What is "good" Playback theatre

What is "good" Playback theatre
Jo Salas

Playback theatre is theatre, and theatre is art.

Playback is theatre not simply because that is how it has been named, but becausewhat we do in playback fulfills the very essence of theatre's intention: to convey human experience by enacting it in distilled form; to embody narrative and meaning in the realm of space and time.

It is also an interactive social process with the purpose of service to its audience; a purpose that most other kinds of theatre do not share.

一人一故事剧场就是剧场，剧场就是艺术。

一故事剧场之所以是戏剧，不仅仅是因为它的名字是这样命名的，而是因为我们在演出中所做的工作，满足了戏剧意图的本质：通过以精练形式的表演来传达人类的经验；在空间和时间的领域中体现叙事和意义。

它也是一个互动的社会过程，目的是为观众服务；这是大多数其他类型的戏剧所不具备的目的。

Since playback's earliest days, questions relating to aesthetics and to artistic standards have raised themselves constantly.

Can this really be theatre if it is also service?

Are we doing it well enough?

Can we expect to be acknowledged by others as theatre artists?

How can we recognize and measure success in playback?

How can we refine it?

Whatdo we mean by "good" playback?

What we do is art, but not only art, and maybe not always art. Playback's effectiveness involves artistic excellence—but artistic excellence alone does not ensure success, and further, playback theatre can, in certain circumstances, be fulfilled by people lacking artistic sensibility, skill, or experience.

自一故事剧场最早出现以来，有关美学和艺术标准的问题不断提出。

如果这也是服务的话，这真的是剧院吗？

我们做得够好吗？

我们能指望别人承认我们是戏剧艺术家吗？

我们如何识别和衡量一故事剧场的成功？

我们如何改进它？

我们说的“好”一故事剧场是什么意思？

我们做的是艺术，但不只是艺术，也许并不总是艺术。一故事剧场的有效性涉及到艺术的卓越性，但单靠艺术的卓越性并不能保证成功，而且，在某些情况下，一故事剧场形式可以由缺乏艺术情感、技能或经验的人来实现。

A Meeting Place

A playback theatre event is integrally both an artistic event and an interactive social event involving both complex group dynamics and sensitive one-to-one communication.

If the task of art is the creation of form to express the artist's perception of meaning,then the playback artist's task, specifically, is to create cohesive ad shapely pieces of theatre based on an acute sense of the meaning of the teller's story. It is their artist's sensibility that enables playback performers to transform moments from real lives,however simply or roughly told, into well-crafted dramas that have resonance for the audience as well as for the teller. Drawing on their aesthetic sense of story, as well aslanguage, metaphor, and stagecraft, they create art, embodying a pattern of elements in relation to each other in such a way as to suggest the wisdom contained in a larger reality. For the audience, watching and listening is an aesthetic experience—in other words, an experience of affirmation, expansion, revelation, and delight.

This art is different from an art that only seeks to convey the artist's vision: it is an art that is committed to affirming ordinary people's experience and to fostering connections between them so that the communities we live in can grow in compassion and humanity.

We strive to hone our art in order to offer it as service. Playback is a fusion, perhaps a unique one, of artistic and social phenomena. The more it can fulfill the demands both, the more it can succeed.

Every playback practitioner is familiar with the experience of frustration and chagrin when the process seems to fail, and with the elation that can come when it works. The assessment depends somewhat on whether you are considering a whole show or a single scene, whether it is a performance or an applied context such as a therapy or training group, whether you are a performer, a teller, or an audience member, and so on. However, I believe that the criteria I've proposed for success in art and interactive social events will consistently apply, along with some further qualities specific to playback.

