Playback how to's

Playback is an Act of Service
To re-enact people’s stories for a group.
Honours the story (doesn’t make it silly)

THE PLAYERS & PROPS

Actors – up to 6 stand UC in a line. Usually with stools or boxes to sit on. When a teller is telling his/her story, they sit. As they are cast for the play, they stand. After each “offering” is finished, the actors pause, then look to the teller as if they are giving it to the teller. This is called the acknowledgment. It’s important for the teller to feel safe when watching their story. The actors should not look at the teller or come near the teller.

Conductor – The on stage emcee or director for the performance. Warms up the audience, invites people to share their feelings, impressions, stories. When an audience member has volunteered to be interviewed, the conductor sits in the outside chair SR. Asks them who they’d like to play themselves. “Tell us a little about what you are like.” Other questions: “What other person in your story do you want to play…” “What’s your relationship with this person?” “Who else is in this story?” “How would you like this story to end?” When enough has been shared, the actor’s cue is, “Let’s watch.” When the piece is finished Conductor asks teller how they felt about this portrayal, or “offer.” When the teller is sent back to his/her seat, the conductor asks the audience who can identify with it.

NOTE: if a Translator is used they sit on a smaller stool next to conductor and teller.

Teller – An audience member. Sits in chair between the “conductor” and the actors. Teller picks which parts the actors will play.

Musician – Sits on ground SL opp conductor/teller. Adds music to feed the mood of the story…sometimes brought in throughout the story too.
As the actors are setting up [setting the stage for the scene, after the interview], the music sets the mood. The actors freeze when ready then music stops and then the action begins.

Cloth Tree. USR behind the conductor
Boxes/Chairs can be used in scenes to create levels.

Corrections – The teller has the chance to have the last word. If something in the story was seriously inaccurate, the conductor can ask the actors to do a correction redoing the scene incorporating the teller’s comment.

Transformations – The conductor can ask the teller if he/she would like to see the scene played out with a different outcome. This is seldom used because often another story offered later in the program will bring the needed redemption and healing, “weaving the larger story into a pattern of wholeness.” (jo salas, improvising real life)

SHORT FORMS

Fluid Sculpture
Bodies movement sound give back your feelings.
Someone offers an experience or feeling. The actors begin one at a time to form a “sculpture” of the various aspects of essense of that feeling.

Pairs
Used when someone tells of mixed feelings, an experience eof being pulled between two contrasting feelings. Actors stand in pairs, one behind the other and each takes one of the feelings to portray. The pair furthest from the teller goes first.

Revolving Pairs Starts back to back with one person facing the teller. As they move in a circle they make come around full circle + ¼ turn so that both actors are seen side view.

Transformation Sculpture first feeling is acted out builds, then as a group, the feeling transforms to the second feeling.

PLAYING BACK STORIES

Four Elements When a teller shares a lot of feelings and doesn’t really have a “story” per se, this is a good form to use. 4 actors take turn using a different element to share the essense of the persons’ story.
1. Cloth, 2. Music, 3. Movement, 4. Words

Tableaux Story (also Freeze Frame, or Statue Story) A story retold in a series of titles with the actors making instant tableaux in response to each title.

Action Haiku – 2 actors. One is a poet. The other is molded into the sculpture by the poet. The poet says the first line, then shapes the other actor to represent that line. There are a total of 3 sentences to make a haiku to sum up the story.

3 Part Story – 3 actors take turns acting out the sequence of the story. Doesn’t have to be literal.

3 Sentence Story – The conductor gives 3 sentences to sum up the story, and one actor portrays a sentence at a time.

Chorus – An impressionistic, nonlinear series of feelings, experiences shown in a cacophony of sounds and voices. One actor comes forward with first offer, others group around them so that faces are close together. The sounds continue until another actor moves and creates the essense of the next part of the story through sounds or words. The others group up with him/her to create that part, and so on until the last feeling is put together as a chorus of sounds/words.

The chorus can also be created to bring a mood element to a conventional scene as it is played out.

Narrator/Actor (don’t know the real name) 2 actors tell the story, one as a narrator (3rd person) and the other improvising the action of the story. They take turns (2-3 turns each) moving the story forward.