Playback theatre and psychotherapeutic playback theatre

1. Introduction

Version followed: classical playback theatre (Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas; Centre for Playback Theatre lineage) as its performance ritual is described by practitioners and the Centre's Code of Ethics; and psychotherapeutic playback theatre as the Israeli Institute of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater (Ronen Kowalsky, also spelled Kovalsky; Nir Raz) and the Kowalsky, Raz and Keisari book present it (Hebrew edition University of Haifa 2019; English edition Routledge 2022). Fox's and Salas's books and the PPT book are cited only through secondary sources, as no publisher preview or open text of them is available [uncertain]. Sourced points: the order in which core forms are taught (fluid sculptures, pairs, then scenes or a full story) from a Jo Salas core-training announcement and a Hebrew University syllabus by Susana Pendzik. The steps for Fluid Sculpture, Transformational Fluid, Pairs, Perspectives, Episodes, Monologues and Four Rooms, and some verbatim conductor phrases, come from a public transcript of one online performance (World Playback Theatre, 2021). These steps are one company's practice, observed, not a founder's manual. No published step-by-step description was found for Chorus, Tableau, Three-Minute Poem, Triangle, Narrative V, Three Solos and Corridor, so they are named only [uncertain]. Gaps are marked.

What it is. Playback theatre is an improvised theatre in which an audience or group member (the teller) tells a real experience from their life, a conductor interviews them, and actors with a musician enact it on the spot. The teller then responds to what they saw [source: Feldhendler 2007; Needa 2014; Wikipedia]. It began in New York State in the mid-1970s, with Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas and the original company. Sources disagree on the year: 1975 in upstate New York [source: Wikipedia] versus 1974 in New York [source: Institute of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater] [uncertain]. Training spread through the School of Playback Theatre, founded by Fox in 1993 and later the Centre for Playback Theatre. The International Playback Theatre Network (IPTN) links companies worldwide [source: Wikipedia].

Playback theatre is not primarily a therapy. It is a community, educational and social theatre form that therapists trained in it can adapt [source: Wikipedia]. Psychotherapeutic playback theatre (PPT) is a separate development: a form of group drama therapy based on relational and group-analytic ideas. In PPT, group members play out each other's stories and inner worlds as improvisation, inside an ongoing therapy group [source: IARPP announcement; Routledge]. It grew out of about ten years of work by an Israeli learning group called the Incubator. It is now taught by the Institute, which is based at Beit Berl Academic College [source: Institute 'About'].

How change is thought to happen. In playback theatre, hearing a story deeply and giving it back in aesthetic form affirms the teller and gives the experience new meaning. The shared stories build connection in the audience, with playback acting as a "magnifying glass and megaphone" between the individual and the group [source: Feldhendler 2007; Esrig 2005]. In PPT, improvising around members' stories creates an intersubjective field in which dissociated inner roles can be expressed symbolically. Members take turns "playing the other" and letting the other play them, which widens their view of their own multiple self-states and trains empathy and internalisation [source: IARPP announcement; Institute 'About'].

Professional frame. Playback theatre has no regulated profession. Practitioners and trainers commit to the Centre's Code of Ethics, which requires adequate training and supervision and practice only within one's competence [source: Code of Ethics 2023]. Training runs through the Centre for Playback Theatre and affiliated national schools; the Institute trains therapists in PPT [source: Wikipedia; Institute 'About']. My recommendation [synthesis]: use playback as therapy, meaning with clinical aims, with clinical populations, or with deliberate work on trauma material, only if you are a qualified psychotherapist or creative arts therapist. Examples are a dramatherapist registered with the HCPC (UK), an NADTA Registered Drama Therapist, or a psychodramatist certified by ABE. [uncertain: registration details] You also need specific playback or PPT training and supervision. Without that, keep to playback as community or educational theatre and refer anyone who needs therapy.

2. Framework

No phased treatment manual has been published. The structures below are the performance ritual and the session formats sources describe.

A. Single performance or session (classical ritual) [source: Needa 2014; Feldhendler 2007; Jefferson 2014]

Welcome and orientation. Introductions and a framing of the space, context and any theme.
Warm-up / short shares. The conductor asks the audience, from their seats, for brief responses such as a feeling or a moment. Actors play these back in short forms, for example a fluid sculpture.
Stories. Several volunteers in turn ("three, four, five, or more") come to the teller's chair. Each story follows this sequence: interview and casting, "Let's watch", setting the scene, enactment, acknowledgement, the teller's few words, an optional correction or transformation, thanks, and the teller's return to their seat.
Red thread. Each new story tends to answer earlier ones. The conductor can name emerging themes.
Closing. Audience reflections and an artistic closure suited to the event.

