Our Mission

Our mission is to use Playback Theatre to build connections, promote social justice, and inspire change. We champion equity, visibility, intersectionality, access, and empowerment, which lead to creating a positive impact in the world around us. Through our efforts, we aim to provide support to other playbackers and help create a more inclusive, socially and politically aware framework for our practice.

Meet the team

HANE AL RSTUM

I am a survivor who escaped the war in Syria and transformed my experiences into a career as a dedicated psychoanalyst. My journey is a testament to resilience, and I now guide others on their own paths to healing.

I am also a dreamer, envisioning a future free from wars, hunger, and anger. My mission is to contribute to this change by empowering individuals and fostering profound transformations through therapy.

EMILY CONOLAN

I am many things, including a lover of nature, a mother, a queer person, and a traveller.  Professionally, I’m a therapist, author, activist, and applied theatre practitioner. 

I have a special interest in working cross-culturally and with trauma, and exploring themes of identity and social justice are key to my work. I facilitate group processes that are creative and compassionate.

ELSA MAURICìO CHILDS

I am a queer person, a mother, an animal lover, a caretaker, a hugger, and someone who believes we can contribute to making the world around us more equitable…

I view Playback as a tool for anti-oppression work and have focused my practice on using Playback for social justice and for raising awareness about oppressive systems and the way they can be present in the stories we hear in our practice and in group dynamics at large.

DEVRIM NICOLO’ TURLETTI

As a Playback Theatre and Listening Hour Trainer, I am committed to using my privilege to become a trustworthy ally of those who need my support. I pay particular attention to using these methods to promote more diversity, equity and justice in the communities I encounter. 

I work as a meditation facilitator too, with focus on movement. I firmly believe that any practice, whether personal or communal, must bring us back to our bodies, the medium through which we experience life. 

Our Board of Advisors

Our Restorative Justice Guide

DEBORAH ZAVOS

I am a cis-gendered woman, an elder, and my daughter calls me queer. I am a Jewish witch. I am a weaver of collective liberation through embodied divine truths. I am an anti-zionist. I often pray with my feet. I was a co-founder of DC Playback Theatre, the first multiracial company. We brought the conversation about race to the rest of the playback community. I dance to the music of the natural world and then go back home and wash the dishes and do the laundry.

Our Values

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Ensuring that all individuals are treated fairly, have equal opportunities, and are included, while embracing and valuing differences across communities.

Intersectionality: Understanding and addressing how interconnected social identities and experiences impact visibility and lead to varied forms of discrimination.

Social Justice: Promoting systemic fairness and equity, advocating for changes that address and rectify social inequalities and injustices.

Community Building: Developing and nurturing supportive networks that foster collective strength, resilience, and solidarity within and between communities.

Human Rights: Upholding and advocating for the fundamental rights and freedoms of all individuals, ensuring that everyone’s dignity is respected and protected.

Joy: Encouraging and cultivating happiness, fulfilment, and a sense of well-being within the community to enhance engagement and positive change.

Trauma informed: A non-pathologising stance that acknowledges trauma as complex, embodied, formative, and often linked to intergenerational patterns of oppression.  Encourages healing and transformative growth through trauma.