Yet Muhammad Afdillah—a visiting scholar with ��ݮ����’s —chose this moment, just a week before he returned to his home in Indonesia, to begin to heal himself. He recounted a story involving physical and psychological injury.

Then he watched as Inside Out, EMU’s resident troupe, improvised a tense narrative of violence, friendship, loss, physical and emotional scarring, and finally, hope of reconciliation. Afdillah wasn’t the only watcher who had wet eyes by the end.

Empathy from the audience

It may have helped that other storytellers had shared before—some with halting speech and others interspersing laughter with words—of surviving cancer, of stitching a wedding dress for a beloved stepdaughter, of making friends and enduring goodbyes.

It may have helped that he knew some of the actors— all EMU students, faculty or graduates—and even some of the audience, most of whom were participating in the or the training.

“That might have helped,” Afdillah said later. “But it was for me. It was the right time. I was trembling, but my heart was telling me this.”

Though Inside Out has “played back” stories from a variety of audiences, including sexual abuse survivors and college students recently returned from cross-cultural experiences, the May 21 event was the first time the troupe hosted a storytelling session for this particular group.

Playback theater helps its participants understand and reflect upon their experiences, says EMU professor , who co-founded Inside Out in 2011. “That simple act of sharing stories and seeing them played back, seeing it out there, allows processing. It is harder to work for healing when it’s all in your head. In addition, there’s a tremendous connection between people in the audience who see that story and have a similar experience to share.”

A “conductor” facilitates the process

Making those connections is the role of an actor called the conductor, who facilitates the storytelling of a volunteer audience member, gathers more information through questions, and then helps to “shape” the story before turning it over to the actors with the invitation, “Let’s watch.”

At this event, Bridget Mullins was the conductor, and the actors included fellow CJP students Fabrice Guerrier and Matt Carlson; EMU alumni Liz Gannaway, Brandon Waggy, and Tonya Osinkosky; and troupe co-founder . Vogel, who also participated, said most of the actors had participated in STAR training or were familiar with concepts related to trauma awareness, resilience, and peacebuilding.

“This is applied theater,” Vogel said, “not theater for entertainment. It’s theater for social justice and understanding. A lot of people don’t understand playback theater until they attend a storytelling session, and when they see it, they realize the big possibilities.”

Afdillah had no idea of its life-changing potential when he was invited by a fellow SPI participant to attend the performance. “I don’t really like theater,” he said with a laugh later.

A faculty member at in Indonesia, Afdillah researches and lectures on socio-religious conflict and politics. He collects data, supervises graduate students, collaborates with other peacebuilders and policy-makers, and admits that, like many others in his field, he rarely takes the time for himself.

For the last six months on campus, during spring semester classes and courses at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute, Afdillah began to “meditate and think about my life,” he said. “In my work, I tell people to deal with their trauma, to let it go. But I have my own trauma, my own problems. At the end, watching the story was almost the same as what I experienced, the tragedy. I feel the pain. I don’t know how this story ends, but this is starting to be ready for an ending.”

Seven-day course offered through SPI

The potential for healing dialogue through playback theater will be highlighted in a seven-day SPI course, “,” from June 5-13. The course will be taught by two pioneers of playback theater, Jo Salas and Ben Rivers.

This is not the first time applied theater for this purpose has been taught at SPI: Rivers attended in 2011 to take courses and facilitate informal workshops and in 2012, Armand Volkas, a playback theater and dramatherapy practitioner from California, led a course.

“Many people, including Ben Rivers, have used playback theater in communities that have experienced violence and trauma,” said , Center for Justice and Peacebuilding program director. “SPI provides a space for people to learn these techniques for working with communities and a place for practitioners to reflect on what works and what does not work when using applied theater tools in conflict situations.”

Farshid Hakimyar, a CJP graduate, is enrolled in the upcoming course. He plans to explore the potential of playback theater for his work in his native Afghanistan. Telling a story to the Inside Out troupe was his first personal experience with the technique.

“I told a story of hearing a traumatic story about domestic violence, and in hearing it, I experienced secondary trauma,” Hakimyar said. “I could not breathe, I could not think, I went from sharing with my friends about music and light and the good of humanity, to hearing this story of this father losing his child in this horrible way.”

On stage that night, three actors portrayed the trajectory of Hakimyar’s emotions as he struggled to understand “the lightness and darkness inside each of us.”

“To feel such relief”

“It was a really powerful experience to watch this and to feel such relief,” Hakimyar said. “Playback theater and generally arts play a key role in any efforts. I think it can engage more people in how they can express their feelings in peaceful and non-violent ways about corruption, lack of transparency, and their government, and how they dream for the future.”

Docherty says SPI is committed to the continued exploration of applied theater tools like playback theater to situations of conflict, violence and trauma.

“We see this as a growing focus of our program,” she said, adding that at least one course in theater and one in media is planned at SPI in 2015.

