Theatre: Learning the ropes: Playback Stories for the New Year

For the first time in a LONG time I led a workshop with theatre. This was for my creative artist colleagues/missionaries in Novo.org. Six joined the meeting and it was a big win with the group.

NOTE

Here are the changes to the plan below:

We started with 5 min of people joining the call and chatting. Then an encouragement to be playful and childlike, even silly. We are experimenting with zoom. And it will stretch all of us out of our comfort zone.
Prayer of blessing for that. Wrapped up with another blessing.
We only used the first 2 warm ups.
90 min wasn't enough for 6 of us to get through a story. Four were told and played back.
Since we didn't get through one story from everyone by the end of 90 minutes, 5 stayed on the call to continue talking and letting the rest tell their story and "Playing back" by what we imagined could happen with Playback.
4 Elements worked really well, and the 3 part story worked with some prompts first of what those 3 parts might be, and how to know it will be over.

Prep: What you can to bring to the call

1. Paper and something to write & draw or paint with

2. Musical instrument (can be percussion!) Optional.

3. Hand puppet or a stuffed-something with a face! (this will help us enact things and still stay near the camera/screen)

4. Two to four colored cloths / scarves whose colors have emotional meaning to you.

5. Those who may want to get up an MOVE (as in dance-ish), make sure you can set up your computer in a place so that you can be seen if you get up and back from the screen!

THE PLAN

Warm up.

5 min

Feelings. Make it Bigger. Leader calls out a feeling and a person in the group to show that feeling on their face.

Then invites 3 more people one by one to make it bigger.

Take a moment to debrief. “What did you see by that?”

The person who was last gets to choose a feeling and call out the people in the next round.

5 min

Who’s with me on this?

Everyone scoot back 1 ft farther away from your screen.

One by one, individuals offer some fact about ourselves regarding how life is has been going this past month.

Anyone who is the same, leans forward toward their screen to join them.

Take a moment to debrief.

"Word for the Year," Sound, Action. (we didn't take time for this)

One by one, individuals offer say their name with a sound/action expressing a feeling about what the new year holds. Everyone in the circle repeats it, trying to copy exactly how it was said and done.

Instructions:

• Everyone has a part to play in this form of applied theatre. The parts are: Teller, Conductor, Actors, Musician, Audience. All of the “playback” of stories shared is done without preparation; improvised, after a moment of pause.
• Choose to tell a Story from these prompts: (read them aloud 2 times, then again before we started)

1. God was really doing something last year when…
2. One of the happiest moments I’d like to freeze in my mind from last year was...
3. Something that is coming up this year.... This is how I feel about it....

• Introduce 2 forms of Playback: Four Elements, and 3 Part Story.
• We’ll do as many as we have time for, but at least one story per person.
• We take turns randomly sharing our stories. All attune fully to the person while they are telling.
• 60 seconds of silence to be inspired. A sound effect can be made by a designated musician.
• Then Kimberly will say: “For _____, let’s watch!” Whoever wants to go first jumps right on in to start recreating the story in one of the following ways. At the end, we ask the "teller" what that experience was like for them. Affirm.

If the story is non-linear: 4 elements

Represent on screen the essence of the story using CLOTH, WORDS, MUSIC a PICTURE (when done in person, the 4^th element is MOVEMENT)

If there is a story line to what is shared: 3 Part Story

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

Try it out!

We took some times to clarify, ask questions.

45 min

Debrief/Clarify/Highlights/Wrap

10 min = 90 min