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Playback Theater


Playback Theatre starts with personal stories from audience members and transforms them into theater pieces. ESOL teacher Lisa Gimbel of the Welcome Project in Somerville thought that Playback Theater would be a good way to draw from the experiences of her students - particularly around issues of their life stressors - and use their stories as a way to practice English, explore their commonalities, and work toward positive social and personal change. Along with the guidance of an experienced Playback Theater consultant, Lisa asked her students to think about, among other topics, what they liked and didn't like about their city, Somerville.

Some of the resulting skits involved waiting for the bus and not being able to find parking spaces, and getting jobs where they don't understand enough English. After developing and practicing their pieces several times, they performed their skits to the delight of other ESOL classes in the program.



Playback Theater skits The Bus is Coming and It's Raining at the Welcome project



Art as Activism

Lisa built on the momentum of the playback theater skits to explore possible solutions to the stressors students identified. See her story: We Are Change: Playback Theater Leads to Community Activism and her accompanying Picture Story.


Resources for Playback Theater

www.playbacktheatre.org/about/
www.hvpi.net/playtheater.htm
www.tonisant.com/aitg/Playback_Theatre/