Today we’d like to introduce you to Playback @ UCF. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Playback is a form of improvisational theatre where a troupe listens to stories from the audience and plays them back using music, movement, and metaphor. Sybil St. Claire, a professor of theatre, storytelling, and creativity at UCF, began teaching about playback years ago, and a few students got together to start a university troupe. It took a few years, but the group eventually grew into Playback @ UCF, a group of undergraduate and graduate students from several different departments throughout the university. At first, the troupe performed a couple of times each semester for their peers, but about two years ago, we expanded to gain more partners in the community. We trained with Playback North America and partnered with Orlando theaters, 4-H groups, conferences, and UCF’s Aphasia Family. During COVID-19, we transitioned to Zoom and performed nationally and internationally at conferences and festivals. This year, we received a grant to use playback to share the stories of people with aphasia and their experience with first responders, in the hopes of developing a curriculum that spreads aphasia awareness.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest struggle of working in a university setting is the constant exchange of students. Each year, we lose and recruit new members, so it can be difficult to continue moving forward as an ensemble. During the pandemic, we met frequently online and had the time to build a strong ensemble that we hope will continue to strengthen this semester.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Our troupe members come from many different backgrounds. Sage and Nathan are grad students in the Theatre for Young Audiences TYA program and hope to share playback work with young people. Other members come from an improv, comedy, or performance background and enjoy playback as a deeper storytelling method. We’ve also had members from psychology, engineering, and communication sciences and disorders departments. Each of our interests and backgrounds helps us connect to our audience in a different way.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Stories are the most important part of our work. We believe that every story is valid and worth being heard, whether it’s a moment that changed your life or a simple trip to the store. We believe every story is shared for a reason, and our job is to play it back in a way that feels meaningful to the teller. We especially love working with populations who the larger society does not listen to as much (such as seniors or young children).
Contact Info:
- Email: ucfplayback@gmail.com
- Instagram: @playbackucf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlaybackUCF
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwa6VBISENU
