Yet Muhammad Afdillah—a visiting scholar with 草莓社区’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.

Imagine a theatrical performance with no starting script. Several actors listen intently to a volunteer from the audience tell a first-person story. On the cue, “Let’s watch,” the actors interpret the just-told story, playing it back to the storyteller and the audience.

In its simplest form, these are the building blocks of Playback Theatre. And done well, it is theater with a purpose – to build dialogue, understanding, empathy and change.

Two pioneers of this innovative form of dramatic storytelling will arrive on EMU’s campus in early June 2014 to teach a seven-day course at the .

Jo Salas will arrive from her New York base as artistic director of the Hudson River Playback Theatre. As a member of the original group that developed Playback Theatre in the mid-1970s, she is often cited as a co-founder of the movement that has now spread to 60 countries. She is the author of two books on the subject and the speaker of an online talk, “Everyone has a story.”

“Listening to stories with openness and responding with artistry is a unique way to build awareness, connection, empowerment and change. We hope that participants will come out of the SPI course excited and prepared to use aspects of Playback Theatre in their work,” says Salas.

Ben Rivers will arrive from the Jenin refugee camp in Palestine, where he initiated and leads the Freedom Bus troupe, their moniker inspired by civil rights Freedom Riders. The group consists of Palestinian theater artists from occupied Palestinian territories and current-day Israel. They lead playback events in towns, villages, refugee camps and Bedouin communities throughout the West Bank. The troupe has also taught and performed in neighboring Arab countries.

“Freedom Bus events can last for several days and include protective presence activity, building construction, drama workshops, talks, live music and more,” says Rivers. “To participate in the creation and celebration of beauty is a direct affront to a system that tries to brutally crush and dehumanize oppressed people. The stories we ‘play back’ empower ordinary community members to imagine different futures.”

Salas has watched Playback Theatre spread especially during the last 15 years as an instrument for “marginalized voices to be heard and highly charged issues explored.” As an example, she cites her company’s work with immigrants, “whose stories of hardship and courage are rarely heard in our society.”

Speaking in the , Rivers said: “The man who tells a story about torture is no longer alone with his memories and feelings of violation. Nor is he powerless in the way that he was. He chooses to enter the stage. He volunteers to tell. He casts the actors. He gives the final comment. The actors join him in a form of deep accompaniment.”

When Salas and Rivers arrive to teach their course, they will find an EMU playback group that traces it roots to several informal SPI workshops led by Rivers in 2011. Theater students, conflict transformation students, recent graduates and several students from James Madison University form the nucleus of the playback group, according to professor , who co-founded the group.

In the past year, the group introduced its services to students following their return from semesters abroad. In a playback session lasting 90 minutes to two hours, students volunteer to tell their stories, which may include lingering feelings of confusion and isolation. Seeing their stories transformed by the playback actors can create moments of insight, laughter, empathy and understanding, Vogel says.

For more information or to register for the June 5-13 course, “Playback Theatre for Conflict Transformation” with Ben Rivers and Jo Salas, go to or call 540-432-4672. The course is open to all, regardless of acting experience. It is one of more than 20 courses offered at EMU’s 2014 Summer Peacebuilding Institute.