[gentle upbeat music]   - Playback Memphis is a   performing arts group dedicated   to a particular form of   improvisational theatre.

I've been working with them   over the last six months or so   as part of WKNO's   participation   in the national PBS   American Portrait project.

And I'm glad to be here today with Virginia Murphy and Leslie Jones.

Virginia is Founder and Executive Director of Playback Memphis and Leslie is Program Director for Playback Memphis.

Thank you for joining me.

- Thanks for having us Bard.

- Thank you for having me.

- Let's start with a simple question.

What is Playback Theatre?

- Yeah, so Playback Theatre it's a form of improvisational theatre in which people from the audience share true stories, reflections, moments from their lives.

And we have a team of actors and musicians   that bring that story to life.

So, it's all done   really in the service   of building empathy,   of sharing kind of a practice   of deep and generous listening   and a practice of witnessing.

So coming together to   reflect on our lives   what's rich and wonderful.

Also what's complex and painful.

And to embody that.

That's the practice of Playback Theatre.

- Tell me a little bit about how Playback Memphis came into existence.

- I was introduced to Playback Theatre in my graduate studies in drama therapy and was part of a Playback Theatre Company in New York City where I met my husband.

And when we had our first son who is now 15 years old we moved back to Memphis and Playback had really been an integral part of our lives.

It had brought such a richness and was a practice and tool that we didn't want to live without and we felt like that we wanted to plant seeds and build a Playback Theatre Company in Memphis.

And so we did - Leslie, how did you come to Playback Memphis?

- Well, I started in college.

I have a classical theater background and I had studied overseas and studied Shakespeare and I, that training, it was such a rich training to me.

I wanted to explore what other career opportunities what other things were available within the industry that didn't involve always being in front of a camera.

And that was just a little deeper that touched hearts.

And so I was introduced to drama therapy overseas.

And when I came back to the States I was looking for drama therapists and I couldn't find many.

And I was offered a job opportunity in Memphis and I had not heard of a Playback Memphis but I did a Google search and found Playback Memphis.

And it was in their earlier days of one of their programs, the Performing the Peace program.

And I knew I've read about Virginia, her bio.

And I said, wow, I have really got to connect with this group because they were filling all the checking all the boxes, because I was interested in acting.

I was interested in connecting with people and community   and I just instantly   there was an energy there.

And so I use this, try   to use this word lightly.

I stalked her a little bit   from her trying to connect.

And eventually I was invited to be a part of the ensemble, the professional ensemble.

- I'm looking at your bio you're being sort of, you're being modest.

You receive your active training from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

- Yes, yes I did actually - Where are you from originally?

- I am from, I was actually born in Charleston, South Carolina.

I was raised in Fort Valley, Georgia.

Fort Valley is a very small town but has a big HBCU and bus factory.

And I was a small town girl going to all these big cities, wanting big opportunities.

And I just, I didn't wanna stop.

So when I saw Playback Memphis when I discovered it, it was I knew that's where I needed to be at that time.

- I think one of the extraordinary things about Playback Memphis is you do performances that are for a general audience   that you know in the   theater at First Congo,   you know people will   come and, you know,   it's just there's Saturday   night out theater event   but you also do very specific   sessions that have   more of a healing, a   specific community function   where you're going   into a place   where people have   emotions about things   that have happened   in their neighborhood   about things that are   happening in their life.

And, you know, the therapeutic,   the healing aspect of it assumes a more primary role.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

- Yeah, and I think I would say that really, you know if we are doing our work with the deepest integrity and artistic excellence in any context, which we always aspire to do that Playback is inherently healing.

And so whether you're experiencing that at our public performance Memphis Matters at Theater South which you referenced or in a Community Matters, partnership performance as an example, this last year, we engaged a group of survivors of intimate partner violence through the Memphis Area Women's Council.

And in any context in which, you know, we are sharing this practice of courageously kind of tending our inner lives and sharing that with one another.

There is a healing that happens that people express and also a deep learning, you know, and that we hope that then ripples out beyond when you are actually in the theater or in whatever small room we're sharing playback with that there's something that it teaches us about, you know, how we can see ourselves in one another in ways that lead to you know, just more connection and kindness and truth too.

I think Playback is about helping us to face and see some things that are difficult and painful in ourselves and one another but doing that in a way that just honors our humanity, our shared humanity.

So Leslie, you might have some things to add to that.

