My experience of doing Playback Theatre at the Forum

This is something I've written to be included in a larger article from our delegation.

My journey to the US Social Forum was a roundabout one. In the Playback sense, it would a rich “chorus story” for another telling. For now I’ll share that I had decided to go the Social Form first and later found out that there would a Playback Troupe that I could join while I was there. What an excellent combination, Social Change networking with people from all over and Playback! I just needed to figure out a way to make it work for myself.

Our group was mostly “Euros” and they were looking for “people of color” to balance them out.
This is a mirror for the way that racial equity is being framed in a broader sense presently. The solution to racism is laid out as one of representation. If there are people of color in the group or “diversity” in the group then racism will have been addressed. This however does not change the economic or social power structure or misinformation about others that we are raised with. It does not bridge the gap in our experiences of daily life. Being able to hear each other out and be accountable to each other, in the process of working together can bridge that gap. Playback as an improv form relies on connection and trust between everyone at the performance. When that trust breaks down, the whole process breaks down. Barriers and conflicts are opportunities to build a group that can go to challenging places and do difficult stories because they have dealt with them personally first. During our first time together at the Social Forum I asked people in our group to make a commitment to take me seriously if I brought something up and really consider what I was saying, even if it was outside of their realm of experience. In turn, I agreed that I would bring up the issue “gently’ with the goal of building trust and respect within our ensemble. This was a necessary agreement for my participation in the troupe. It put into place a framework to address issues on different topics outside of race. It also grounded our group in a common agreement to respect each other through differences and conflict.

My highlight was the way that we worked together for 4 different workshops/performances, figuring out how to support a different leader for each one. We came from 5 different companies all with their own Playback “dialects” and figured out common performance language. We had our challenging conversations and we had our fun also. For me, all of this is an affirmation that how we work together is the main factor in what we accomplish together. The only thing better was my surprise birthday cake from the group. Thank you all!

Jason Agar
San Francisco, CA
Pinoy (Filipino) Playback Theatre