first meeting took place at Sydney’s rehearsal space. We warmed up with some playback moments in the
round and then sat in a circle to explore the issues further. The session was spent processing feelings towards
each other and no resolutions were reached. We agreed to meet again.
The second meeting followed the lines of the first, commencing with some playback moments in the round and
further exploration of issues and feelings. During this session the temperature of the discussion rose somewhat and there were some heated exchanges. It also became apparent that there were different cultures of
communication within the two companies and differing expectations as to the content and outcome of the sessions. In particular, PBTS is a company with its roots in psychodrama and our expectation was that, if we
processed the feelings and emotions between the two companies, then resolution would follow. Paperbag
members expressed an expectation that the agenda would be explored and co-operative plans would (or not)
be made. These differences were explored as part of the session. We agreed to meet again.
At the third meeting, after a brief warm up, the agenda was finally placed on the table! Discussion went
smoothly and the items were negotiated with a spirit of generosity. The most challenging question was: “what
do we say to clients who are thinking of booking us who want to know the differences between the two companies?” Many points of difference were put up including longevity as companies, fees, level of experience with
business and corporate shows, previous client bases, but none of them seemed to express the essential natures of our companies. And so it was agreed that anyone who really wanted to know would have to come to
our public performances. We even had time at the end of the session for dreaming about future Australian
conferences in the desert. We finished with a resolution to have an all-day playback “jam” between the two
companies which Paperbag offered to organise. We agreed to meet again.
The final session was rescheduled so that it happened after the “jam’ which also ended up including other companies from the region. We recapitulated the previous sessions if brief and then each volunteered one thing
that we felt challenged by and one thing we appreciated about the meetings. During these discussions it again
became apparent that as companies we had very different ways of approaching conflict and had brought different expectations about process and content to the meetings. In particular, in Sydney we are familiar with exploring our conflict using forms of playback and Paperbag found this part of the process challenging.
The subject of external facilitation was discussed with one member of Paperbag strongly in favour as she felt
there was a lack of structure and safety. We agreed that for future meetings there would be negotiation
around the process for the meetings as part of the preparations. We ended it with an agreement to keep communication open between the companies and to organise an annual dinner between the groups.
From my own perspective as a long term member and co-director of a company, one theme that was strongly
present during the talks and negotiations was the amount of energy required to keep a company functioning
was so great that it is easy to lose perspective on the importance of the wider playback community.
As for Sydney, since we started the dialogue with Paperbag, we have taken on five new members, we have so
much new work coming in that we have difficulty filling teams for shows and we have enough money in the
bank to create a new website. Whether that is just the natural ebb and flow of company life or whether that is
the universe rewarding action, I don’t know…
Steve Meagher has been a member of PTS for 14 years. The company currently has 16 members and performs on the last Sunday of every
month 5pm at The Newtown Theatre, cnr Bray & King Street Newtown. E-mail playback@playbacktheatre.com.au.
Page 32
LATEST PUBLICATIONS ON PLAYBACK
Reflective Practice
Sanders, L.A. 2008. Raising Consciousness and Examining Values Through Playback Theatre. Journal of College and Character IX
(3): 1-11
Fox, Jonathan 2009. Playback Theatre in Burundi: Can Theatre Transcend the Gap? In Prentki, Tim, & Sheila Preston (eds). The
Applied Theatre reader, Routledge: London
Dennis, Rea 2008. Refugee performance: aesthetic representation and accountability in playback theatre . Research in Drama Education, 13 (2): 211-215
Day, Fe. 2008. Engaging critical awareness through narrative and the body: Using Playback Theatre in a research project with interdisciplinary healthcare teams. 9 pages. Delivered at Herdsa Conferencehttp://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/
conference/2008/media/Day.pdf
Adaptations of Playback
Pendzik, Susana. 2008. Dramatic Resonances: A technique of intervention in drama therapy, supervision, and training. The Arts in
Psychotherapy 35 (3): 217-223
Apologies
Erratum
In the June 08 issue, the photo on page 30 is of Richard Mansbach (see Richard left).
Richard was the subject of the article not the author. Apologies to Richard and Stig
Seig—thanks Jo.
