Dear all I was fowarding Chris Corrigan's inspired "Story of Strange Things..." to a friend the other day, and started to write a brief(!!) covering note regarding an observation I had made about the connection between one of the principles of Openspace, and the ethos that underpins Playback Theatre. Having just spent a weekend involved (very much as a novice) in a Playback workshop what ensued was probably not surprising -- the brief note started to look like a magnum opus.
And while I'm unsure of the relevance or interest out there in this topic, in the way of OST I'm putting it up, and am prepared to be surprised. As a quick precis, Playback Theatre is a form of non-scripted theatre, presented by a team of actors, a conductor and a musician. With the help of the conductor the audience share moments, reflections and stories from their lives, and the actors and the musician then re-enact those stories using mime, music, metaphor and dance. It is truly spontaneous, improvised and very interactive. Once the space is opened for a peformance with the audience and the players, then everything is already there just waiting for the stories to be discovered. Stories that I've read about playback talk about nights when audiences were very small, but produced great stories and energy. This highly participative nature of Playback, where the lines between the audience and the players becomes blurred (in effect the audience are the scriptwriters and directors), for me captures the principle of "Whoever comes are the right people". When the conductor has finished "interviewing" the teller about their story and initiates the playback with the words "You watch", the players don't immediately move into the space (first up they clear it) but wait until the moment "feels" right for them to move into the story. This can lead to a situation where the four players are standing there, motionless, with nothing happening (at least visibly happening that is). I think of this as the embodiment of the principle of "Whenever it starts is the right time". From the story teller's standpoint they too must feel engaged before bringing their story into the space, which may not necessarily happen during any particular performance. "Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened" really captures the spontaneity aspect of playback. The re-enactment is in the moment -- there is no going back to polish something that you felt didn't work -- it is out there for everyone. And the thing that constantly amazes me about playback is that often when you think that you got it wrong (and sometimes you do eg getting mixed up about which actor is portraying which character) or could have done it better, you then hear that the storyteller attributed a different meaning to it, and often your "mistake" is their most powerful moment in the re-enactment. The "When its over its over" principle seems like a good one to guide the performance by -- sometimes you can get caught in the idea that the story needs to be played out fully to its narrative end. One of the things that we did a lot of work around on the weekend was distilling the true essence of the story and/or identifying its critical point, and to ensure that this was fully explored or amplified. Part and parcel of this was the fact that if this was dealt with, then the teller's story was honoured, and that it may not be necessary to include all of the remaining details. The playback may even end at the critical point without the need to get the to "narrative end" of the story. So here endeth my ramblings and rantings on this topic, at least for the moment. These ideas are still swirling in my head, and I would welcome hearing other's thoughts and experiences. Thanks, and have a great weekend. Peter O'Connell * * ========================================================== [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected] Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html =========================================================== [email protected] To subscribe, 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign up -- provide an email address, and choose a login ID and password 3. Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions To unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign in and Proceed
