Slot 1

1. Dimitris Begioglou (Greece) “Damn it’s theatre!” 
2. Inbar Netz (Israel) “WHAT IS THE NEED” 
3. Aniko Kaposvari (Hungary) “Use of puppets and objects in Playback Theater” 
4. Synne and Jan Platender (Norway) “Poetry in Motion”
5. Seniz Turan (Turkey) “The Moments of Transformation” 
6. Rene Van de Vosse (Niderlands) “Music in playback, from supporting to directing”
   

Slot 2

1. Nir Raz (Israel) “The Antihero in Playback Theater” 
2. Vasil Spasov, Bulgaria “Make a scene, make a story”
3. Karina Gisler and Yakov Yakushevskyi (Switzerland) „Clowning in Playback Theater”
4. Jaap Ostra (Niderlands) “The Playing Parlour – PT without actors”
5. Olena Kalashnykova (Ukraine, Kharkiv) “How to feel contact with yourself?”
6. Brian Tasker (United Kingdom) “Men and Our Mothers” 
7. Orly Kovo (Israel) “The Blues chorus – a new form in playback” 

Slot 1

Dimitris Begioglou

Greece

Workshop:  “Damn it’s theatre!”

Playback Theatre is a form of theatre, not a psychotherapy session… So, we have to be actors and actresses on stage before anything else.

Let’s seek together on this workshop, how much Theatre is hiding out of a PT performance… Let’s laugh and put right and real acting on stage!

BIO:

Dimitris Begioglou is a philologist (University of Athens, Greece), group psychotherapist (University Paris 8, France), actor, composer and singer.

Member of Playback Psi company in Athens (founded in 2004),Co – Director of the Greek School of Playback Theatre, he is passionately involved in various scientific and artistic projects in Greece and abroad.

Focusing on peace, working with collective trauma in several countries, and spreading LGBTQI visibility around the world , he propose a specific PT acting work, through deep spiritual awakening. He teaches in Greek, English and French.

Inbar Netz

Israel

Workshop: “WHAT IS THE NEED”

A workshop using the theory of Psychological Needs by Carol Dweck.

In this workshop, we will understand-experiance the basic psychological needs, we will learn to recognize them while listening to a story, then we’ll find out how to use that recognition on stage.

(This workshop is for experienced playback actors.)

BIO:

Inbar Serfaty Netz – Playback instructor, actor & conductor, as well as group therapist leading therapoitic PT groups, Accredited Playback Theatre Trainer (CPT).

Living with PT in her life since 2006. Psychotherapist. Mother to 3, in a relationship.

Aniko Kaposvari

Hungary

Workshop: Use of puppets and objects in Playback Theater

Description: If you don’t have enough actors, or  if you want to embodied the fictive the mythical, the traumatic experience,  objects and puppets are just wonderful colleagues on the stage. Or even on the table if you play for smaller Publikum .

BIO:

Aniko Kaposvari is Accredited  Playback Theater Trainer as well  actor, conductor at Adhoc Theater Vienna and teacher of the Hungarian Playback Theater School. Apart from that I am working in the field of Mediation, community work and Teaching. My new love I am happy to share with you are Puppetry.

Synne and Jan Platender

Norway

Workshop: POETRY IN MOTION

In this workshop we will explore poetic language, movements and metaphors to reflect stories in a simplified, yet enlarged way as playback actors. A few well chosen words spoken at the right moment, together with authentic movements and music that hold the space, can sometimes touch the teller´s and audiences heart really deeply. The more we allow ourselves to trust the spontaneous moment as playback actors, and the less effort we make to be intelligent and smart on stage, the better access we have to our inner ocean of poetic images and wisdom. You really don’t have to be a writer to bring poetry to life!
Together we will do exercises that aim to stimulate our ”poetic muscles” in a relaxed and playful way. You will learn the simple, but beautiful form ”poet, dancer and musician”, which can be used in a performance to capture anything from a short moment to a full story. We will share, listen and enact stories, exploring the richness of poetry in motion on the playback stage.