B. Company practice. Companies usually rehearse weekly and perform publicly about monthly or every two months [source: Needa 2014].

C. Time-limited clinical group (example). In adult day centres, 27 older adults aged 63–91 took part in three playback groups. They met for 12 weekly sessions that combined playback theatre with life-review principles [source: Keisari et al. 2020, abstract]. Session length, group size per group, and the session-by-session plan are not publicly reported [uncertain].

D. Ongoing PPT group. The Institute describes ongoing group work in which transference and object relations are explored over time. Members serve as each other's actors, and individual, group and community applications are distinguished [source: Institute 'About']. The founders' 2019 journal article defines PPT as group psychotherapy with the playback ritual at its centre: the group meets regularly under a psychotherapeutic contract with defined aims, a therapist conducts it, and each participant gets a turn as teller, performer and spectator. The article offers therapists three continua for varying the method according to the group's process and goals [source: Kowalsky, Keisari & Raz 2019, abstract]; the continua themselves are not summarised publicly [uncertain]. The book's chapter on "levels of structuring" covers how much structure to give as a container for psychic material and group dynamics [source: Routledge TOC]; its content is not summarised publicly [uncertain].

Moving between phases [synthesis; no published criteria]:

From warm-up to full stories: move once short shares come readily, laughter and attention are present, and actors are tracking emotion accurately.
From light to deeper material (in a closed clinical group): move once the group has a few sessions of stable attendance, members can say no, and earlier tellers have tolerated seeing their stories played back.
Toward ending: in the last two or three sessions of a time-limited group, favour reflective and consolidating stories, review the red thread across sessions, and plan the goodbye.

3. Guiding principles

The ritual is the container. The fixed sequence of the ritual makes telling feel safe [source: Feldhendler 2007; Needa 2014]. Practical meaning: never skip the interview, the "Let's watch" handover or the return to the teller, especially when material is heavy.
Emergence. Performances unfold spontaneously; stories and tellers are not chosen in advance except in transparent, exceptional cases [source: Code of Ethics 2023]. Practical meaning: don't pre-recruit tellers. In clinical groups, any planned focus is agreed openly with the group.
Respect, never shame. Treat tellers, audiences and actors with dignity [source: Code of Ethics 2023]. Practical meaning: no mockery and no playing for laughs at the teller's expense. Correct an actor's choice if it lands as ridicule.
Inclusiveness and unheard voices. Stay open to any story, engage with ethical complexity, and seek out voices rarely heard [source: Code of Ethics 2023]. Practical meaning: notice who never tells, and widen invitations.
Human rights in the room. Act when a teller or participant expresses prejudice [source: Code of Ethics 2023]. Practical meaning: don't silently enact a story that demeans an absent group. Frame it, or name the harm.
Competence and supervision. Work only within your training, with supervision [source: Code of Ethics 2023]. Practical meaning: for clinical groups, have clinical supervision as well as playback mentoring.
Essence over detail. The enactment aims at what the experience felt like, not a literal re-run [source: Feldhendler 2007; Needa 2014]. Practical meaning: interview for the heart of the story, not every fact.
The teller owns the story and has the last word. The teller casts the actors and says whether the enactment rang true [source: Needa 2014; Esrig 2005]. Practical meaning: always return to the teller, and never interpret the story for them.
Reflect; don't fix. Forms such as Pairs are not forced toward a positive ending, because the aim is to reflect the experience [source: Esrig 2005]. Practical meaning: offer a transformation scene only when the teller wants one.
Discretion with stories. Stories told in a public performance are not confidential, but retelling or writing about them must be respectful and discreet [source: Code of Ethics 2023]. Practical meaning (clinical) [synthesis]: in therapy groups, apply ordinary group-therapy confidentiality, which is stricter than the performance norm.
Playing the other / being played by the other (PPT). Swapping roles builds empathy and widens self-perception [source: Institute 'About'; IARPP announcement]. Practical meaning: rotate who acts and who tells. Watch what members project into the roles they play.
Empathy, psychological depth, artistic creativity are the core principles named by the Institute [source: Institute 'About']. Practical meaning: judge each choice by all three. An enactment that is moving but careless, or deep but clumsy, has failed one of them.
Structure matched to the group (PPT). Levels of structuring are a clinical decision [source: Routledge TOC; chapter content uncertain]. Practical meaning [synthesis]: give fragile or new groups more structure, with short forms and a clear conductor lead. Give mature groups more open forms.

