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

  • MA, RDT, LCAT (NADTA, USA)

    I hold an MA in Drama Therapy from New York University, MA in International Studies from BirZeit University and a Diploma from Harvard University in Global Mental Health, Trauma and Refugees.

    I have worked extensively with immigrant and refugee populations both in the United States and the Middle East using Drama Therapy to tackle issues of social injustice, SGBV, discrimination and trauma.

    I have devised theatre pieces and materials based on true stories collected from grassroots organizations to open dialogue and push for social justice and change.

    Currently based in Jordan, I support and train local and international organizations in developing psycho-social interventions and support groups all utilizing the creative arts therapies as a medium to engage, heal, and grow.

    I am a founding member of the Minsaj Playback Theatre Troupe, founding member of Hessefrah singing troupe.

  • Psychotherapist. Actress. Director in Psychodrama. Director in Spontaneous Theater. Accreditate Trainer in Playback Theater. Clown.

    Specialist in Participation Methodologies linked to the art of representation and human development for communities in contexts of social vulnerability. I facilitate and teach group coordination with a focus on resilience and mutual care.

    I am dedicated to Public Health for 24 years.

    I belong to the Art - Health reflective core of the School of Public Health of the University of Chile.

    I participate in the International Playback Theater Network for South America.

    Part of the Chilean Network of Creators in Art Health.

    Part of the Latin American Spontaneous Theater Movement.

    Part of ClownMinantes, a collective of clowns at the service of public health.

    Director of the Vuelo Theater Company for 18 years. Playback Theater and Spontaneous Theater.

    I have directed the ComparteAlas Workshop: Psychodrama and Theaters for Social Transformation and Tenderness in Santiago, Chile, for 20 years.

  • I am a performance artist and an applied theatre and social arts practitioner from India. My practice engages me to inquire and constantly question the systemic power structures, inequitable construct in gender roles, and the authoritarian education framework in the Indian sub-continent.

    I find and discover potentialities on how the politicisation of education, power and hierarchical structure can be responded through participatory art like Playback Theatre, Performance Art, Theatre of the Oppressed and Dialoguing.

    My work takes me to communities like prisons, juvenile and rescue homes, urban slums, schools, factory sites and organisations. I wish each one of us could ask ourselves as an artist, how can make more equitable societies through my practice? 

  • I'm an Australian Playback Theatre practitioner whose involvement with Playback Theatre began in 1985. I was an actor, conductor and co-director of four successive Canberra Playback Theatre companies over a period of 25 years. More recently I directed a Playback company in Wollongong, New South Wales.

    I have a special interest in training conductors, bringing artistry to the stage, and helping companies work with the social dimensions of stories and issues of social justice. 

    I've led workshops in Australia, Singapore, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Greece, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong, India, the UK and Portugal.

    I'm a faculty member and board member of the Australasian School of Playback Theatre and I'm also involved with community building in the region as well as internationally. I have a professional background in social policy and service development, working on issues like homelessness, violence against women and child protection for government and non-government agencies.

  • I studied Mass Communication and Theater at the American University in Cairo and I am a trainer/facilitator with more than 10 years of experience in facilitating workshops and sessions for community dialogue, environmental education using art, and campaigning on climate change issues in Egypt and the Arab world.

    I also practice various types of applied theatre (Playback Theater and Theater of the Oppressed), I am the co-founder of Khoyout Troupe for interactive theater and between 2022-2024 I have been studying contemporary dance at the Cairo Contemporary Dance Center.

    I am passionate about using participatory tools and applied theater methodologies to build community and create spaces for transformative dialogue.

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.