Are you thinking of starting your own Playback Theatre group? Or about expanding into being a conductor? Do you strive to make Playback your full time job? Many of us feel that Playback is a calling; what does this mean exactly? In this workshop, we will explore and develop our visions as Playback practitioners from a both short and long-term perspective. Working collaboratively we will spend time clarifying what resources you personally need to reach your next level with Playback. Expect to be involved in realistic discussions of finances, training, and company life as well as in plenty of Playback practice and fun. Each person will leave with an action step to bring your vision into reality once you return home. All levels of experience are welcome, but passion for Playback is a must.

Prerequisite: Core Training or equivalent

Teacher:

Kimberly Rattley

Kimberly is the founder and artistic director for the Synergy in Action, a Washington DC based Playback Theatre company. She is a 1997 Leadership graduate of the School of Playback Theatre. She has been the artistic director for four Playback companies including two youth school based companies. As a graduate of Howard University School of Social Work, she received the Bill and Camille Cosby Fellowship to explore the impact of using Playback to explore African American Identity. Ms. Rattley is the President of Creative Synergy Solutions, Inc. whose mission is to help organizations build effective teams by bringing heart and soul to the workplace.

Cost: Special Price! $300.00

This workshop is for experienced playback practitioners who want to initiate or strengthen their work as social justice advocates. Racism is one of many kinds of oppression, and while this workshop will focus on race, the approach and tools can be used to work with other “isms” as well. We will look at how racism and privilege operate in society and inside of us, explore internal racism and the barriers to working on it, build confidence and tools for intervening with playback theatre, and develop action plans for strengthening inclusion in our companies and our work.

Note: This course will have 2 sections, one for people of color and one for white folks. The groups will meet separately for the first day and a half, and will then come together for the final half day.

Prerequisite: Core Training, conducting and practical experience, or by special permission of the instructor.

Teachers:

Pamela Freeman
Pamela is a psychotherapist in Philadelphia and a long time social activist in peace and social justice. She is co-founder of Playback for Change in Philadelphia, and a graduate of the School of Playback Theatre.




Sarah Halley
Sarah is a co-director of Playback for Change in Philadelphia and past president of the International Playback Theatre Network. Sarah uses playback theatre and other experiential methods in organizational development work, including diversity change initiatives. She is also a lead facilitator for the Whites Confronting Racism series at Training for Change, a global training organization for activists, and an artist-in-residence with the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.

Cost: Special price! $300.00

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Deposit $100.00 USD Payment in Full $300.00 USD

In the performance of playback theatre we use the concept of story to describe the teller’s experience. What is essential to give the audience a sense that the performers are “catching” the story? Does it have to do with plot? With character? With a sense of place? With finding the right metaphor? Or something else entirely? This workshop will give actors, conductors and musicians practice in finding key images for enactment, no matter how short and incomplete the narration. In the course of our learning, we will of course share our own stories and have fun playing together.

Prerequisite: Core Training or equivalent

Teacher:

Jonathan Fox
Jonathan is the founder of Playback Theatre and the artistic and executive director of the original Playback Theatre company from its inception in 1975. He is the author of Acts of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre; the editor of The Essential Moreno: Writings on Spontaneity, Psychodrama and Group Method; and co-editor of Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Kassel in Germany for artistic and scholarly achievement in theatre.

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Deposit $225.00 USD Payment in full $675.00 USD

Getting a strong start in playback theatre means taking enough time to immerse yourself in the rich atmosphere and dynamics of the playback experience. In this four-day intensive, you’ll learn all the basics, with lots of opportunities to practice. Playback forms will be taught—scenes, fluid sculptures, pairs, tableau stories, and more. Each student will have a chance to try the roles of conductor and musician as well as actor. And of course, everyone will tell and enact stories together, in the spirit of fun and fellowship. Designed for new and relatively new students.

Prerequisite: None

Cost: $675.00

Teacher:

Judy Swallow
Judy Swallow is one of the founding members of Playback Theatre, and has been the founder and co-director of Community Playback Theatre since 1985, with ongoing workshops and performances for 27 years. She is also Co-Director of Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute and is a body/mind psychotherapist practicing in New Paltz, NY.

Registration

Deposit $225.00 USD Payment in Full $675.00 USD

Prerequisites: Core Training, conducting and practical experience, or by special permission of the instructor

Cost: $485.00

Teacher:

Jen Kristel

Jen Kristel is an international trainer of the expressive Arts therapies and Playback Theatre. She has over 20 years experience working with action methalities such as Psychodrama, Sociometry and Playback Theatre.She is the artistic Director of Vermont Playback Theatre and teaches Expressive Arts therapies and Playback Theatre internationally. Locally, she is in private practice and is an adjunct professor at Burlington College in Vermont. She is on the board of the Centre for Playback Theatre.

