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.