The four-day festival will feature performances, workshops, and presentations from many of the 80 playback theatre companies and performing artists from across the U.S. and Canada. Among the list of presenters is Sidwell Friends' own Upper School Playback Troupe, Friendly Rewinders. Opening night includes a performance by the Oglala Lakota Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation in the Robert L. Smith Meeting Room. Information on the festival is available at www.playbackfestival.org.

Playback Theatre (Playback) is a unique form of improvisational theatre in which audience members share important moments from their lives, and actors instantly reflect back the heart of the stories using movement, music, metaphor and dialogue

A few highlights among the dozens of presentations and workshops include:

• It Takes Two: A Playback Conducting Model for Teens, presented by SFS’s Upper School troupe: Friendly Rewinders.
• Theatre Approaches for Youth
• Starting From Home: Racial and Cultural Boundaries in Playback Practice
• Setting the Stories Free: Playback in Prison
• No More Bullying: Using Playback Theatre to address school bullying
• A Playback Curriculum Model for Teens
• Clowning Around: Your Inner Clown Teaches Playback Fundamentals

The Festival includes an introductory workshop for those new to Playback Theatre on Friday October 5, from 9:30-4pm. Organizers also invite anyone whose social-benefit work could be enhanced through Playback (e.g. any project where people sharing their real life stories would be of benefit) to a reception on Saturday, October 6 before the evening performance.

Playback North America (PNA) stands to help Playback realize more of its tremendous potential in North America for honoring unheard voices and making visible the lives, struggles and human spirit of all.