4. Intervention inventory

The classical forms are named in the sources. Step-by-step descriptions come from one online performance transcript (World Playback Theatre 2021), which shows how one company runs each form; companies keep their own "house rules" for forms [source: Needa 2014]. Where a form is only named, the guide says so and gives no invented steps. Learn those forms in accredited playback training, or from Salas's Improvising Real Life [uncertain: content not summarised here]. Core training starts with fluid sculptures and pairs, then other short forms, then the full story or scene [source: Freedom Theatre 2013 (Salas core training); Pendzik HUJI syllabus 2022]. All example language is illustrative unless quoted and cited.

4.1 Setting the stage

Purpose: Create the physical frame of the ritual.
Steps [source: Needa 2014; Feldhendler 2007]:
1. Put the actors' boxes or chairs in a row facing the audience; actors can use them to build scenes.
2. Put the conductor's chair and the teller's chair to one side of the stage, usually the left as the audience sees it, where the teller is visible and audible.
3. Put the musician and instruments on the other side.
4. Leave a clear central acting area. Optional: a cloth tree (coloured cloths on a rail or ladder), an upstage curtain, lighting.
Physical safety [synthesis]:
- Check that boxes are stable before anyone stands on them.
- Keep a clear floor, with cloths off walkways.
- Keep music at comfortable levels and avoid sudden loud percussion with startle-prone groups.
- Make sure there is room for wheelchairs and walking aids.
Watch for: A teller chair that faces the audience too directly can feel exposing. Angle it so the teller mainly sees the stage [synthesis].

4.2 Welcome, framing and warm-up

Purpose: Orient people to the space and context, and lower the threshold for telling.
Steps [source: Needa 2014; Feldhendler 2007]:
1. The conductor welcomes everyone, introduces the team and states the theme if there is one.
2. Invite brief responses from people's seats, such as a feeling or a moment from today.
3. Actors play these back in short forms.
4. Move gradually toward inviting a longer story.
Example language (illustrative): "Before any long stories: how did you arrive here today? Just a word or a phrase." Then: "Let's see that."
Watch for: Shares getting longer and more personal is the sign the room is ready. A silent room needs more short forms, not pressure on individuals [synthesis].

4.3 Fluid sculpture

Purpose: Mirror a brief feeling or moment back quickly. Often used in the opening exchange to mirror the group's mood [source: Feldhendler 2007]. It is the first form taught in core training, alongside Pairs [source: Freedom Theatre 2013; Pendzik HUJI syllabus 2022].
Steps [source: World Playback Theatre 2021 transcript; one online performance, so a house version]:
1. A teller gives a brief moment or feeling. The conductor reflects its core in a sentence and names the form.
2. Actors enter one at a time (three in the observed performance). Each adds a movement with a sound or short line that connects to what is already there, so a single linked moving image builds up.
3. The musician can support with sound [source: Feldhendler 2007 on music generally].
4. The actors finish and turn to the teller (the acknowledgement) [source: Needa 2014 for acknowledgement in general]. The exact ending convention for a fluid sculpture (freeze, fade, or actors dropping out one by one) has no published description [uncertain].
5. The conductor checks the fit with the teller. In the observed show the teller replied "Yes it was" when asked [source: 2021 transcript].
Variant: Transformational Fluid. Observed as a fluid built around a phrase an audience member wrote in the chat. The actors' voices and bodies showed a struggle, and the conductor then checked the fit with the person who wrote it [source: 2021 transcript]. Its specific rule (for example, whether the image moves from one state to another) was not stated [uncertain].
Example language (illustrative): Conductor: "Nervous and a bit excited, all at once. Let's watch."
Watch for: The audience nods or laughs in recognition. A teller who says "yes, exactly" shows the mirroring landed. If a fluid sculpture misses, offer another form rather than arguing for the first one (see 5.4).

