PREPARING FOR PLAYBACK THEATRE LEADERSHIP COURSE

The next PT Leadership course offered at the School will take place in July of 2008. It consists of three weeks of study with a graduation ceremony at the end and the presentation of a diploma. Participation in this course requires serious commitment and prepares you for playback theatre leadership in your community.

Prerequisites: To qualify for Leadership, a student must have taken PT Practice at the School, or have been a member of an active company for at least 5 years.

Independent Study Projects. There are also a series of independent study tasks to be completed before attending the course. They will take time and effort, but the process should also be highly stimulating. These projects are a way to keep you engaged with reflection on your playback theatre work over a year-long period.

Essay. For the Essay, you want to choose a Playback-related topic and write about it in the most intelligent way you can. Read. Think. Write. Rewrite. The essay will stretch your left-brain skills. Hopefully, it will help you consolidate some aspect of playback theatre in which you have been interested. The length of the essay is not important (students have written from 8-80 pages). Your thinking and writing are. Sample essay topics

Practicum project. This assignment asks you to design a playback theatre project and lead it. It is a practical task. For the Practicum it is only necessary to write a two or three-page summary (description, objectives, evaluation). Sample practicum projects

Community portrait. You are asked to prepare a brief description of  your community (you may choose your neighborhood, your town, your city). This portrait should include a map, some examples of local media, some descriptive writing, a drawing or any other elements you wish to include. It should be based on facts--who lives there, what are the economic and social trends, what is the history. Your portrait should indicate an awareness of standpoint: you might wish to interview someone whose standpoint is different than yours, and/or a person who is a power holder to find out what his/her standpoint is. The portrait should show something about community divisions (including  segregation) and who has the power (and who not); who is portrayed in the media (and who not); who is portrayed with dignity (and who not), so that we have a basis for exploring in class where playback theatre might best be positioned in your community. The map can be impressionistic, showing some of your findings. Let yourself be imaginative in the way you collect and present your material!

Creative project. The creative project can be a story, a song, a painting, a performance piece, or whatever inspires you. It should be something new for you, something that feels a bit risky. You will have completed the task when you complete the creative project itself. You do not need to perform it or formally present it in class; however sharing about our creative projects is an important part of the classroom experience.  Sample creative projects

In addition to these assignments, we ask you to pursue two kinds of additional learning as important background to the course:

Social awareness. We ask each student to complete some reading, and if possible, and depending on his or her background, take some anti-racism training prior to Leadership.  Why take anti-racism training?  Booklist

Psychological awareness. We ask all students to undertake some psychodrama study. Until recently the requirement was 100 hours. Please consult with Jonathan Fox about the appropriate numbers of hours for your background and location. Why study psychodrama?

We expect that you will undertake these tasks over an extended period prior to coming to the School. It is important that you consult with Jonathan Fox, director of the School, about the final choice of your projects. He is available to discuss ideas at any time along the way.  Jonathan fox's email: jonathanfox@hvi.net   

›Independent study project FAQ