This workshop is intended to provide a rare opportunity for queer activists to listen carefully to each other’s stories of how they got where they are in their lives, and in what directions they see themselves and the queer community headed. The value of offering this work for a specifically queer group is to enhance the sense of community of participants, strengthening their ability to trust each other in their interactions with the wider world.

In this workshop, the group will warm up with theatre games (great fun!), and then try out the basic forms of playback theatre as it is taught around the world, using these forms to enact personal stories told by workshop participants. The language will be English. Handouts in English will be provided to assist participants in using playback theatre in their community work at home.

This workshop fits into Friday’s theme in that participants will experience each other’s stories with depth and compassion. In the world envisioned by the presenter, the stories of others are honored and respected, and this is a basis for true compassion and cooperation. Playback is a proven tool to elicit these reactions within groups of diverse people. The main challenges in playback theatre stem from the trust which needs to be established between storytellers and actors. Once a storyteller feels confident that a story will be respected by the actors (and then by the audience), it is often amazing how much they share of themselves, and how cathartic that sharing is when played back immediately after it is told, with craft and insight, by performers eager to honor what they have just heard.

An older queer white guy, Mountaine intends to co-facilitate this workshop with other experienced playback performers, ideally young queer people of color, and is in the stage of recruiting these co-facilitators at the time this proposal is being submitted.