Voices ResourcesA website for the worldwide community around the journal Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy

A few days ago a friend of mine, who is an actor in a playback theatre, called me and asked if I would like to come and improvise music for their playback performance that took place the day after. As she was approaching me with the subject I started to feel an inner tension and some anxiety rising. After a few moments of hesitation I said to her that I would be glad to do it.

First, let me say a few words about playback theatre. It is a form of play that is based on personal stories that people from the audience tell and a group of actors improvise on the spot. The stories are usually based on real life events that happened to the teller either from a long time ago or something that happened recently. The playback team consists of actors, conductor and a musician. The storyteller comes on stage, tells his/her story and watches the story or part of the story enacted on the spot by the actors and musician. For each character in the story the teller chooses an actor. All of the participants (actors, conductor and musician) have to be storytellers. As Jo Salas, a playback actor and a music therapist, writes: "They need to conjure the shape of a story, and they must be able to fit this template onto the teller's sometimes ragged account. If they don't, everyone feels somehow cheated....But if they do, there's a palpable sense of delight and satisfaction. We are deeply affirmed when we see a piece of life shaped in this way (1993, p. 18).

In 1992 I started to participate in a weekly playback theatre workshop and became a playback theatre lover. I enacted my own stories on stage as well as other participants' stories. I improvised music for many of the stories and felt that it enriched my life tremendously. After 5 years the workshop discontinued. I went to the playback theatre group's performances that took place once a month in a small theatre space in Tel Aviv and brought friends and family members. Occasionally I would tell a story and watched it being performed. A few times the group invited me to be their musician. After a while the group changed their location and I kind of lost touch with them.

App. Six month ago I renewed my connection with one of the players and went to see their performance. I remember how excited I was to be in the audience and experience playback theatre again. I didn't tell a story, but watched others who told their stories and had such a powerful experience when they watched it performed right there and then. I felt the need to come again but never did.

And then came this phone call. As the time passed I was more and more nervous, tense and excited. I haven't been doing this kind of playback improvisation for a long time and didn't want to disappoint anybody. The responsibility is very big. I have to listen very carefully not only to the storyteller but to the group of actors in order to see what they are doing and what should be my contribution. However, the knowledge that I will be making music in an improvised way together with a group of playback performers and give new or deeper meaning to a story that is being told made me extremely excited.

This is the real challenge of diving into the unknown and making meaning yet honoring someone's story. It requires a great deal of spontaneity, creativity, musical knowledge and listening. I have to make decisions on the spot as to which instrument to play and in what form, shape, dynamics and duration. What aspects of the story do I emphasize and what character gets my musical attention? When do I have to be quiet and let the actors do their acting without music and when do I have to be more noticeable and maybe even to take the lead part?

I loved being there. The stories that were told were very moving and several of the storytellers had tears in their eyes. They were so touched to see their own story performed in front of them, on stage. The energy was magical and it influenced everyone: the audience, who were very respectful and attentive, the acting group who did a great job, the conductor, me, and the storyteller, of course. I came home very fulfilled. I felt that I was able to touch people with my music.

This experience enriched me in many ways. I felt energized from performing and from touching my own creativity, spontaneity and playfulness. It showed me again the importance of making music in my life. It also made me look at my work from a slightly different angle and see playback theatre performance as a metaphor for my clinical work. I would like to share some of these thoughts with you.

In individual music therapy, two people play all the roles that are mentioned here: the client and the therapist. The client is the storyteller, the actor, the musician and sometimes the conductor. The therapist is mainly the audience, but also the musician, sometimes the actor and very often the conductor. An interesting question is when do I move from role to role - there are times that I need to be the audience, listen to the story and watch it being performed, while other times I have to be the conductor and encourage my client to "go for it" by suggesting various forms of how to do it and what to focus on. Many times my goal is to conduct less and less, and let my client take responsibility for telling, sharing, conducting and performing his/her story. I am also the musician - for some clients I perform alone, give them a musical present or stating that it is ok to just sit and listen, while with others I let them play by themselves or play together with them.

I, the music therapist, listen to my clients' stories as they are being told, and try to respect and honor them. My clients tell me their life-stories and by sharing and acting them with me verbally and musically it helps them understand the meaning of the stories and integrate them into their lives. There are verbal and musical stories, happy and sad stories, long and short, ordinary and special. Sometimes, the musical stories that are shared in the room are more powerful than the verbal stories, and vice versa. Many times they are very moving. The music tells the story much better than the words.

Sometimes, as in playback theatre, the music sets up the atmosphere at the beginning of the therapy. Either the client or the therapist or both can play it. Music at the end of the therapy session can help sum up the session and bring it to an end. During the session, the music becomes the major field of accessing and giving expression to the story that needs to come out. A musical story can show both therapist and client what is going on in the client's inner life right now. The therapist's musical and verbal interventions can shed light on hidden aspects of the story and bring insight to the client's story (Amir, 1999). The intrinsic element of form in both story and music can bring order to chaos and re-create a sense of purpose and meaning.

In a few weeks many of us will gather together in Oxford and share our stories with each other. Lots of stories will be told there - musical and verbal, professional and personal, stories of clinicians, researchers, teachers, performers and supervisors from many countries all over the world. Each of us will share in one form or another his/her story and all of us will create our story as a group and that will be very exciting. I will be there - I hope you will too.

References:

Amir, Dorit (1999). Musical and Verbal Interventions in Music Therapy: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Music Therapy, 36(2), 144-175.

Salas, Jo (1993). Improvising Real Life. Personal Story in Playback Theatre. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt.

How to cite this page

Amir, Dorit (2002) Music therapy as a playback theatre - telling and sharing stories. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 11, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=fortnightly-columns/2002-music-therapy-playback-theatre-telling-and-sharing-stories