- It just made me think of, you know, go back to my connection with the impact and spirit of Playback Theatre because I remember studying as an actress and how I would have to really study other characters other people's lives, other people's stories.

And I had trouble really reflecting on my own story through that.

And so, as an actress, it just elevated the level of how I would produce and how I would reflect on the characters, all the different stories because, they're real stories when you're acting, when you're studying in theater or television they're real stories, even though they're written and you don't know the character, they're real.

Playback Theater puts it in 3D brings the community stories and just makes it a little bit more tangible for you.

And so I was closer   instead of trying   to reach out   and explore and find   a person's compassion   or find or connect with   how they love someone.

Right in the room with someone   from the community's story   I'm sitting I'm with them.

I'm with that compassion,   I'm with that joy,   I'm with how   they love someone.

And it's a very   different experience.

It is transformational, as an artist it's transformational.

- As an audience member.

I think one of the things I value about the theatrical experience is when you don't know what you're going to get and this, I mean sometimes it's very hard to have an experience to set yourself up for an experience where you don't know what's going to happen.

Playback Memphis is a great experience for that particular quality.

- And that speaks Bard I read this quote this week that I just loved.

"If knowledge is power then knowing what you don't know is wisdom."

And that just spoke to me so deeply because I think in the practice of Playback we really recognize that the magic happens when we come into this practice of listening really from this space of opening and not knowing.

And so there is a way in which, you know we're trained to listen with this particular quality of receptivity and of kind of like getting out of the way and this knowing that, you know, whatever the teller is sharing there's, you know, what they're sharing and then there's the space all around what they're sharing.

There's what the audience is experiencing.

There's so layers of truth and kind of like peel back the onion realities.

And so our job is to listen to all of that and to give something back that allows the person that shared to see something in a you know, a new or fresh way, you know, that we want people to have insights and yet we don't wanna be, you know, we're not there like teaching people what they should think but we hope that the practice kind of expresses this the value of being curious about you know, our own lives and our own experience and just creating a sense of a spaciousness to perhaps, you know, like see things in new ways.

- I wanted to talk about your apprentice ensemble and your youth ensemble and how those fit into your larger missions.

I think those are both very exciting programs.

- One of the things that we really value about our ensemble is that it includes individuals who were introduced to our work through Performing the Peace which is a program launched in 2014.

And at that time we brought together partnering   with a re-entry program   called Lifeline to Success.

We brought together individuals   who've been impacted   by the criminal legal system   formerly incarcerated   individuals.

And they learned the   art of Playback Theatre   alongside Memphis   police officers.

And so this was a program   that invited people   into an experience of personal   growth and transformation,   really looking at how   the impact of historical   collective trauma   of racism   and through the art   of Playback Theatre,   building authentic   relationships.

So that, that would   then ripple out   and not only transform,   you know, individuals   but also transform   the systems   that they're a part of recognizing that in many ways, you know these it's the systems that have harmed, created harm.

And so out of this small work through work that we've been engaged in the last few years delivering cultural humility and empathic listening training at the Academy for the police department.

And then also launching some school-based work   to engage young people   in sharing the practice   of Playback Theatre   because our apprentice   ensemble members   those who have been   formerly incarcerated   felt that if they   had been introduced   to the practice of   Playback Theatre,   that perhaps it could   have been something that could really help them in difficult moments in their lives and perhaps change the trajectory of their lives.

So it's really beautiful that out of this small work has grown, you know, these initiatives that came from the vision of the participants.

- Leslie, you've worked closely with the youth ensemble.

- Yes.

- Tell me about that.

- So the youth ensemble was formed from the Be the Peace school program.

After the young people that we work with which are fifth graders we work with them throughout the school year.

We offered a camp.

I think it was about 2018, our first summer camp.

And we invited the fifth graders who had gone through our program and were about to pass on to the sixth grade, to attend the summer camp.

And our first year we got about 20 twenty up to twenty, twenty five members, camp members and it's one week and we use the art of Playback Theater and we give them time to reflect.

I thought about the campus time for them to it seemed like a really like a youth spot to be honest,   because I wasn't,   I had never really seen anythin   that had given young people   opportunities to just think   about themselves, you know   and how they relate to   other people as individuals   and just giving them confidence   giving them a voice, you   know, do you like this?

Do you wanna do this?

You know, they don't get   those opportunities   a lot unfortunately.

And so it just gave them   the room to find themselves   as sixth graders, as leaders,   as mentors, future mentors.

And so from that camp,   the sixth graders we still stayed contact with them and they still wanted to be a part.

