Playback Theater: The remodeled art of storytelling

BEIRUT: It is not that common for most people to know what Playback Theater stands for, how it came to existence, or what uses stem from it. Playback theater is a form of improvisational performance during which people engage with one another and tell their stories. It was first founded in 1975 and is still present till this day.

"I was a member in 'Laban – Live Lactic Culture', the first playback theater group in Lebanon. The idea of creating a new troupe that would roam all Lebanese territories came to me when we were creating a new introductory workshop to playback theater," founder of the Red Bridge troupe, Soline Daccache, said.

Daccache is a co-director of Arab School of Playback Theater (a school that teaches different level course in the Arab region). Having collected experience and contacts through her career, it was easy to come up with a new troupe. "Since I was organizing this workshop, with foreign trainers as guests, it was obvious to me that many attendees have a positive spirit, motivation, and good potential to be members of a playback/social theater group," she added.

"I straightaway invited those people for another workshop, suggesting the creation of a sister company for Laban, and this is how Red Bridge started," Daccache explained on the start of her idea.

With the help of her friends and the troupe members, things gradually fell into place. "I needed help concerning many aspects like logistics, financial, and well-being of the space. I had help from friends who later joined the team, Arda Kachkachian and Mohammad Ippo. Arda offered the space, which is an apartment in Zouk Mosbeh, and Mohammad helped with its rehabilitation," Daccache said.

In later stages of the project, tasks were divided between the members to facilitate the distribution of the workload; all the volunteers were admixtured together whether it was while acting or while running the troupe.

"Playback Theater is something different and not typical. It's not just a performance that you read, memorize and act; it's based on the stories and emotions of real people. These stories are reenacted on stage, we somehow mirror them, adding theatrical forms of PBT," said Jonathan Harb, communication and social media manager of Red Bridge.

Members of this theatrical and therapeutic experience voice their satisfaction regarding the progress made ever since the foundation of Red Bridge. "I have learned a lot in less than a year. Our weekly training starts with meditation, relaxation and psychodrama exercises," Harb explained. "It is these exercises that have helped me grow mentally, cognitively, and even become more self-aware about myself, my surroundings and my interactions with the environment," he added.

"I started attending drama-therapy courses back in 2011, then I discovered the playback form to be a sort of socio-therapy that might be linked somehow with drama-therapy as major. That's what made me commit even more to the troupe," commented Sarah Atallah, another Red Bridge member.

As a whole, playback theater guides people on how to control themselves on stage facing surprises coming from the audience's side, manage emotions the right way, respect the audience's feelings, and ensure a smooth collaboration between both the actors and the attendees, as Atallah worded her experience as a performer with the troupe.

"From the beginning I wanted a community theater troupe that uses playback theater as a base with other forms of social theater like forum theater and theater of the oppressed. It was clear to me that I wanted to reach people and help them," highlighted Daccache.

The audience is engaged once they share their stories, struggles, and feelings while witnessing the essences of these tales being performed on stage in front of them. "Playback theater can have a therapeutic impact on the lives of those who decide to attend the performances and share their stories with us," said Zaman Ali Hassan, also a troupe member.

"Playback theater unifies the public, yet acknowledges diversity. It joins us by way of the ritual of the show; it's like a ceremony that merges us based on our humanitarian side while acknowledging individual narratives among collective narratives," Daccache said.

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Red Bridge will be performing this Saturday at 8 PM at Youth and Culture Center in Zouk Mikael.