I have been a member of Vancouver Playback Theatre for about a year now, and so I reached out to people at the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House in my neighbourhood. After a quick phone call, I got the names and emails of the group coordinators and wrote to all of them offering a playback event with their groups.
After some back-and-forth, I finally met with Frank, and he was keen on collaborating. So I spoke with everyone in our Playback ensemble, and we were all keen to go forward with an event. So I sent in a proposal, with some dates that could work for everyone. Once we had a green light for the project, we proceeded to see the space and imagine how we could set everything up. After, we spoke about topics that we could focus on, prepared a poster, and sent it back to South Vancouver Neighbourhood House so they could send it to their community.
A few days prior, we considered final details, such as the possibility of any language barriers or other challenges we could face, and prepared to deal with them as best we could.
On the day, we made the most of the space and resources, set up snacks, used a microphone, asked SVNH staff for support in taking pictures if they could, and made the most of connecting with everyone and breaking the ice before the event-show and discussion.
We then went ahead with the show, representing elements of the stories that people shared with us back to them (emotions, key reactions and phrases), whilst explaining and demonstrating what Playback was all about. Some stories were very impactful, very telling, and some were very funny. The group seemed very happy with representations of their past and current lives. As we went onwards, people began sharing more and more, and it was great to feel everyone enjoying and participating.
At the end, we shared a little more casually with everyone, and this made everything feel a little more connected. I believe the experience was enjoyable for almost all, and we all seemed happy to consider doing something similar or different again in the future.