The students were cited for their “significant and verifiable impact” on the university and on student life, for their contributions to developing EMU’s positive image, for substantial contributions to the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County area and beyond, for their high academic and social standing, and for their embodiment of EMU’s values of Christian discipleship, community, service and .

The blue cord represents the strength of conviction that one person can help to create a better institution or community. The gold cord represents the love of spirit and yearning towards creating a better university environment or community in which all may take part.

The recipients were:

• Christine Baer, a and major from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
• Aaron Erb, a peacebuilding & development major from Harrisonburg, Virginia
• Laura Glick, a major from Lancaster, Pennsylvania
• Nicole Groff, a major from Lancaster, Pennsylvania
• Ardi Hermawan, a major from Parsurvan, Indonesia
• Rose Jantzi, a major with an recipient from Harrisonburg, Virginia
• Litza Laboriel, a social work major from Trujillo, Honduras
• Krista Nyce, a major from Harrisonburg, Virginia
• Melody Tobin, a liberal arts major with an elementary education licensure from Harrisonburg, Virginia
• Brandon Waggy, a peacebuilding and development and major from South Bend, Indiana

This was not the scene of some elaborate dining-hall heist orchestrated by starving college students. It is the bi-weekly routine of sophomore James Souder, often joined by first-year Brandon Waggy and others from the Sustainable Food Initiative, to donate untouched cafeteria leftovers to Our Community Place.

This effort, now down to smooth routine, is the result of continued collaboration between students of SFI, dining hall director Bruce Emmerson, and staff at OCP. At the end of last fall semester, junior Rebekah* [last name omitted on request] approached Emmerson about the possibility of donating unused food to those who need it.

Rebekah said that her Walking Disciples dorm hall, and previous involvement with OCP, are what inspired her and others to become more aware of the excess food in the cafeteria. “So often, we think about going abroad to ‘help those in need,’ but there are people going hungry in the country and in this community.”

Last year, she and former student Lucas Schrock-Hurst protested wastefulness by taking plates from students in the cafeteria, and eating the leftovers before they could hit the trash. Emmerson stopped their demonstration for health reasons, but their passion made an impact, especially when they offered OCP donations as an alternative.

“Anyone that just criticizes without suggestion is not helpful, but almost every initiative we’ve done here has been student-driven, or at least a student idea,” said Emmerson over the sound of a floor cleaner whirring around the cafeteria. “And so when they come to me, it might be a little critical, but if they have an idea, I’m more than happy to try it.”

Back in Souder’s car, the food does not even have a chance to get cold before it arrives at OCP. Souder and Waggy quickly unload the pans into a large outdoor cooler, and head back to campus before their next classes.

Reflecting on the beginnings of this initiative, Souder said, “We didn’t have the right connections made yet.” Emmerson echoed this uncertainty in the planning stage. “I thought it was a good idea; we just needed to work out logistics.” Rebekah had a vision for what could happen. Emmerson had the resources. OCP had the need. Souder stepped up to provide the legwork.

“Sometimes when they come to me with an idea, it sounds a little overwhelming,” said Emmerson. Eventually, though, it can and often does become a reality. “I think it’s great that the students care, that they want to see change, and change in the right direction.”

Current environmental practices in EMU’s food services include trash sorting for composting, eliminating tray use, biodegradable paper products, and the Den’s reusable take-out containers. Even changes as small as replacing paper waffle-batter cups with reusable plastic ones, make a difference. Evidence of these changes is the few garbage cans now behind the cafeteria, compared to the large dumpster that once rested there.

This passion for change is what drives students such as Rebekah and Souder to be involved with challenging the university to think more carefully about what sustainability means.

“This is a meaningful use of our leftovers because we use the abundant resources and use them wisely,” said Rebekah. “We follow God’s teachings. Give to the poor. Hang out with the poor.” She sees this as impactful not only to those at the OCP supper table, but in her personal life as well, as connections are made throughout the community. “I think it is great to be a sustainable campus, but we should not get too caught up in it,” she continued. “We could make this entire campus sustainable, but there are still people hungry in our community.”

Both SFI and the dining hall have future plans for continuing to realize EMU’s sustainability commitment in tangible ways. The Sustainable Food Initiative hopes to plant at least ten donated apple trees on the hill behind campus. They are also in need of students to fill Souder and Waggy’s places next semester, as they leave for cross-cultural. Emmerson would like to incorporate more local foods in the cafeteria, but logistics pose a challenge. He mentioned that having a work-study student work on local food distribution would open up opportunities for local produce.

Rebekah recalled a statement made by Schrock-Hurst during their day of eating others’ leftovers. “The point is not whether us eating your leftovers is right or wrong or gross,” said Schrock-Hurst, “the point is, it is grossly unjust for our university to be throwing out large quantities of food when there are people just a few miles from here struggling to put food on the table. Let’s change.”

Reprinted from , EMU’s student newspaper. Preliminary interview by Timothy Hartman.

*Rebekah’s first name is used by request.