The Playback Theater "Let's Snuggle Together"

Toastmaster Piao came to the 7th Playback Theater workshop this morning. It's an open classroom for interested participants at the Wenshan PT last Saturday morning. It's also a stage for Wenshan PT members who missed the public performance last Saturday morning, May 26th.

At the PT "Let's snuggle together" this morning, I got a chance to serve as a teller to talk about my schizophrenic brother to share about the trust among sisters and brothers. It was an exciting experience sitting in the audience when the PT instructor used my story as a case study! I could learn the theater details when the instructor analyzed my story. It was encouraging! I was impressed by the PT instructor's coaching skills to catch the core of the story, to set up the scenario, to use the fabrics and chairs, and to playback the story on stage.

When another member volunteered to be a teller to talk about her new job struggle, I didn't hesitate to act on stage the three-sentence-story. As a new PT member, I still have a lot to learn, to catch the story, and to use the props. And I am determined to jump at every opportunity to act and to practice PT on stage. I shall go to 2012 TPG (Taiwan PT Gathering) in Huan-lien in August. And I plan to  participate in a 4-days PT workshop in Singapore in the near future.

The PT at Wenshan Woman and Family Service Center will come to end Tuesday morning, June 2nd, it will be resumed after the summer vacation! I shall sign up for another PT to continue honing my PT skills. The Playback Theater is certainly the best and strongest stepping stone for my new career in Theater. My ultimate goal is to organize a PT for seniors in my community, so that I can listen to and see many interesting and touching living stories!

William Shakespeare@ Red Room

The month of May has been very Shakespearean. I'd never studied William Shakespeare's plays more diligently before in my whole life. It's been a fantastic experience to know more about Shakespeare, the greatest tycoon of English literature. It's been fun to read aloud the famous lines of Romeo & Juliet, The Tragedy of Hamlet, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, As You Like It, and The Tragedy of Macbeth on Sunday afternoons.

It was at the Stage Time and Wine@ Red Room where I read William Shakespeare with enthusiastic theater lovers twice in April and thrice in May. I was first invited to the Red Room by Ruth Giordano in March this year. Ruth and I met at a Toastmasters club meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in April 2011.

Being a Toastmaster, I'm fond of meeting up with people and giving speeches in public. When Ruth invited me to the Red Room, I was flattered. I remember the Saturday evening when I slided the heavy wooden door of the Red Room for the first time, I was impressed by the large living room furnished with all sorts of exquisite antique mirrors. It was a full house of passionate and energetic people lining up to read, to sing, but most importantly, to listen.

When Ruth asked me if I would be interested in joining the Shakespeare Reading Theater hosted by the Red Room at the Fringe Festival 2012 in September. Without second thought, I jumped at the opportunities. Ruth is the Director and her better half is the Playwright.

The Shakespeare Reading Theater is a two-part event featuring Shakespeare's greatest hits. The spoken word will be presented to stimulate the imagination. It is Shakespeare to See but, especially to be heard. Part One features scenes from Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo & Juliet, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Henry V, As You Like It. Part Two is a one-act adaptation of The Tragedy of Macbeth.

First Reading, April 15th, I did the "Taming of the Shrew" for the voice audition.
Second Reading, April 29th, I attempted various roles of Part One, including Nick Bottom in A Midsummer-Night's Dream.
Third Reading, May 13th, I read various roles in Part One and Part Two.
Fourth Reading, May 20th, I read different roles in Part One.
Fifth Reading, May 27th, I read as the Narrator in Part One. I was requested to study three roles of the Tragedy of Macbeth at home in advance, including Lady Macbeth, Lady MacDuff, and the second Witch. I studied line by line of the entire script and compared it with the translated version by Professor Liang Shih-chiu. It was fun to study the background of the Tragedy of Macbeth, and to know the history of the Scottish Play.  

It was a bon voyage reading party for Ruth this afternoon as she would be back to the US with her husband for summer vacation. We had beer, cheese, biscuits. I brought a half dozen of pastéis de Belémpies and a bag of dried mint leaves. We watched DVD of Shakespeare Monologues featuring Ian McKellen. It was inspiring and entertaining! I hope I can watch all Shakespearean plays on DVDs and as many books about the art of voice acting as possible this  Summer!

The Playback Theater "Gate" on Stage

My debut Playback Theater (PT) on stage took place at the Wenshan Woman and Family Service Center this morning, May 26th, with a dozen PT actors and actresses and 52 tellers. It was a two-hours theater full of laughter and tears. It was a powerful psycho-drama for tellers, for audiences, and for actors. Everyone was somehow transformed from adversities into inspiring life purposes one way or another. I saw the soothing and therapeutic effects of PT among tellers with my own eyes.

Talking about the Playback Theater, it's about improvisation on stage. I like improvisation on stage for several reasons. Firstly, the craft of improvisation started in Italy in the 16th century. And I used to live in Italy and I leaned the Italian Language. Secondly, I have many close Italian friends. We exchange emails regularly. Last but not least, I love Italian cuisine. I am fascinated by the passionate Italian ways of communication with facial expressions, hand gestures, and vocal varieties.

I like PT where I learn to observe people around me and I find the experience enrich my life journey. In the community living classroom, I open my eyes to many on-going comedies and tragedies on daily basis. While I learn to express emotions, I also let out the inner feelings of mine. It feels great!

The Playback Theater

It's been more than one month since I joined the Playback Theater (PT) at Taipei Wen-shan Woman and Family Service Center from Tuesday morning, April 10th. The two months PT is for free to the residents in Taipei. The participants only need to pay NT$1,000 as a deposit and have the money refund after the completion of the full course.

After 6 workshops of two and a half hours each, I'm about to act out the PT on stage this coming Saturday morning, May 26th. I'm excited about the new adventures in my life journey. I'm grateful for the opportunity to meet up with the community members and to listen to their living stories!

The Playback Theater (PT) is to improvise living stories. Based upon finding essences in small stories, PT enlightens fundamental aspect of the human condition in a more general way. It makes people feel connected to a larger whole and find a sense of community despite all differences.

The PT is without a script. The teller is a person in the audience. During a performance, different persons are tellers of stories, which are episodes from their life histories elicited by the conductor. From a living story, to a performed story, the teller has the chance to see himself or herself with the gaze of the other, to experience the moment emotionally with the actors and the audience, and to experience things anew and fresh.

The conductor makes an interview with the teller and chooses among available PT forms. The moment is played back from the teller's point of view. After the performance of story, the actors look at the teller, make a bow of respect. The conductor asks the teller if she or he recognizes the story as his or her story.

In PT, the actors think and act on feet. The performance is built upon improvisation. The improvisation takes place within the PT forms, to use sound, verbal language, music, movement, acting. Chairs and pieces of cloth are used to imply a cluster of expressions.

The PT forms basically work either in a story telling mode (Narrative V, three-sentence-story, tableau, long form story) or in a mood of being (fluid sculptures, pairs, chorus, dance). The most desired ability of the actors is to be able to empathize with the tellers. The skills of the actors, the musician and the conductor should be present and mindful.

PS: The fluid sculpture is a sculpture in motion. In a group of three, each actor responds to a word or phrase given from the story teller in the audience. The narrative V is where the actors stand in a V shape and the lead actor does expressive movements, along with some narration, while those upstage actors follow along with the leader. The long form story is the most complex. It requires a larger group of performers onstage.