开会的地方

一人一故事剧场事件既是一个艺术事件，又是一个互动的社会事件，既涉及复杂的群体动态，又涉及敏感的一对一交流。

如果艺术的任务是创造形式来表达艺术家对意义的感知，那么一故事剧场艺术家的任务，具体地说，就是基于对说话人故事意义的敏锐感知，创造出连贯的、片段式的戏剧场景。正是他们的艺术家的感性，使得一故事剧场演员能够将现实生活中的瞬间，无论是简单还是粗略地讲述，转化为精心制作的戏剧，既能引起观众的共鸣，也能引起演讲者的共鸣。他们利用自己的故事美感，以及语言、隐喻和舞台艺术，创造了艺术，体现了一种相互关联的元素模式，从而暗示了一个更大的现实中蕴含的智慧。对于观众来说，观看和聆听是一种审美体验，换句话说，是一种肯定、拓展、启示和愉悦的体验。

这种艺术不同于一种只想传达艺术家视觉的艺术：它致力于肯定普通人的经验，培养他们之间的联系，使我们生活的社区能够在共情和人性中成长。我们努力磨练我们的艺术，以便提供服务。一故事剧场是艺术和社会现象的融合，也许是一种独特的融合。它越能满足两方面的要求，就越能成功。

每一个一故事剧场从业者都熟悉挫折和懊恼的经验，如同我们对于成功快感的熟悉。评估在某种程度上取决于你是在考虑一个完整的节目还是一个单一的场景，是一个表演还是一个应用环境，比如一个治疗或培训小组，你是一个表演者，一个说话者，还是一个听众，等等。然而，我相信我为艺术和互动社交活动的成功提出的标准将持续适用，未来有一些作为一故事剧场的专属。

Fortunately, the majority of playback performers are committed to its fundamental purposes. They understand the dual requirement for artistic and interpersonal sophistication; they are artists enough to respect the aesthetic qualities of story itself without distortion in the direction of psychological interpretation. And they achieve what we might call "good enough" playback, on the analogy of Bettelheim's idea of "good enough" parenting: playback that generally fulfills both the artistic and interactive criteria to an adequate degree despite inevitable shortcomings.

In striving to fulfill the work as best it can, every company faces choices about how collectively-oriented they want to be. What is more important to the group, the highest possible standards of performance or a democratic access to conducting, acting, and music? Do you leave the conducting in the hands of the most skilled, or do you commit to training everyone to conduct? Do you rotate roles during a performance as an expression of equality, in spite of a possible drop in standards? The guideline of "good enough" playback is the final determinant of how a group balances the sometimes conflicting demands of democracy and excellence.

幸运的是，大多数一故事剧场表演者都致力于其基本目的。他们理解艺术和人际关系复杂化的双重要求；他们是艺术家，足以尊重故事本身的审美品质，而不会在心理解读的方向上扭曲。他们实现了我们可以称之为“足够好”的一故事剧场，类似于Bettelheim的“足够好”的父母教育思想：即兴回演这样的方式，尽管存在不可避免的缺点，但一般都能达到足够的艺术和互动标准。

在努力尽最大努力完成工作的过程中，每个一故事剧场团队都面临着如何以集体为导向的选择。对团队来说，什么更重要？

最高的表演标准，
或者民主的领航、表演和音乐？
你是把指挥权交给最熟练的人？
还是致力于训练每个人的指挥能力？
你是否会在演出期间轮换角色以表达平等，尽管标准可能会降低？

“足够好”一故事剧场的指导方针是决定一个群体如何平衡有时相互冲突的民主和卓越要求的最终决定因素。

he idea that "good enough" playback theatre depends on fulfilling the criteria for success both in art and in interactive social events has implications for training. Whether in companies or in workshops, new performers can be encouraged to develop an artist's sensibility—an aesthetic awareness of form and design, and a commitment to art's purpose of revealing meaning through inspired metaphor and image. They can also, from the beginning, learn about the need for sensitivity and skill in communication and in guiding the functioning of a group.

他认为“足够好”的回放剧场取决于在艺术和互动社交活动中是否达到成功的标准，这对培训有一定的意义。无论是在公司还是在工作室，都可以鼓励新的表演者培养艺术家的情感、对形式和设计的审美意识，并致力于通过启发性的隐喻和形象来揭示艺术的意义。他们还可以从一开始就了解到在沟通和指导团队运作方面对敏感性和技能的需求。