This book is an exploration and critique of playback theatre', a form of improvised theatre in which a company of performers spontaneously enact autobiographical stories told to them by members of the audience. With more than ten years' experience as an actor with Playback Theatre York, the author introduces the reader to the basics of playback theatre within a historical and theoretical context. The history and development of the form is traced, from its conception in the late 1970s to its subsequent growth worldwide, and its relationship to the psychodrama tradition from which it has evolved is discussed. Through an examination of playback performances from the perspectives of performers, tellers' of their stories and the audience, the author critically explores the nature, implications and ethics of the performers' response to the teller's experience, how notions of the public and personal are constructed, and the risks involved in improvising a response to a member of the audience's story. Playing the Other will be essential reading for drama students, dramatherapists and all those interested in the history and use of the theatre.
CONTENTS: Introduction: Ann and Alan Clarke; an appreciation, Barbara Tizard. PART I. New Perspectives on Nature and Nurture. 1. Nature, nurture and psychopathology: A new look at an old topic, Michael Rutter, Honorary Director, Medical Research Council Child Psychiatry Unit. 2. Early experience and the parent-child relationship: genetic and environmental interactions as developmental determinants, H. Rudolf Schaffer, Professor of Psychology, University of Strathclyde. PART II. Longitudinal Studies of Vulnerability and Resilience. 3. Assets and deficits in the behaviour of people with Down's Syndrome - a longitudinal study, Janet Carr, PhD, C Psychol, FBPsS, Regional Tutor in the Psychology of Mental and Multiple Handicap, St George's Hospital Medical School. 4. Interactions between offspring and parents in development, Stella Chess, Professor of Child Psychiatry, and Alexander Thomas, Professor of Psychiatry, New York University Medical Centre. 5. Escaping from a bad start, Doria Pilling, Research Fellow, Rehabilitation Resource Centre, City University. 6. Vulnerability and resilience in adults who were classified as mildly mentally retarded in childhood, Stephen Richardson Professor Emeritus and Helen Koller, Principal Associate, Albert Einstein College, New York. PART III. Vulnerability, resilience, and rehabilitation from biological and psycho-social stress. 7. Reducing mental and related handicaps: a biomedical perspective, J. M. Berg, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. 8. Rehabilitation of the dyspraxic dysphasic adult, Robert Fawcus, Professor of Clinical Communication Studies and Margaret Fawcus, Department of Clinical Communication Studies, City University. 9. Vulnerability and resilience to early cerebral injury, Edgar Miller, Department of Health. 10. Educating children with severe learning difficulties: challenging vulnerability, Peter Mittler, Director, School of Education, University of Manchester. 11. Resilience and vulnerability in child survivors of disasters, William Yule, Professor of Applied Child Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London. PART IV. Responses to Psychosocial Stress. 12. A useful old age, Don C Charles, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Iowa State University. 13. Troubled and troublesome: perspectives on adolescent hurt, Masud Hoghugi, Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Hull, Director of the Aycliffe Centre for Children. 14. Implications of the Warsaw Study for Social and Educational planning, Ignacy Wald, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, and Anna Firkowska-Mankiewicz, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Index.