4.4 Pairs (also called "Mixed Feelings")

Purpose: Show two opposing feelings held in one experience. It is a basic form taught first, with fluid sculptures [source: Freedom Theatre 2013; Pendzik HUJI syllabus 2022].
Steps [source: Esrig 2005]:
1. The conductor elicits a moment with two conflicting feelings.
2. Pairs of actors step forward one pair at a time. One company used three pairs.
3. In each pair, the two actors stand in contact and voice the opposing feelings, usually in about three exchanges.
4. Do not push toward a positive resolution. The form reflects; it does not change the experience.
Observed example [source: World Playback Theatre 2021 transcript]: In an online show, one pair played a teller's dilemma about a new beginning. One actor pulled back ("Stay away") while the other reached toward the future. The teller said it missed his point, and the conductor replayed the story as a fluid sculpture (see 5.4).
Touch: This form is described as involving touch between actors [source: Esrig 2005]. Agree touch norms with the actors beforehand, offer a no-touch variant (standing back-to-back with a gap, or side by side), and never use sexual or intimate touch [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "So part of you was relieved and part of you felt guilty for being relieved. Let's watch."
Watch for: The teller recognising both sides. If the teller wants one side to "win", that is material for a later story, not a reason to rewrite the Pairs [synthesis].

4.5 Other named short forms: Chorus, Tableau (Slide Show), Three-Minute Poem, Triangle

What sources say: Chorus, Tableau and Story are named as classical forms alongside Fluid Sculptures and Pairs [source: Feldhendler 2007; Needa 2014]. Three-Minute Poem, Triangle and Tableau (also called Slide Show) are listed as short forms [source: improwiki]. Pendzik's university course teaches "other short forms" after fluid sculptures and pairs, without naming them [source: HUJI syllabus 2022]. Companies also develop their own short and intermediate forms with "house rules" [source: Needa 2014].
Steps: No published step-by-step procedure for Chorus, Tableau, Three-Minute Poem, Triangle or Narrative V is publicly available; they are probably described in Salas's and Fox's books [uncertain]. Tableau can be seen in practice in Pangea Playback Theatre's archived online show "What Now?" (2021, conducted by Hannah Fox), one of three recorded performances in an open-access guidebook, with a foreword by Jo Salas, whose Forms section links each form to the recordings [source: VTechWorks records for Pangea 2021 and Rosin & Winters Vogel 2021]. Watch a recorded example rather than reconstructing a form from its name, and don't improvise these in a clinical group; learn them in training.

4.6 The conductor's interview

Purpose: Draw out the story and its essential moments, shape it for the actors, and choose the form [source: Feldhendler 2007; Jefferson 2014; improwiki].
Steps:
1. Invite a volunteer to the teller's chair [source: Needa 2014].
2. Ask where and when it happened and who was there [synthesis: standard elicitation].
3. Ask the teller to choose an actor to play them, and actors for the other key roles. Chosen actors stand [source: Needa 2014; Esrig 2005].
4. Find the emotional heart of the story: what was most important about it, and how it ended or where it was left [synthesis].
5. Keep the interview brief and concrete. The aim is a story the actors can play, not a full history [synthesis].
6. Choose the form: a full scene, or a short form such as Pairs for a story built on mixed feelings [source: improwiki; Esrig 2005]. Tell the teller which form it will be before the handover. One observed example: "We are going to play your story back as Perspectives" [source: World Playback Theatre 2021 transcript]. If a teller does not want to choose an actor to play them, pick a multi-voice form that needs no casting. In the observed show the conductor used Four Rooms for this [source: 2021 transcript].
Example language (illustrative): "Where are we? … Who would you choose to play you? … And your sister? … What's the moment that stays with you?"
Watch for:
- A teller who escalates into detail of a traumatic event. Slow down and ask about the feeling and meaning rather than more graphic detail. See 5.3 [synthesis].
- A teller who keeps asking to stop. Honour it immediately [synthesis].

4.7 "Let's watch": the handover

Purpose: Mark the move from telling to enactment.
Steps: Close the interview with the phrase "Let's watch" [source: Jefferson 2014; Needa 2014]. The conductor and teller then sit back and watch.
Watch for: Being consistent with this phrase helps tellers and audiences feel held by the ritual [synthesis].

