National Playback Theatre uses interactive forms of non-scripted theater to bring feelings, possibilities and stories to life. Through movement, music and improvisation, people discover or reinforce their common humanity. This model deepens, accelerates and enhances dialogue by uncovering different world views to enhance understanding, empathy and trust. In the telling and seeing of real stories played back, we build community, as well as honor uniqueness of experience.   Uncharted terrain becomes safe and exciting, resulting in transformation, shared vision and new ideas. Our work has dissolved conflicts, built trust, supported new learning and heightened commitment. We are group of highly skilled artists that demonstrate the rapid rapport, cohesion and synergy essential to building collective intelligence. We take improvisation to new heights by purposefully drawing on our pool of artists to create new configurations of players. This challenges us to practice our values and demonstrate how groups and communities can function and thrive in change, transition and the chaos of the unexpected.

National Playback Theatre Principles

• Co-creation – We are all part of a dialogic process, we are active participants, not passive spectators

• Collaboration – Accepting what is offered and building upon it for the sake of the whole

• Collective Wisdom/Deep Democracy – The whole is more intelligent than any isolated part; wisdom comes from the informed, engaged dialogue of individuals in service of the collective

• Dynamic Authenticity – Being fully aware of our selves, thoughts, behaviors, beliefs and blind-spots; consistently giving and receiving feedback from a place of consciousness to move the process forward

• Empathy and Perspective – The ability to see the larger context, to challenge beliefs and assumptions; the ability to step out of one's own "story", to enter into another's experience and grasp it; the ability to gain distance, humor, healing and insight

• Numinous Experience – There is an unexplainable mystery revealed through the process of Playback, enhanced through the use of ritual, art and aesthetics; a deeper way of processing and representing complexity that fosters the seeds of the transcendent within all of our experiences

• Radical Equality – A radical, democratic belief in the intrinsic worth of all of our stories– conflicts dissolve, consensus is gained and the collective learns when no single narrative is privileged above others

• Safety, containment, play, experimentation – Spontaneity, the practice of improvisation and the Playback tools build a safe space to learn and make optimal choices

• Whole Brain Integration – Listening deeply to stories, feelings, experiences and the unstated from the intelligence of the heart, mind, body and intuition. Through theatrical embodiment and reflection of our work, hidden assumptions, overlooked insights and positive connections become readily apparent.

Leilani Henry , Director and Lead Conductor, is a life long performing artist including professional dance experience, a former member of Playback Theater West and the Founder of Being and Living® Enterprises, an organizational development consulting company. Leilani has presented at the International Playback Theater conferences in Japan, Finland and Washington U.S.A. Clients include divisions of Daimler Chrysler; Institute on the Common Good; Granite Construction; National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation, see our work at http://thataway.org/conference/files/ncdd2004_report.pdf; InterClass (international corporate learning organization; Study Circles Resource Center Click here to see our work with Study Circles Resource Center “Telling the Story of Democracy” 2005 National Conference and Storage Tek.  

Best Situations: Intact work teams; Organizations of any size; Conferences; Retreats and situations in which people need to build rapport, foster new ideas, see the whole or solve conflicts rapidly; working with international and diverse groups; for people who want to do more than just talk; when you need a fresh approach to sharing perceptions, seeing the whole system, building or repairing relationships.