Playback in the Philippines

(from the article posted last December 2003 at the International Playback Theater Network's Interplay)

The 8th International Playback Theater Conference in Japan was indeed a great experience for me. I met a lot of Playback masters and learned a lot from the workshops I attended. I was lucky to be at the class of Maria Elena of Argentina and Jhang of Korea. After Japan I also went to Hong Kong for the HK Playback Gathering. It was a great opportunity for me to know more about Playback. I had a great opportunity to be in all the workshops that they gave. I learned a lot from the seminars they organized and saw beautiful Playback performances by the different Hong Kong Playback groups. I had great time talking to the other participants about their Playback experience in Hong Kong.

My group, Manila Playback Theater Inc. had recently gave a series of workshop to a transformation group here in Manila called Samaritana. They help prostituted women from the bars and the streets to leave prostitution and find alternative jobs and finally live their normal lives again. They offer job opportunities and livelihood programs for these women.

They asked our group to help them prepare for their anniversary performance. We had 4 weeks of training, telling stories and exploring playback theater with 7 wonderful women. We heard great stories ranging from their childhood dreams of finishing school, going to the city, to their sad experiences of abuse and their hopes of leaving prostitution. Playback provided an occasion for them to bond together and share stories--stories that help them heal one another.

Playback had a great effect on the women we worked with, it is now easier for them to open up and talk about their past. They admitted to have experienced healing in that four weeks training. In their common weaknesses they found their strength, through the stories that they shared and through their playback performance. Our group aims to develop the playback theatre concept as a popular theatre art form, serving as venue for empowering grassroots communities by making their stories surface and their voices heard, and thus provide healing and transforming environment for communities and individuals. It is good that I had known playback and met you wonderful people who gave me inspiration to do more Playback in the Philippines. Life is beautiful with Playback

Panoorin natin! (Let's watch!)