Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot.

History

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Founded in 1975 by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. Fox was student of improvisational theatre, oral traditional tale-telling, psychodrama and the work of Augusto Boal.

The original Playback Theatre Company made its home in Dutchess and Ulster Counties of New York State, just north of New York City. This group, while developing the basis of the Playback form, took it to schools, prisons, centers for the elderly, conferences, and festivals in an effort to encourage individuals from all walks of society to let their story be heard. They also performed monthly for the public-at-large.

The playback theatre idea has inspired many people. Playback companies now exist on five continents. The International Playback Theatre Network was founded in 1990 to support Playback activity throughout the world. As of 2004, the IPTN has 100 company and 300 individual members from 40 countries. International Playback conferences have taken place in Sydney, Australia (1992), in a village north of Helsinki, Finland (1993), in Olympia, Washington (1995), Perth, Australia, (1997), York, England (1999) and Shizuoka, Japan (2003).

To meet the demand for training which this level of growth has created, Jonathan Fox, Jo Salas and guest faculty run the School of Playback Theatre, providing beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of training in Playback Theatre since 1993.

Further reading

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• Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre - Jo Salas, 1993
• Acts Of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre - Jonathan Fox, 1986
• Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre - Ed. Jonathan Fox & Heinrich Dauber, 1999

See also

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• Improvisational theatre
• Psychodrama

Locations of Playback theatre companies

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Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, USA

External links

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• School of Playback Theatre (New York)
• International Playback Theatre Network
• PaperBag PlayBack Theatre (Sydney Australia)