What is Playback?

Playback Theatre is a type of improvisation based off of audience members’ true stories volunteered in the moment. Playback uses deep listening and movement, voice, music, metaphor, narrative, song, and fabric to honor the storyteller’s lived experience. The aim of playback is to bring people together, to honor the universal in our shared lived experience, and to dissolve the illusion of separateness between us. Playback performances are collaborative, creative, community-building events, designed to deepen connections between individuals and groups. [Photos in slideshow were taken by Karen DSilva at a recent solo show in Bath, Maine.]

Solar Playback

I am thrilled to perform playback solo, both in person and online. Sign up for my e-news (in the footer) to be kept in the loop! Online solo playback performances are intimate gatherings that ask for your full participation. Free to register over zoom, and a pay-what-you-wish $0-$25 option for those who feel called to donate after the show. There is no pressure to pay and I welcome you to attend regardless of whether or not you pay. Your presence is a gift, truly. I cannot have a show without you!

Register over zoom using the button below and join the meeting a couple minutes early (the room opens 10 minutes before the start) to ensure your connection.

  • Plan on keeping your video ON and participating at times in 1-1 breakout sessions.

  • Think about a story or moment you would volunteer for a playback.

  • Plan on being present for the 75 minute duration. Please avoid arriving late and leaving early.

NEXT SOLAR PLAYBACK SHOWS: Save the Dates & Register…

  • Thursday evening May 23rd 7-8:15pm ET Full Flower Moon online performance over Zoom. Click the button below to register over Zoom for free. Read more about this show on my blog (coming soon).

Sign up in the footer of my website (below) to receive my e-news, and be notified of upcoming events.

Online performances are donation-based sliding scale $0-$25, Venmo, Paypal, Personal Check (US), or pay here on my website.

I hope you’ll join me for a playback performance and that you will be in touch with your ideas for collaboration and partnership. Here are a few of the benefits of Playback theatre:

  • Builds empathy and mutual understanding

  • Engages creative thinking and connection making

  • Deepens community bonds through sharing

  • Honors true stories and elevates each person’s experience

  • Expands awareness and perspectives

  • Therapeutic, healing, life-affirming

  • Diverse applications: from organizational retreats to individual milestones, from classrooms to boardrooms, private home parties to public performances

Ensemble Playback

I also currently perform ensemble playback, and have been since 2008. Join me for First Friday public playback performances with The Teller’s Garden at the Portland Media Center, 516 Congress Street, Portland, Maine. Showtime is 7pm on the First Friday of every month, with doors opening at 6:45pm. Admission is $15/general, $10/senior, payable with Venmo or Cash at the door. Next show: May 3rd on First Friday at 7pm, doors open at 6:45pm… Let’s watch!


Audience Testimonials for Solar Playback…

“Solar Playback was amazing! 2 hours of story telling, and dramatic interpretation, it was cathartic and very meaningful to me. The event even helped to lift the cloud formed from recent events in the world. I can't wait till the next one!”—Liz

“Playback with Erin was a profoundly moving experience for participants and audience members alike. She has an extraordinary ability to listen, synthesize, and perform the heart of any story. Her warmth, nonjudgmental questioning, and her ability to find the universal threads (not to mention her own mad talent for storytelling) create an experience of insight and transformation.  And joy. There is joy! I highly recommend this experience for everyone!” –Jennifer Jacobson

 

“In Solar Playback, Erin Curren relives a story using creative body movements with colorful scarves, facial expressions, and vocal images through poetry, song and chant. Her retelling of a story leaves the audience member with an authentic, artistic experience that transfers her heart's emotions to the heart of the observer.” —Phyllis A. Blackstone, EdD, Educator & Literacy Specialist, Storyteller blackstonestoryteller.com 

“Thank you for saying "yes" for your solo show..."bravo" on this amazing "first" for you! We were so glad to be a part of the delight and healing you evoked within our group. Thank you for creating such a fulfilling experience for all on D’s birthday, and for affirming our friend’s love of the stage and of his daughters. Keep glowing with the ways you share joy.” —Deann

“Erin Curren's ability to listen to people’s stories, to capture what motivates people to tell them, and to hear the unspoken and often unarticulated emotions that inhabit the storytellers is not only phenomenal and unique, but also always respectful and tactful. As a talented, versatile, and multifaceted actress, she then renders the stories passed on to her and plays them back to the storyteller by giving them new shapes, twists, associations, tensions, and fluidity that allow the person who shared their story to envision it from a new vantage point, both familiar and slightly different. Everyone in the audience ends up being moved, touched, and blessed by the universal emotions and human challenges we face individually and as a community. You leave Erin's performance transformed and with a renewed sense of being connected. Many thanks.” —Alexandre Dauge-Roth

“The power in sharing stories and being in community are already so rich, but to have your own story played back to you? Erin's performance, be it in an ensemble or solo, listens for the essence of your story and for the "you" inside of that story. She gathers your story with the whim of a magician, and wisdom of a shaman. She will perform your story back as if your story is medicine to the whole community. It ends up, it is! “—Kellie Ryan

To learn more about Playback Theatre through a non-affiliated site, sign up for a free, one-hour intro class, or read about Playback here on Playback North America's website.