Friday, August 27, 2010

"Playback" Improv Theater

I guess that "Playback" is from someplace abroad, especially since it has an English name.  I've gone to two performances/events. 

The first was performed by men to a mixed audience here in Shiloh.  It was part of the celebrations of the reestablishment of Shiloh as a Jewish town.   We were requested to tell an anecdote from the annals of Shiloh history from our personal stories and then the troupe performed/interpreted it as an improvisation of sorts.  Some were more successful than others.

This past week a women's troupe performing for women only (and a couple of young daughters of the actresses) appeared in Shiloh.  Some neighbors were in the group.  I had been tempted to join when it was first announced that a group from the area was to be trained, but it was much too complicated for me to commit to anything when my elderly father was living with us.

I expected it to be just like the other performance but by women.  It wasn't.  They concentrated more on feelings rather than stories.  I wasn't prepared for that.  I contributed a story from our first year in Shiloh.  They weren't prepared for that.

What was interesting was that they redid it until we were all satisfied, sort of.

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