Wading in Virtual Waters: Intro to Playback Theatre

Five 2-hour sessions: Monday 2/3 – Friday 2/7 (3-5pm Eastern / 12-2pm Pacific) With playback theatre, we tell each other our stories. We enact them, encouraging different perspectives to become visible, and different voices heard. Peace and social concerns, transitional justice, celebratory gatherings…learn from experienced facilitators how playback supports them. Come sing and dance, laugh,…

Workshop Description

Five 2-hour sessions: Monday 2/3 – Friday 2/7 (3-5pm Eastern / 12-2pm Pacific)

With playback theatre, we tell each other our stories. We enact them, encouraging different perspectives to become visible, and different voices heard. Peace and social concerns, transitional justice, celebratory gatherings…learn from experienced facilitators how playback supports them. Come sing and dance, laugh, cry, and wade in virtual waters with us.

Playback is a form of improvisational theatre. Participants tell stories from their lives and see them enacted on the spot. Playback brings concerns to the surface, stimulating dialogue by making different perspectives visible and different voices heard.

Because there is no set play, the method can be adapted to the needs of many kinds of groups and organizations. It is used in 50+ countries, in the private sector and in nonprofit organizations, prisons, hospice centers, day treatment centers, conferences of all kinds, and educational institutions. 

This experiential workshop will lift up the voices of participants through playback improvisational forms and roles: storytelling, acting, “directing” or conducting, providing music, and offering performance support. Facilitators will introduce theatre as a means of storytelling and community building, amid concerns such as racism, disaster recovery, climate collapse, ableism, human rights, refugees and immigrants, gender discrimination, transitional justice…

Past participants have said they found playback a cathartic experience. It can also be celebratory.

As a starting prompt and as an example of collaborative action, participants may draw on plays or other sources. Events in the political sphere may enter into the workshop, with playback and worship sharing to process them. Participants will be provided readings and video links for Playback Theatre, including a chapter written by John and Beverly.

Our days will be structured as follows:

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

During the COVID pandemic, some of the method’s founders and instructors developed guidance on how to instruct and perform playback online. Beverly and John will provide instruction on how to use Zoom or other online meeting software, how to create a stage, the use of props such as boxes, scarves, etc.

Persons with disabilities are encouraged to participate, as are musicians, singers, storytellers, and listeners. This workshop is open to all, aged 14 to 90+. As playback includes movement, participants will be encouraged to wear comfortable clothes. We will act, laugh, cry, dance, sing, and otherwise wade in virtual waters.

Leader Experience

Beverly G. Ward and John Heimburg have been acting and co-facilitating workshops together for more than seven years. Beverly serves Southeastern Yearly Meeting as field secretary for Earthcare. And, through the arts, Beverly and John share the urgent need for Earthcare. Both are experienced performers with a playback theatre troupe, Living Mirror Playback, and both collaborate with theatrical works such as Climate Change Theatre Action. Together they have decades of experience in classroom teaching, and Beverly has also worked with Friends Peace Teams, Paz en las Americas in Colombia.

The duo has conducted and participated in workshops for the Alternatives to Violence Project. AVP is a grassroots, worldwide movement dedicated to building peace in ourselves, our homes, schools, institutions and communities. This model forms the basis of this workshop’s facilitation style. Throughout the workshop they have geared for the FGC 2025 Gathering, John and Beverly will share ideas on collaboration, building community, and peacemaking.”