Playback Theatre and the Psyche of Performing Actors: A Phenomenological Study

Playback Theatre is a theatre of lived experiences that involves no scripts, costumes or wide open stages. Created for ordinary citizen actors and ordinary citizen audiences, it is a form that is valuable to both. The focus of this study is to understand Playback actors’ experiences in relation to their psyche, empathy towards others, the cathartic element of Playback Theatre, learning-healing through the form and the possibility of extraordinary and transpersonal experiences while acting. Following a preliminary focus group discussion with five participants, individual, in-depth interviews were conducted with six actors. The experiences discussed were member-checked at the end of each interview. Multiple iterations of thematic analysis and inter-rater reliability revealed five emergent themes corresponding to the factors under consideration. Synthesised member-checking was done through a final focus group discussion with the participants. The emergent themes may inform future intervention research including, but not limited to, applications to self-care and group therapeutic practices, special needs support and therapeutic recreation for individuals with neurodegenerative disorders.