1. Where and when did you first come across Playback Theatre Sydney?
While I was studying drama at The Drama Action Centre (DAC) in Leichhardt in the eighties. The school was run by Bridget Brandon and Francis Batten in a lovely theatre space in the grounds of historic Callan Park – when some parts of it still functioned as a psychiatric hospital! We studied many theatre forms and Playback Theatre was just part of their two year program. The first Playback Company in Australia performed regularly at DAC during that time to packed houses, I recall the wonderful percussionist Greg Sheehan was the musician and he would use anything and everything to make music.
2. What attracted you to it and when did you join the ensemble?
I loved the creativity required in Playback Theatre, and the unknown. The risk of stepping into the unknown takes everyone, audience and performers alike, to an edge – an edge that is dynamic and intimate. To reveal your true self through your stories or through what has meaning to you, or what you connect with, then to express this onstage, acting and reenacting the story using improvisation – you just never know what’s going to come out into the open and where we will go as a group.
3. What’s the most interesting character you’ve improvised onstage?
Mmm, that’s a hard one, as I’ve been performing Playback Theatre for 25 years now… I most remember the transformations into characters completely unlike myself – using body language to become a RoboCop, a field mouse, and a very skinny woman.
4. Is there a story that moved you that you still think about today?
It’s interesting given the intensity we listen to stories and embody them that I do not recall many. I seem to immerse myself and then let them go. It is all part of the beauty of Playback Theatre – the theatre lasts as long as the show lasts – you have to be there. Having said that though, one of the most affecting organisational shows was with a group of Sierra Leone refugee women, who’d known horrific violence and killing. Listening to them tell their stories with amazing strength and tears and afterwards emerging in traditional dress to dance and sing in their cultural way – it was so powerful and beautiful and humbling.
5. What do you like doing when you’re not doing Playback?
So many things….walking my old dog, reading, watching movies, going to parties and dancing, eating out, seeing theatre and musicals. I also work as a Coach and Trainer, mainly in Sydney and SE Asia, training leaders in multinational companies in leadership presence, storytelling, communication skills – that’s very satisfying work as well.
6. Where do you think Playback makes the greatest impact?
I believe Playback Theatre is a very useful tool for building understanding and this is always important. It presents a platform that is both real in a down to earth way and creative. It offers space for a variety of perspectives to be heard, to share stories in a public forum which adds another layer of meaning and then to listen to each other which is not always an easy skill to apply to life. Playback is a model of empathetic listening, and this is a wonderful service. And then of course it offers drama and entertainment – tragedy and comedy – it connects us to our shared human experience. Ultimately, it demonstrates, obviously and subconsciously, that we belong to a tribe – the tribe of humanity. It’s a wild and wonderful journey.