4.8 Setting up and enactment

Purpose: Play back the essence of the story so it is felt, not merely shown [source: Feldhendler 2007].
Steps [source: Needa 2014; Feldhendler 2007; Esrig 2005]:
1. Actors set the scene with boxes and cloths. The musician opens with sound to set the time and mood.
2. Actors improvise in whatever theatrical style fits. They aim for a version the teller will recognise, and may weave in social or political resonance if it fits the personal story.
3. The only props are fabric, used symbolically.
4. At the end, actors turn and look to the teller (the acknowledgement).
Watch for: The teller's face during the scene. Tears, laughter or leaning in signal engagement; freezing, looking away or dissociation signal overload (see 5.3) [synthesis].

4.9 Return to the teller: last words, grounding, correction or transformation

Purpose: Give ownership back to the teller and close their story.
Steps [source: Needa 2014; Feldhendler 2007; Wikipedia]:
1. Invite the teller to say a few words; often it is only a few.
2. If emotion is strong, help the teller ground themselves before they leave the chair.
3. Occasionally offer a correction ("that part wasn't right") or a transformation (a wished-for ending). The actors replay the scene.
4. Thank the teller and let them return to their seat.
Example language: Thank the actors first, then bring the teller back and ask "Was that your story?" [source: World Playback Theatre 2021 transcript, verbatim]. Follow-ups (illustrative): "What stays with you from seeing it? … Is there anything you'd like to see differently? … Thank you for your story."
Watch for: Offer a transformation as an option, not an expectation. Many stories need only to be witnessed [source: Esrig 2005 on not forcing resolution; synthesis].

4.10 Full story / scene (long forms)

What sources say: "Story" (also called Scenes or Free Form) is the main long form, run with the sequence in 4.6–4.9 [source: Needa 2014]. Scenes are part of Salas's core training [source: Freedom Theatre 2013], and a full story follows the short forms in Pendzik's course [source: HUJI syllabus 2022]. Esrig describes a three-act story in which the teller casts the roles [source: Esrig 2005]. Other long forms named are Open Space (Episodes), Three Solos, Perspectives and Corridor [source: improwiki]. Perspectives and Episodes were observed in performance (4.10a, 4.10b). Three Solos and Corridor were not described in any source opened [uncertain].

4.10a Perspectives

Purpose: Show one feeling or situation from several angles. In the observed show it was used for a teller's feeling of being stuck [source: World Playback Theatre 2021 transcript]. Improwiki lists it as a long form. When to choose it is the writer's reading of that use [synthesis].
Steps [source: 2021 transcript]:
1. After the interview, the conductor names the form to the teller.
2. Three actors in turn each give a different angle on the teller's experience.
3. The conductor thanks the actors, brings the teller back, and invites reflection. In the observed show the conductor asked whether it felt like one story or three versions.
Example language (illustrative): "Three people will each show us a different side of that stuck feeling. Let's watch."
Watch for [synthesis]: Which angle the teller picks up on. That is often the part they are ready to work with.

4.10b Episodes (Open Space)

Purpose: Play a story with several strands, such as places, people and themes, as separate short pieces [source: 2021 transcript; improwiki names "Open Space (Episodes)" as a long form]. Whether Open Space and Episodes are the same form in every company is [uncertain].
Steps [source: 2021 transcript]:
1. The conductor names the form.
2. Several actors, three in the observed show, each perform one short episode on a different element of the story. The observed example used the landscape, the teller's mother, and balance.
3. The conductor thanks the actors, brings the teller back, and asks what resonated.
Watch for [synthesis]: Choose the episodes from the teller's own words in the interview, so each one is recognisable.

4.10c Monologues

Purpose: Give voice to the teller's inner experience in the first person [source: 2021 transcript; purpose wording synthesis].
Steps [source: 2021 transcript]:
1. The conductor names the form.
2. One actor opens with a first-person monologue as the teller, with a music cue.
3. The other actors follow with their own first-person reflective lines.
4. The conductor thanks the teller, and the teller responds.
Watch for [synthesis]: First-person voicing is close to the teller. With fragile clients, prefer a form that keeps more distance, such as a fluid sculpture or Perspectives.

4.10d Four Rooms

Purpose: A multi-voice form. In the observed show it was chosen when the teller declined to pick an actor to play her [source: 2021 transcript].
Steps [source: 2021 transcript]:
1. The conductor names the form.
2. One actor opens with a question.
3. The others each voice a different aspect of the story. In the observed show these were her sense of displacement, a remembered schoolyard scene, and reflections on self-discovery.
4. The opening actor closes with a line that affirms the teller.
5. The conductor thanks the actors and brings the teller back.
How the four "rooms" are defined in general was not described [uncertain].
Watch for [synthesis]: This form suits a teller who does not want to be embodied by one actor. Respect that choice; don't push for casting.

