Playback theatre is an original form of interactive, improvisational theatre in which audience tell true stories from their lives and watch as their stories are enacted on the spot by a team of trained improvisers. Founded in 1975 in upstate New York, playback theatre is now practiced in 65 countries in a wide range of settings including theatres, schools, universities, community centers, refugee camps, and conferences. Playback theatre seeks to build communication, connection, and change through the artistic embodiment of experiences from ordinary people’s lives.
Beyond Theatre: A playback theatre memoir, by founder Jonathan Fox, tells the author’s personal story of the background and evolution of playback theatre, with chapters about his childhood in New York City and formative experiences as a young man in Nepal and New Zealand. He describes the emergence of the playback theatre vision, and how playback grew from its beginnings with the original company to its current worldwide presence. It is a story of struggle as well as discovery and deep satisfaction—the often-unsuccessful effort to find acceptance and support for a new form of theatre that transcended familiar categories.
Jonathan Fox is a Harvard graduate and Fulbright scholar, and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Kassel in Germany. He is the author of Acts of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre and the co-editor of Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre.