Our Vision
We support Playback Theatre in North America to reach its potential. This potential may include:
1. Growing in numbers:
of Playback Theatre companies and practitioners, as well as audiences.
2. Raising the public profile: so people flock to Playback events in their local communities and invite Playback events into their conferences, workplaces, etc.
3. Integrating into our communities: helping local institutions (e.g., hospitals, schools, faith-based communities, literacy programs) create ongoing in-house Playback programs.
4. Exchanging ideas and best practices: fostering ongoing dynamic exchanges within the Playback community and with others doing closely-related work so that people don't have to reinvent the wheel. This could range from business development skills (e.g., how much to charge to different clients, how incorporate as a nonprofit and do fundraising) to company development skills (e.g., how to make decisions, how to deal with conflict, how to support leadership).
5. Increasing social impact: providing support for Playback companies to do more of the high social impact work, through, for example, collaborative grant-writing, training, and business niche development.
6. Increasing financial vigor: Enabling many companies to develop new and more substantial client relationships that provide more and higher paid work. Providing fundraising training as well as some seed grants.
Goals for 2010
Phase One: Three Stages of Research & Development
Stage One, Needs & Resource Assessment:
A.
Interviewing Playback leaders in North America:
(a) what people need to develop their work in their local communities
(b) what strengths they have to offer others
(c) what's their vision of where they'd like to see the wider Playback community or field go in the next 10-20 years?
B. Identifying and interviewing key allies: (a) key clients and community partners, (b) artists applying improvisation theatre and performing arts for social change (e.g., Theatre of the Oppressed, Process Work), (c) civic leaders interested in bringing participatory arts into their dialogues, trainings, meetings, and workplaces.
Stage Two, Program Planning and Fundraising: Designing programs based on what we hear people want and need. Raising funds (preferably from sources that haven't funded Playback before) so that some of the priorities can happen.
Stage Three, Testing: To ensure that the programs truly are useful and sustainable our plan is to try them out on a small scale and evaluate how well they serve, before working to bring them up to scale.