4.11 Red thread and thematic reflection

Purpose: Turn individual stories into a shared, collective event.
Steps [source: Feldhendler 2007; Needa 2014]:
1. Notice how each new story connects to earlier ones.
2. At the end, the conductor may name patterns or themes across the stories, with awareness of the social and political context.
Example language (illustrative): "Tonight several stories have been about leaving home, and about who we carry with us when we do."
Watch for: Keep themes tentative and owned by the group. Don't impose an interpretation on a particular teller [synthesis].

4.12 Closing the performance or session

Purpose: Contain the event and help people move back into ordinary life.
Steps: Invite brief audience reflections, then give an artistic closure suited to the event [source: Needa 2014]. In one observed show the conductor summed up the arc of the stories, then the actors performed a final montage, each giving a short line drawn from them [source: World Playback Theatre 2021 transcript]. A lighter closing form after heavy material is the writer's suggestion, not the sources' [synthesis].
Watch for: Anyone visibly unsettled. See aftercare, 5.6.

4.13 Group members as each other's actors (PPT)

Purpose: In a therapy group, members alternate between telling and acting. Playing "the other" trains empathy; being played by "the other" widens self-perception. Transference and object relations become visible and workable over time [source: Institute 'About'; IARPP announcement].
Steps: The book (Kowalsky, Raz and Keisari 2022) gives the method, but its session-level steps are not publicly described [uncertain]. The steps below are the writer's adaptation of the classical sequence to a therapy group [synthesis]:
1. A member tells.
2. The teller casts other members.
3. The conductor-therapist handles the interview and the handover.
4. After the return to the teller, open a reflective round: how did it feel to play that role, and what of your own did you bring into it?
Example language (illustrative): "Dana, you played Ori's father. What did you notice in yourself while you were in that role?"
Watch for [synthesis]:
- Actors' choices that reveal their own material (projection). Explore it in the reflective round, not mid-scene.
- Repeated casting of one member in one kind of role, such as always the aggressor. Name it and offer other roles.

4.14 Theatrical mirroring, dramatic resonance and surreal "group dream" enactments (PPT)

What sources say: The book's chapters cover:
- theatrical mirroring, the "hall of mirrors";
- a "bypass to the depths of the psyche";
- opposites and integration;
- expansion of self through the other;
- levels of structuring;
- theatrical forms used in PPT;
- approaching stories through dramatic resonances, Susana Pendzik's chapter;
- enactment as a group dream about the story, using surrealism as the language of the inner world.
Resonance is described as the links between members' stories [source: Routledge TOC and description].
Steps: No published procedure is publicly available [uncertain]. Don't attribute specific techniques to these chapters without reading them.

4.15 Life-review playback groups (older adults)

Purpose: Support life review, playfulness and social engagement in older adults attending day centres [source: Keisari et al. 2020, abstract].
Format: Groups of older adults (63–91) met for 12 weekly sessions combining playback theatre with life-review principles. Reported themes were the evolution of life stories, the evolution of playfulness and the expansion of social engagement [source: Keisari et al. 2020, abstract]. In the related randomised trial, the 12 weekly group sessions were co-led by a drama therapist and a care worker; in each, a member shared a life story that the other members enacted through improvisation [source: CultureCase summary of Keisari, Palgi, Yaniv & Gesser-Edelsburg 2020]. The specific playback forms and session-by-session content are not publicly described [uncertain].
Adaptations [synthesis]:
- Seated forms and chairs with arms.
- Large, clear cloths and a slower pace.
- Hearing-friendly music volume.
- Allow for fatigue.
- Expect grief and loss stories, and plan closure for them.

4.16 Screening and contracting (clinical groups)

No published procedure exists for this; all steps are [synthesis].

Purpose: Decide who can use an enactment group safely, and set the frame.
Steps:
1. Run an individual intake. Cover current risk (suicidality, self-harm), the stability of trauma symptoms (intrusions, dissociation), psychosis, substance use, and whether the person can hear their own story enacted.
2. Explain the method concretely: others will act out your story; you can stop at any time; you never have to tell.
3. Agree group rules: confidentiality, the right to pass, no touch without consent, and how to signal "stop".
4. Agree how between-session distress is handled, and who the person's individual clinician is.
Watch for: Acute PTSD with active flashbacks, frequent dissociation, current crisis or active psychosis. These usually point to individual stabilisation first, or a highly structured, short-form-only group.

