Playback Theatre
Playback Theatre
I have been involved in many different playback theatre companies for the past ten years, as an actor, conductor and director. I currently direct Thirdspace Playback Edmonton since 2016.
Playback Theatre is a form of improvisational theatre that invites audience members to share stories from their lives, which actors reflect back using improvisation including movement, words, and music. Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas founded Playback Theatre in 1975 in order to encourage connection and communication through shared personal stories. Since then, there are a variety of Playback Theatre companies in different communities all over the world.
Living Histories Ensemble - Photo credit: David Ward
ThirdSpace Playback Theatre Edmonton
Third Space Playback Theatre Edmonton is a group of diverse individuals committed to exploring the themes of intersecting identities through Playback Theatre in order to promote dialogue, community change, and social justice. Playback Theatre is a form of improvisational theatre that invites audience members to share stories from their lives, which actors reflect back using improvisation including movement, words, metaphor and music. Playback theatre makes space for sharing personal stories in order to honour and make known collective experiences.
We are engaged in hearing stories of negotiating and navigating the margins and the centre, as well as our constructed or chosen identities along the spectrum of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. We formed as a group of diverse people representing different ethno-cultural communities, language groups, and Indigenous communities. We are a group of creative arts therapists, artists, academics, and activists who are passionate about critically engaged participatory theatre.
We are committed to creating spaces of dialogue from a diversity of Indigenous and settler communities.
Photo credit: Aloys Fleischmann