Also in the June 08 issue (editorial) I claimed that pt has "expanded into over 150 countries". Should read: "about 50 countries" - thanks Daniel
Next Issue
*
companies working in their local communities
*
Featuring reports from Taiwan & Hong Kong
Submission Deadline: 27 March 2009
New Zealand Playback Theatre Summer School
1-10 March, 2009
*
For more information contact Bev Hosking: bev.hosking@paradise.net.nz
go to: http://playbacknet.org/news/plaback_NZ_Summer_School_2009.pdf
*
“This work requires a sense of adventure, openness, play, commitment, and courage both on and off the stage."
Page 33
Sydney Celebrates Diveristy and Collegiality
THE TWO TROUPES DIALOGUE
Steve Meagher
Sydney Australia, like many cities around the world is home to more than one company: Playback Theatre Sydney (Sydney), which has been established for 27 years and Paperbag Playback Theatre (Paperbag), which has
just celebrated its tenth anniversary. For many years Sydney had operated as the only company in the Sydney
region, indeed we rarely bothered to add the “Sydney” to our name, announcing ourselves at shows as “Playback Theatre”.
Then, to our mild consternation, Paperbag, whom we had previously regarded with
kindly benevolence as a group of enthusiastic fellow playback devotees who met oc*
casionally on Sundays to share stories, decided that they would become a company!
Paperbag, whom
At first it seemed little was different. We continued with company life, supplementing
our public performances with shows in schools, businesses and social services, organwe had
ising and participating in playback community events. But gradually things started
previously
happening. Members changed companies. Sometimes there were members in both
regarded with
companies. Paperbag expanded from doing shows for communities and friends to
charging a fee, and promoting themselves with a fliers and a website. At this point
kindly
we watched with curiosity. How would they go? How were they managing the many
benevolence …
challenges that face a playback company?
Then incidents occurred. We both sent representatives to a conference organiser’s
decided that they
event where the question was asked “who was playback?” and “were we the same
would become a
company?” A show for a women’s group came up where Sydney “borrowed” two actors from Paperbag and announced the team as ‘Sydney’. Why wasn’t Paperbag accompany!
knowledged? A conference organiser who had seen PBTS at our public performance
googled ‘playback’ and booked Paperbag for their conference after comparing our different rates. Was this ‘poaching’? We also heard rumours of discontent with Sydney
* from within the Paperbag camp.
As those of you with long term (or even short term) experience in playback companies will know, the only constant state in company life is that of change. Company
life can best be described as being in crisis, just getting over a crisis or waiting for the next crisis to emerge.
One never really knows what will happen at the next rehearsal, planned or unplanned.
At this point in time while Paperbag were growing and developing their company (they had 12 auditionees at
one audition), Sydney was shrinking. We had lost or were losing a number of significant long term members
and our corporate and community shows had all but dried up. We barely had enough money in the bank to
keep the company afloat. Why was this happening? Among the usual list of suspects for the slump were cyclical patterns, lack of publicity and conservative user pays governments. We also peered over the ramparts at
Paperbag and wondered whether it was them! It seemed that we had travelled from being a community of like
-minded people drawn together to celebrate the unique form of storytelling that is playback to a place where
two separate clans had closed ranks to defend themselves and claim their turf.
What to do? We had reached this position almost by default – our company life was busy and consumed with
the demands of being a working playback troupe. Mooted meetings between our administrators were postponed and didn’t occur. Advice was sought from the elders of Playback and responses came in varying forms.
An article arrived from Jonathon Fox comprising a transcript of a meeting between members of two companies
in a similar predicament in America, and his analysis of the matter in the Centre for Playback Theatre Newsletter.
...cont p32
GO GREEN
ELECT TO RECEIVE YOUR INTERPLAY BY EMAIL
EMAIL INTERPLAY EDITOR
REA@CIA.COM.AU
Page 34
Sydney Celebrates Diveristy and Collegiality
REFLECTIONS ON A TWO TROUPES DIALOGUE, 2007/8 cont…/
Julia Dilli & Paperbag Playback Theatre
From back page:
Despite misgivings we reconvened for the third meeting to find the tensions had been cleared and we could talk about issues:
The nine key themes that emerged fell into a type of “Maslow’s Hierarchy”, ranging from the very practical and par‐
ticular, through to the broad and philosophical. IDENTITY: Similarity of name, forms and costume. Do we need more distinct identities? How do we establish this? PRICING: PBPB is cheaper than Sydney. Is this an issue? EXCLUSIVITY: Can we establish agreed guidelines for dealing with the client base? COMMUNICATION: Can we put in place a communication procedure? What needs to be communicated? How often? ACTORS: What are our agreements about ‘poaching’ and sharing actors? RECOGNITION: When we work together, how do we acknowledge each other? TRAINING: Will there be future involvement in training? CONNECTION: Should we have a 2 troupe jam and a social event? Who will organise them? When/where will they be? MUTUALITY: Is it desirable/practical for the two troupes to work together to expand general awareness and use of playback theatre? What would this involve? FEELINGS AND ISSUES
On reflection, there were two levels that needed to be addressed in the meetings: feelings and issues. The two
companies had different ideas about how to explore the
space between us: one company wanted to begin the
process on the feeling level, the other company on the
issues. Both needed to be addressed. The difference in
expectations made the process an unnecessary struggle.
KEY OUTCOME
One of the key outcomes of the process was an opportunity for the troupes and their individual representatives to
see and be seen, to accept others and be accepted, and to
realise it is not a matter of being “less than” or "more
than", "original" or "more recently arrived", but simply
that we are each “different”.
Since that time The Two Sydney Playback Companies
have taken part in 2 jams (where practice is shared), and
recently came together for the agreed to yearly dinner. At
this stage, we can confidently say that the relationship is
better defined and connections continue to be nurtured.......
PAPERBAG PLAYBACK THEATRE
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Julia submitted the photo,. LEFT, of two white cockatoos repre‐
senting the two companies. The white cockatoo is a protected species, naturally occurring in Australia, much loved for their social behaviour and love of feasting and chattering (squawking) PHOTO: Gerry Node Page 35
Sydney Celebrates Diveristy and Collegiality
ABOVE: MEMBERS OF SYDNEY PLAYBACK THEATRE AND PAPERBAG PLAYBACK THEATRE, AT DINNER TOGETHER
During 2007/2008 the two long term playback companies in Sydney Australia met to discuss the dynamics of working side-by-side
each other offering similar services. Considering questions about approaches to playback, being business competitors, sharing
actors, referring work to teach other, and co-existing with the similarities and diversity of each as unique theatre companies were
some of the areas of interest that drew the two companies together for discussions, and eventually dinner. Here Stephen
Meagher (Sydney) and Julie Dilli (with her Paperbag colleagues) reflect on what they came to call The Two-Troupe Dialogues.
REFLECTIONS ON A TWO TROUPES DIALOGUE, 2007/8
Julia Dilli & Paperbag Playback Theatre
It is over a year since Playback Sydney (PBS) and Paperbag Playback (PBPB) officially started the Two (Sydney) Troupes Dialogue. PBS has been in existence since 1980, and has long been the premier playback company in Sydney. PBPB was established in 1997 as a forum for play, sharing personal stories and nurturing community. PBPB has gone through many changes
over the years, gradually evolving into a performing company.
PBPB was the playful child that grew into the challenging adolescent: what did the adult company make of us?
This emergence created tensions in the small Sydney playback community, notably around boundary and identity issues. Occasionally inter-troupe tensions would bubble to the surface. At a combined companies’ playday (‘jam’) words such as cannibalise, wankers and poaching emerged in both dialogue and stories. The need for a formalisation of the relationship between the
companies bubbled away for years and was gaining momentum, until it was agreed that the situation needed to be addressed. A
date was set.
The process got underway with no clear structure or holding. Most of the participants were experienced facilitators and/or conductors. Some had complaints, others not. There was some talk, and some playback. We lumbered along. It was confronting
and confusing at times. There was no meta perspective to balance the different expectations and group processing styles. PBPB
privately considered not continuing with the process after two meeting as the attempts to structure meetings were not heeded, the
process felt out of our control.
…. cont p. 35
Co-authored by Sally Swain, Julia Dilli, Peter O'Connell and Jackie Rawlings, who have been members of PaperBag PlayBack for
12, 12, 5, and 4 years respectively. PBPB offers 4 public performances a year. Visit their website http://paperbagpb.tripod.com
for more info, or email paperbagpb@hotmail.com
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