Last night was both a compelling evening of Playback at the York Friends Meetinghouse and a productive meeting about plans for the coming months.  Joel, Jahne, Bill, Colleen and i made up the group with a pivotal activity focusing on 3-part, 3-motion stories played solo.  Working in both partners and the full group, we practiced breaking down stories in three parts and boiling down the essence.  As always, fun and meaningful!

Easier to relay, we shared some plans for the coming months.  Our performance and post-show discussion at the York County Community Against Racism's October meeting inspired them to pursue funding possibilities for us to do such open community dialog events on a regular basis (quarterly? bi-monthly?).  Exciting stuff!  It provides a focal point of our training and orientation, though certainly other opportunities await.

Another spin-off from that performance was noticing that we could really benefit from playing with other players, conductors, trainers and/or troupes.  This would help both our confidence with Playback Theatre and our group's formation process.  I sent an email to a dozen playbackers from Philly to Asheville, suggesting a regional gathering, and got a few very cool offers:

1. Sat., November 14, 2009, 1-5 PM, an invitational workshop for new or experienced Playbackers at McDaniels College (Alumni Hall Mainstage at Westminster, MD). Free of charge. Let me know if you plan to come and want to carpool. Or reply directly to Ron at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to RSVP. Following the workshop and a dinner break, an undergraduate Playback group will perform on Alumni Hall Mainstage at 7:30.
   
2. The weekend of Dec.31 - January 2, we are exploring an invitation to play and perform with Asheville Playback Theatre, that's right, in Asheville, NC.  They are a strong group with a lot of experience and could certainly help us grow.  They will perform three times that weekend and may have an opportunity for us to co-perform in at least one of the shows. Drive would be about 9 hours from York. Carpooling and home-stays would reduce the costs to very minimal. This is not a wholly formed invitation and remains dependent on (y)our interest.  Let me know if you want to consider this!

Additionally, i am exploring guest facilitators for the next rehearsal session on Monday, November 23 at 7 PM. Note, final time and place will depend on guest confirmation.  Based on our tiredness last night at the end of the session, i would like to start earlier ideally.

Our final rehearsal for the season will be Saturday, Dec. 5th, 9-11:30 AM at the York Friends Meetinghouse.  In addition to the normal playing, we will reflect on how far we've come with the craft of Playback Theatre, individually and as a group.

Let me know of your interest or intention to attend any of these offerings.  I look forward to hearing from you and look forward to the next story!

peace now,
chris with River Crossing Playback Theatre

-- 
Chris Fitz
717-426-3301 (tel.)
http://jubileearts.net
Now tweeting! www.twitter.com/jubileearts