4.17 De-roling actors

No published procedure exists for this; all steps are [synthesis].

Purpose: Release actors, especially group members in PPT, from roles that carried strong feeling, such as abuser, dying person or rival.
Steps:
1. After the scene, have each actor physically step out of the role: put down the cloth, stand, move to a new spot.
2. Have them state their own name and one thing that is true of them and not of the role.
3. In PPT, include it in the reflective round (4.13).
Example language (illustrative): "Put the red cloth back. You're not Maya's ex any more. Tell us your name and something you're looking forward to this week."
Watch for: A member who still feels "stuck" in a role, or a teller who treats the actor as the person they played. Name the distinction explicitly.

5. Handling problems

The sources address safety mainly through the ritual container, respect, emergence, competence and supervision [source: Code of Ethics 2023; Needa 2014; Feldhendler 2007]. Unless a source is tagged, the concrete responses below are the writer's synthesis [synthesis].

5.1 No one volunteers / stuck room

Return to short shares from seats and play them back. Stories tend to come once others have told [source: Needa 2014; Jefferson 2014 observes this informally].
Offer a narrower prompt, such as a small moment from this week, rather than "a story" [synthesis].
Never pressure a named individual. In clinical groups, silence can be explored as group material [synthesis].

5.2 Resistance and non-adherence (clinical groups)

All [synthesis].

Members who never tell: Acting for others is valid participation in PPT. Offer short-form telling (one feeling) before a full story.
Members who always tell: Hold the boundary: "Let's hear from someone who hasn't told yet." Explore the pattern in the group.
Lateness and drop-out: Address them as in any group therapy contract. Review in an individual session if a member misses two sessions in a row.

5.3 Overwhelm and retraumatisation during telling or enactment

All [synthesis].

Before the session: Screen (4.16). In clinical groups, agree a stop signal. Brief actors not to enact graphic violence or sexual acts literally. Use symbolic or distanced forms instead: cloth, sound, a sculpture, a narrator.
During the interview:
- If the teller begins to give traumatic detail, slow the pace and move to feeling and meaning.
- Ask what part they want to see, and what they do not want to see.
- Offer a short form (Pairs, sculpture) instead of a full scene.
During enactment: If the teller dissociates, floods or asks to stop:
1. Stop the scene with a neutral cue.
2. Turn to the teller and orient them to the here-and-now: feet on the floor, name what's in the room, slow breathing.
3. Ask whether they want to continue, see a gentler version, or stop.
4. Stopping is an acceptable ending.
After: Help the teller ground before leaving the chair [source: Needa 2014]. Check in again at the session's end, and contact them within 24–48 hours if distress was marked.
Transformation: Offer it only if the teller asks for or accepts a different ending [source: Needa 2014; Wikipedia]. Don't use transformation scenes to "fix" trauma, and never re-enact abuse in order to change its outcome.
Suicidality or self-harm disclosed in a story: Pause, acknowledge, and finish the story simply. Then do a standard individual risk assessment and safety plan with the person after the session. Don't explore it further in the group.

5.4 Ruptures

All [synthesis].

"That's not what happened" / "that missed it": Thank the teller and offer a correction replay [source: Needa 2014 for correction]. Or replay it in a different form. In one observed show, a teller said a Pairs missed his point. The conductor said "Sometimes we don't get it right the first time", replayed it as a fluid sculpture, and the teller confirmed the fit [source: World Playback Theatre 2021 transcript]. A replay that matches the teller's experience can repair the rupture [synthesis].
An actor's choice hurts or shames: Acknowledge it directly. Repair the scene, and debrief the actor privately. Shaming is contrary to the Code of Ethics [source: Code of Ethics 2023].
Conflict between members in PPT: Treat the casting and acting choices as group material. Slow down and invite reflection instead of more enactment.

5.5 Prejudice or harm toward absent others in a story

The Code of Ethics asks practitioners to act when prejudice is expressed [source: Code of Ethics 2023].
In practice [synthesis]:
- Before enacting, name the dilemma, or play the story so the teller's experience is honoured without endorsing contempt.
- In a public show, the conductor can frame it in a sentence and ask the audience for another perspective.

