Drama student receives expert training abroad

Fox and Salas first developed Playback Theatre in the mid-1970’s. Playback Theatre is a kind of social activism that aims to stimulate dialogue and provide a forum for silenced voices to surface through participatory techniques.Playback theatre consists of a company of actors, musicians and a conductor (or facilitator) who invites audience members to tell their stories, and then re-enact the stories told (playing the stories back to the storyteller(s).

This re-storying and performance allow the storyteller to view his or her story from another point of view, even multiple points of view as Playback Theatre positions participants as both witness to and presenter of, their own stories in calling upon participants to re-examine their stories in relation other's stories. The process of telling and retelling makes visible the underlying social, political and personal dimensions of human interactions in a given context and builds synergy between individuals and their communities. The Playback Theatre event may take place around a specific theme (for example gender inequality, aggression etc).

Today, Playback Theatre is practiced across the globe as a mode of Applied Theatre. It has been applied in diverse contexts, from leadership and customer care programmes to the social functioning of HIV+ patients.

Odia is already busy teaching Playback Theatre workshops in Pretoria. More details about Odia's presentation at the Centre has been documented on the Centre for Playback Theatre's website: