Here is a stage where the audiences are not just spectators; they are the script writers and casting directors. Their stories are not fictional with imaginary roles, but are real incidents that happened in their own lives. By recreating and reliving the incident again in front of them, they not only revisit their past and analyse it better, but also share their deepest emotions with others to get rid of the pain. That’s therapeutic enough, isn’t it? Yes, that’s Playback Theatre!
Playback Theatre (PBT) is an improvisational theatre form created post 1992 in developed countries to enable a community to know itself better. It is slowly moving into developing countries like India in recent times. One of the few places in India where playback theatre first started is Chennai and Sterling Playback Theatre plays a very important role in it. Sterling Playback theatre has come a long way since 2000 when it started and has successfully created an impact in many communities.
“How often do we find people stressed out, just because they keep their emotions to themselves? Almost everyone has at least one incident that they keep revisiting in their minds, which turns into a ‘phobia’ in the long run. We are psychologically affected and that creates a blockage. Playback theatre creates an opportunity to come out of it. It surely creates a difference though we can’t calibrate the amount of difference that it creates,” said Cyril Alexander, Director of MACT, who runs Sterling Playback Theatre in Chennai and has conducted various performances in places like juvenile detention centres, tsunami communities, adolescent homes and so on.
Nothing is pre-planned here, everything is extemporaneous. The performers spontaneously recreate an incident on stage bringing out the exact emotions told by the person whose story it is. “This will helps build connect between people, which is often missing. These days, we find people bonded to computers and the virtual world. There is no human touch. This playback theatre will bring back the human aspect,” said Bev Hosking, VP of International Playback Theatre Network (New Zealand), who was instrumental in propagating this theatre form in different countries, especially India.
Bev Hosking, who is a counsellor by profession, believes in Playback theatre form as a healer. She seems to be the inspiration behind Sterling Playback Theatre when it started as an amateur theatre group and even today, after 13 years, she remains the inspiration behind their next step—Sterling School of playback theatre.
“In India, we don’t have the practice to seek a counsellor when we are worried and instead we keep things to ourselves and worry more. So it is necessary that this theatre form should reach a lot of people and enable them to understand themselves better. That’s the aim behind our School,” said Cyril, during the inauguration of Sterling School of Playback Theatre on Sunday in the presence of Bev Hosking.
This school is open to all without any age bar or educational qualification.
Interested people can call 044 24721579, 9444011035 or mail at cyril@mactindia.org or log on to their website: www.mactindia.org