5.6 Public performance: teller consent, audience safety and aftercare

Teller consent: Telling is voluntary [source: Jefferson 2014; Code of Ethics 2023 on emergence]. In practice [synthesis]:
- State clearly that stories told in a public show are not confidential [source: Code of Ethics 2023], so tellers can decide what to share. Say this before the first story.
- Get written consent before photographing or filming a teller, or writing about a story.
- Don't name third parties who could be identified. A teller may stop the interview or the enactment at any point, and may ask afterwards that their story not be retold, written about or recorded; honour this without question. [synthesis]
Retelling stories later: Retell or write about stories only respectfully and discreetly [source: Code of Ethics 2023].
Audience safety [synthesis]:
- Agree with the hosts in advance on the audience, the theme and any known recent trauma in the community.
- Have a support person present and an identified quiet space.
- Publicise the theme and content level in advance.
- Let people leave freely.
- Avoid graphic enactment.
Aftercare [synthesis]:
- End with grounding and a lighter closing.
- Have team members available after the show.
- Hand out a sheet of local support services, especially at trauma-themed events.
- Arrange follow-up with the host organisation.
- Hold a team debrief for the actors after every performance.
Actor safety [synthesis]: Actors hold intense material. Use de-roling (4.17), rotate roles, and keep company supervision as the Code requires [source: Code of Ethics 2023 on supervision].

5.7 Children and young people

Playback is used in schools on bullying, and with children processing grief [source: Wikipedia; Needa 2014].
In practice [synthesis]:
- Get parent or carer consent and the child's own assent.
- Follow school and local safeguarding procedures, including mandatory reporting where it applies. If a story suggests abuse, don't enact it. Thank the child, close gently, and follow the safeguarding procedure.
- Don't treat a child's story or its enactment as evidence of what happened.
- Use short, playful forms and age-appropriate themes, and agree touch norms explicitly.

5.8 Physical and touch safety

All [synthesis].

Agree touch norms with actors and group members, and always offer a no-touch alternative, for example for Pairs (4.4). Never use sexual, intimate or restraining touch.
Take account of trauma histories and cultural norms around touch and gender.
Keep boxes stable and floors clear. Keep music at safe volumes, and avoid sudden loud sounds with trauma or dementia groups.

5.9 Modality-specific: when playback is not enough

All [synthesis].

Playback is not a replacement for trauma-focused individual therapy.
Refer to individual treatment when a member's distress persists after sessions, or when their stories repeatedly circle one unprocessed trauma.
If you are not a trained therapist, don't run clinical groups. Partner with one, or refer.

Sources

Pages used:

Books and papers cited through secondary sources (bibliographic details from the pages above):

Kowalsky, R., Raz, N., & Keisari, S. (2022). An Introduction to Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater: Hall of Mirrors on Stage. Routledge (New International Library of Group Analysis). Hebrew edition: Kovalsky, Raz & Kaisari (2019), University of Haifa.
Pendzik, S. (2019). Dramatic resonances as a therapeutic intervention based on playback theatre. In Kovalsky, Raz & Kaisari (Hebrew edition), pp. 167–188. [cited from the HUJI syllabus]
Keisari, S., Gesser-Edelsburg, A., Yaniv, D., & Palgi, Y. (2020). Playback theatre in adult day centers: A creative group intervention for community-dwelling older adults. PLoS ONE. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239812. (Abstract.) Trial format from CultureCase (King's College London): The impact of Playback Theatre on the mental health of older adults, summarising Keisari, Palgi, Yaniv & Gesser-Edelsburg (2020), Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.
Fox, J. (1986; Tusitala edition 1994). Acts of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre. [uncertain]
Salas, J. (1993; 20th anniversary edition 2013). Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre. [uncertain]
Salas, J. (1999). What is "good" playback theatre? In J. Fox & H. Dauber (Eds.), Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre. Tusitala. [cited from the HUJI syllabus]
Salas, J. (2000). Playback theatre: A frame for healing. In P. Lewis & D. R. Johnson (Eds.), Current Approaches in Drama Therapy (pp. 288–302). Charles C Thomas.
Fox, H. (2007). Playback theatre. In A. Blatner (Ed.), Interactive and Improvisational Drama. iUniverse.
Nash, S., & Rowe, N. (2000/2001). Safety, danger, and playback theatre. Dramatherapy, 22(3), 18–20.
Fox, J., & Salas, J. (2021). Personal Stories in Public Spaces: Essays on Playback Theatre by Its Founders. [uncertain]

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