They still wanted to perform.

They still wanted to be active and stay connected.

And so we had the idea to form a youth ensemble which would give them the opportunity to perform twice a year for within the we have a Frayser Matters performance within a year where they go into the we go right into the community and they perform within the community and the neighborhood and their loved ones and friends.

And they also go on enrichment outings.

We have check-ins.

When the pandemic happened we had a very hard time connecting because we couldn't see them in person.

Of course that's the only way we were able to engage them before.

And we wanted, we knew that we needed to stay connected.

They have gone, the members have gone through a lot of inequities, education, resource within the communities.

And so we started doing check-ins checking in with the parents, checking in with the youth members just to get their feedback, get their thoughts.

And since we started that, we did a summer camp last year.

We did a writing competition.

I mean, we have done some in-person check-ins.

We did a film.

It's been a lot of, I guess bubbles burst because there were things that we didn't know that were possible in a pandemic, you know?

And so it's brought us closer and we're looking forward to continuing that work in the space that we're in and moving forward unapologetically with our youth voices.

A lot of our young people now are more part of the pilot group when we first started.

And so they're about to be in ninth grade next year.

And so we're gonna have a leadership camp with our youth ensemble with those members this summer to help them, to train them into burgeoning leaders so that they can mentor other young be the peacers when they come in, after the pandemic is over.

- I think a good way to think about it too is that Playback is kind of the medium for really delivering a lot of other powerful training.

And so when the young people are learning the art of Playback Theater they are learning the art of self-expression, self-reflection learning the art of listening they're learning the art of paying attention in really specific ways to other people's feelings and imagining what it's like to walk in other people's shoes.

So there's relationship skills that they're developing.

So it really strengthens social-emotional learning and it's so rich.

And I loved, there was a sweet video that we made about our camp and a question at the end, you know, what did you, what did you learn?

And one of our campers said, well what I learned most was to love myself.

And for me that is the heart of Playback Theater.

You know, to support people in being kinder to themselves and one another.

- Now we've talked about the pandemic a little bit obviously all performing arts groups were hit with a lot of challenges on how to do their work for a group that is so where audience participation, audience interaction is so essential to the form that must have seemed like it would be a big challenge.

How did you approach the pandemic challenge as an organization?

- You know of course we had the same reaction everyone else did but as we began to trust, as Virginia said   that we were called to this   time, really called to this tim   we had to get to that   point and recognize it.

But we were called,   we were already doing a lot   of the work and the training   and the connecting and research   and reading and reflecting.

And we just had to do   it in a different space.

And so that when   working with the youth, I had to translate that into, I had to carry that over into that work and just trust.

In the beginning some of my youth members did not have internet.

Some of them did not have devices.

You know, some of the phone numbers changed, some of the, you know, and I had to trust that the connection that we built and the relationships the bridges that we've already built, were there it was still there.

And just believe, and sometimes I did that with my eyes closed it's out in front of me, but I just trusted and we were blessed to have I'm blessed to have a community of people within Playback to be with me and join me and we've been successful so far.

[Leslie laughs] - Yeah and I think one thing we haven't named is that we have, you know, 12 extraordinary artists.

Our artists are really the heart of this work.

So many just gifted and talented human beings   who bring their   personhood to this work   in the most generous,   beautiful way.

And I think we all consider   the practice of Playback   to be essential to growing   us as human beings.

I mean, we are very, very, very growth-oriented very committed to building a rich culture of learning.

And, you know, our mission is to bring stories to life in a safe space to unlock healing and transformation and joy.

And, you know, that requires us to have a commitment in our own lives, you know, to how we, you know we do that for ourselves and one another.

And so many of us have been doing this for over 10 years, which is really extraordinary.

We're recognizing we're all but it's exciting cause we're gonna be soon really out there looking to grow our ensemble.

And so I think we're all getting really excited about that and recognizing, Oh, you know, there who's not with us, you know cause we're always about widening our circle.

And so it's a season of reflecting about that and about imagining, you know, the next generation of Playback Memphis.

- You know, Virginia, Leslie, I've really valued the chance to talk with you to work with you.

I'm very, you know, I'm really impressed with the work that you all do with Playback Memphis and I cannot wait 'til we can do in-person live theater again.

- Yeah, us too.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be a part of the American Portrait Series project.

It really gave us a lot.

And so we appreciate your generosity in that - Yes, thank you, thank you.

[soft music] [acoustic guitar chords]