I am excited to share news from our Playback Theatre ensemble and its last five months of hard work.  Seven of us graduated on May 30, 2009 from a forty hour course that included essential Playback forms and a range of related skills and practices.  And we have arrived at a new name for the group: River Crossing Playback Theatre.

The graduation celebration at the York Friends Meetinghouse highlighted the learning of the group.  Veteran Roshne Davidson, in her second year with the troupe, conducted a performance that included four stories of "learning" and "being changed," a first for her.  For most of the troupe members, it was also the first time to even play a full performance of consecutive stories, an experience even this veteran found both exhilarating and taxing. I'm sure i wasn't the only one! Above, Stephanie, Courtney, Colleen and Chris play "the mental triathlon".

We began by warming up the small audience with a "babbling" exercise followed by some simple stretches and breathes.  We concluded the warm-up with a "gratitude" call-out in which both audience and troupe members heartily participated.  Then the performance began, a journey through diverse audience accounts of learning, major transitions and life realizations.  The room was brimming with feeling -- hope, thankfulness, clarity, relief, wonder -- were all called out and finally, played back.

And then we graduated.  One by one, we read the affirmation cards of each member, then played back those affirmations in a mash-up fluid sculpture.  Each player received a certificate with the card and a brand new River Crossing Playback T-shirt with the Jubilee trademark ( b r e a t h e ) suggestion on the front.  It was a celebration so fully earned, i'm over-flowing with pride and gratitude just writing this.

We chose River Crossing as a metaphor for our mission, building bridges in communities and celebrating our common ground.  It also fit nicely with our geographic challenges - a troupe living in York, Lancaster and Adams counties, constantly crossing the Susquehanna River that divides our region so deftly.

Thank you Bill Grow, Janet Trump, Roshne Davidson, Colleen Schields, Stephanie Fry and Courtney Shumway!

Thank you family and friends who enabled us to do this!

Thank you York Friends Meeting, William Penn Performing Arts Institute and York County Community Against Racism for your gracious hosting and your beautiful buildings.  Thank you Yorktowne Dance Theatre for your fiscal sponsorship.  Thank you Gerald Davidson for the excellent t-shirts.

So now.  What's next?

Saturday Sampler Workshops on June 27th and September 19th in Marietta!

Let's watch....