For the first time city theatre lovers will learn the tricks of Playback Theatre. The first ever workshop on Playback Theatre will be held in the city from July 20 to 24. It is organised by Rangbhumi Applied Theatre Organisation, Mumbai.
Playback Theatre is a spontaneous theatre created through an interactive collaboration between performers and audience. Playback Theatre is a unique form of improvisational theatre founded in 1975 in New York by Jo Salas and Jonathan Fox.
This form of theatre allows the right for any voice to be heard, brings group’s concern to the surface, and stimulates a dialogue by making fresh perspectives visible. The Playback process contains restorative and therapeutic aspects that can help with the promotion of community health and wellbeing. In some cases, Playback can also help to address any trauma that might arise from the experience of violence and oppression.
Through Playback Theatre the lesser heard voices are able to share their narratives which could be silenced or sidelined in the mainstream discourse. The workshop aims at building compassionate circles, hone the participant’s skills of expression and acting, nurture authentic relationships, build space of an introspective journey, create an improvisational toolbook, develop and enhance creativity, cultivate deeper empathy, and create deep listening abilities.
The workshop will teach participants Playback Theatre as a performance technique to be able to use this in their communities to create resilience and action-reflection praxis, to be able to enact the stories of the communities thereby gaining deeper insights through embodiment, and to voice their stories in a safe space.