Going Between Two Worlds

Abstract

This is a personal account of my adventure into Playback Theatre and, ultimately, my attempt to integrate the world of playback with the classroom where I work daily. In this paper, I highlight the similarities by examining education and playback as systems with a purpose. I argue that theatrical practice and training can be and should be integrated into our educational experience. The strength of playback practice is its emphasis on learning by doing, the importance of ensemble work, listening, offering, and the intention to honour the stories of others. These are deeply valuable attributes and offerings in the context of higher education. While an extensive account of cybernetics and system thinking (and acting) would not be feasible in this paper, I would like to introduce some key elements of systemic thinking to provide a framework to reinterpret higher education and playback as complementary practices. I hope this is the beginning of further conversations between practitioners of the two worlds. This is an offering where the story is yet to be told. Show more