Accreditation

An important announcement from the Centre for Playback Theatre:

Over the long years of Playback Theatre’s growth, training has operated in a similarly free-form way to Playback practice itself, with widely varying degrees of effectiveness and professionalism. But now our field has reached a point in its development where something more solid is called for.

 

To meet the need for students, Playback companies, and institutions including universities to have a means of identifying fully competent trainers, the Centre for Playback Theatre will publish a list of accredited trainers on the website. These trainers are people who have fulfilled the requirements listed in an application and have agreed to a Code of Ethics as well as supervision guidelines.

 

There is a nonreturnable application fee, and yearly dues to maintain trainer status. Fees will pay for translation costs as well as administrative expenses.

 

Applications will be reviewed by an independent Accreditation Board, appointed by the Centre board, made up of long-established practitioners and trainers. Board members, who are unpaid, will serve for up to three years, replacing themselves with other accredited trainers. The first board is Anna Chesner (UK), Pamela Freeman (United States and CPT liaison), Kayo Munakata (Japan), Jo Salas (United States), and Fra Zeller (Switzerland).

 

The Centre acknowledges–and supports–the reality that training by people who are not qualified (or not yet qualified) to be accredited will continue. But the accreditation program creates benchmarks of highly competent training for those who seek training on this level. We expect that having these benchmarks will also encourage more people to obtain thorough training in order to one day qualify for accreditation.

 

We considered but ultimately rejected the idea of grandparenting trainers who are already established. Instead, all who are interested are asked to complete the application. This includes the members of the Accreditation Board. We hope that longtime trainers will find it worthwhile to articulate your background and your philosophy about training as requested in the application.

 

We are excited about this new phase and look forward to your applications.

View a list of our Accredited Trainers HERE