"These are stories that many of us never get to hear from each other."
I've been doing Playback Theatre for over four years now, and knew by the end of the evening on April 12th, that we'd had a special performance and stories. But even i was surprised to hear from strangers after the show about how this kind of artistic form was needed for community dialog in York. Hey folks, we're not running for president. But it was encouraging.
While i toot Playback's horn a lot, that's not what i'm doing here. Honest. After the show, Linda Gist and Bill Grow facilitated a discussion period in small groups. It was supposed to be about "next steps" toward healing divisions in York, but when i listened, i heard folks talking as much about Playback Theatre as about York.
Healing York Playback in Premier: Roshne Davidson, Joel Plotkin, Greg Newswanger, Christina Cruz and Jeremy Kiskadden perform "simmering under the surface" a story in the premier of Healing York Playback, April 12, 2008.
"These are stories that many of us never get to hear."
"It strikes us how important this kind of medium is to our community's life."
"More people need to be a part of this kind of process and forum."
To top off my surprise, at the end our hosting producer suggested we think about making this a regular forum, say "monthly" he said. Yikes!
So what happened? Normally, i hate writing about Playback performances because it diminishes their power to put the stories into this form... from just one person's fingers typing. But people have asked. And i believe in spreading Playback's gospel, so here goes.
After introductions, i began conducting with a few survey questions. "How was your journey here?" led to the more serious question, "what was the mood of 1969?" referring to York's racial tensions at that time. "What is the mood of 2008?" followed that, and we witnessed quite a few responses and fluid sculpture "play backs" by the troupe to all the questions.
Soon the stories began, one about awareness of York's "hidden, simmering racial tensions," one about not knowing who killed a close nephew, another about an inspiring mother advocating inter-racial relationships and the final about institutional racism in suburban York County. By the end, we'd taken nearly two hours for playing and finished with a "finale fluid" and a procession of "Senzenina," a South African freedom song. I left the stage with the troupe grateful and exhausted. The vulnerability and diversity of the tellers showed a genuine trust of our troupe and the Playback process.
About 90% of the 60 audience members stayed for the post-performance discussion, a testament either to the compelling nature of the event or to the coercive nature of our design. Okay, free bottled water and popcorn probably helped, though even my 2 year-old wouldn't eat that popcorn! Anyhow, folks stayed and talked... and talked! I'll send out another report on that later, so stay tuned!
It was 11 PM when Calvin, John and i left the theatre. A night well worth the stress we had experienced preparing it all. But monthly? Well maybe... if YOU'RE involved....