For more information: journeyworksvt.com

One woman, a mother of five, happy to have her middle child going off to college- one less person at home!; another man, in uniform, worked at JFK for 20 years, leaving to work at SFO for a better position- leaving his aging mother and all of his colleagues behind a pair; a supervisor feeling anxious because the fiscal year ends the end of September and there is a lot of loose ends to tie up = high stress; another woman planning a 90th birthday party for her dad and though very happy and proud that he is still so lucid and alive it has been a very emotional process weeding through all the photos and memories for the slide show; one of the stories was about how a woman, who when young, used to travel the world during summers (instead of going to summer camp) and visit relatives in different countries and one summer when she was ten she lived on a farm in Germany with her German grandparents and she had to deliver a baby calf at 5am or else she wouldn’t get any breakfast!

Audience members really got into it after hesitating for the first few moments… it was adventure that really paid off!

Prerequisite: None

Cost: $850.00

Teacher:

Tim Van Ness
Tim Van Ness is founder and President of Van Ness & Company. For 15 years he has been using Playback and action methods for leadership development and transforming organizational culture in fortune 100 and 500 companies. A 25-year veteran of Playback Theatre he performed with Boulder Playback (Colorado), was founder and Artistic Director of Boston Playback and Valley Playback (Amherst), and was a founding partner of DramaWorks InterActive (Northampton). He has consulted to, trained and performed with Playback companies internationally. Tim has been a visiting professor at Antioch New England, Bowling Green University, NYU Masters program in Drama Therapy and continues to teach internationally. He has taught programs for the School of Playback Theatre – UK and Skandinavisk Playbackteater Studio in Sweden. Part of the first graduating class of the School of Playback Theatre, he served on the first Board of Directors for the International Playback Theatre Network (IPTN), and now serves on the Strategy Committee of the Centre For Playback Theatre. He grew up in New Paltz, NY and now lives in Western Massachusetts, USA.

Registration

Deposit $250.00 Payment in Full $850.00

Prerequisite: Core Training or equivalent

Teacher:

Jo Salas
Jo is a founding member of the original Playback Theatre company, and founder-director of Hudson River Playback Theatre, now in its 20th year. Jo co-produced and is featured in the DVD Performing Playback Theatre. A core faculty member of the School since its inception, Jo also teaches playback internationally. She writes frequently about playback and is the author of Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre and Do My Story, Sing My Song: Music Therapy and Playback Theatre with Troubled Children. Her two CD’s include Listen and Remember, a collection of songs for groups.

Registration

Deposit $250.00 Payment in Full $875.00

This course offers students a chance for an extended training with playback theatre’s founder. It will emphasize skill development, especially in conducting. It will teach theory. It will also confront the issues that face playback leaders, including company life, performance standards, and community relations.

For more information visit: Playback Leadership – United Kingdom

The Playback Theatre Leadership Workshop

This course offers students a chance for an extended training with playback theatre’s founder. It will emphasize skill development, especially in conducting. It will teach theory. It will also confront the issues that face playback leaders, including company life, performance standards, and community relations.

We will share the joys of our playback journey so far. Drawing on specific moments from participants’ playback experience, we will also study what happens when playback goes wrong. The curriculum will include ethics as well as practical examples of pt at work. This three-week intensive provides a chance for participants from different regions to share their playback theatre experience in an atmosphere of collegiality and commitment. Students will receive a diploma at the end of our three weeks experience together, followed by a special graduation lunch.

Prerequisite:
PT Practice, or PT Advanced Skills plus two selected topic courses, or by permission of the instructor.
Students should send an email of interest stating their pt experience and training.
To be eligible for the diploma, students must also complete a series of independent projects. These include: Essay, Practicum Project, Community Portrait, Creative Project as well as some additional work on social awareness & psychological awareness. For more information about these projects, click here.

Cost:
$3995 / £2495 / €2995 This price includes full board and shared accommodation for 19 days

Teacher:
Jonathan Fox
Jonathan is the founder of Playback Theatre and director emeritus of the Centre for Playback Theatre. He was the artistic and executive director of the original Playback Theatre company from its inception in 1975. He is the author of Acts of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre; the editor of The Essential Moreno: Writings on Spontaneity, Psychodrama and Group Method; and co-editor of Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Kassel in Germany for artistic and scholarly achievement in theatre.

Assistant Teachers:

Aviva Apel-Rosenthal
Aviva is founder and artistic director of PlayLife, and currently president of IPTN – the International Playback Theatre Network. She has a BA in Theatre Studies, MA in Gender and Arts Studies, and Diploma in Arts therapy.

Veronica Needa
Veronica is co-artistic director of True Heart Theatre, and founder-member of London Playback Theatre. She coordinates the School of PT (UK) and is a past president of the International Playback Theatre Network (1998-2003). She currently sits on the Board of the Centre for Playback Theatre. Her MA in Drama is on Autobiographical Theatre.
www.trueheart.org.uk, www.londonplayback.co.uk & www.playbackschooluk.org