BIO:

Synne and Jan Platander have been working together with playback theatre since they met in 1995. They founded Teater X in Stockholm 23 years ago, and are running Skandinavisk Playbackteater Studio(Affiliated School), now based in Oslo, Norway. Jan and Synne are both accredited trainers. Together they create a playful, safe and rich space where creativity can flourish and people connect.

Seniz Turan

Turkey

Workshop: The Moments of Transformation
Transformation is a process, not a moment, but it contains powerful moments within.
In this workshop, we will work on the transformation process in a story and moments in this process. We will explore the process of transformation through improvisation, phsical activities and movement exercises. There will be space for our own stories of transformation. We will focus on how we can go deeper as we play these stories back.

BIO:

Şeniz Turan is Creative Drama instructor and Playback Theatre trainer. She mainly works in different fields of social work. She has been developing social theatre projects with women for 10 years. Şeniz is currently working with children with special needs. She uses playback theatre as a tool of empowerment on the projects with special needs children and their families, refugee groups, as well as children and youth in prison. Her main focus of work is to make researches about different ways and possibilities of self-expression.

Rene Van de Vosse

Nederlands

Workshop: Music in playback, from supporting to directing

A musician can support the actors, but can also direct the acting. In this course, we will explore the range between these two. This course is not effective if it is given to only musicians, it is especially composed for playback theater ensembles (musicians, actors, and conductor). Topics covered

• it is not about personal shining, it is about supporting each other
• create the awareness of music
• following and controlling
• embrace mistakes, sometimes they bring treasures
• before – event – after
• words, sentences, parts, story

BIO:

As a musician, I have experience in improvisational theater, including playback theatre. My musical accompaniment and my workshops on music and singing in improvisational theater have already inspired many players and musicians at home and abroad. I interact intensely with the actors, so my music flows with the play. In doing so, I sometimes follow and sometimes lead while the story remains the guiding principle of the scene. Because I have also experience as an actor, I am familiar with the principles of improvisational theatre. This allows me to understand what kind of support players need. Member of playback company: www.wordtvervolgd.net.

Vasil Spasov

Bulgaria

Workshop : “Make a scene, make a story”

The workshop focuses on the toolbox of playback actors to create a single scene. It will explore the different components – beginning, developing, climax, ending in a strong theatrical language – using mise en scène and body impulse. How the ninja actors provoke the teller’s emotional journey and move through the scene beats. Building in partnership, holding the atmosphere and the team together.

If you can make a great scene, you can make a great story!

Bio:

Vasil Spasov – professional actor, theatre director, playwright

experienced in classical theatre, devising theatre, site specific theatre, forum theatre, playback theatre

founder of street playback theatre project “Voices of Sofia”, Bulgaria

supervisor, one of the leading trainers of the international playback theatre school “The Others” in cooperation with the playback School of Israel under the leadership of Aviva Apel-Rosenthal (affiliated school of CPT, New York).

co-founder of the international project “Cinematic Playback” (USA, England, Bulgaria, Russia).

in collaboration with partner Nella Chilachava (Russia) created the playback duo “Why not…?”

Karina Gisler and Yakov Yakushevskyi

Switzerland

Workshop: Clowning in PB Theater

We will experiment with some attitudes which are typical for the Clown: Being open and totally in the moment, curious, vulnerable and playful. As Playback actors we thus can deepen and enrich our acting skills and add a special flavor of humor and sensitivity to our play.

BIO:

Yakov Yakushevskyi. Since 2011 in PlayBack in Donetsk as musician and actor with the company Kibitka. Graduate of PB School in Kiev with international teachers , 2017 Leadership. Since 2014 member of Payback Theater Zürich, and cooperation with Karina Gisler in the tandem KaYak, giving trainings and performances in Europe, Cuba, India, Newzealand, Russia and Ukraine. Clowntraining with Merche Ochoa, Spain, and Peter Honnegger, Switzerland.

Karina Bettina Gisler, born 1957 in Switzerland, married to Yakov Yakushewskyi. Trained as teacher, actress, pantomime, clown and art therapist. Fell in love with Playback Theater 1990. Graduated from the New York Payback School, accredited teacher, former member of the board of IPTN. Founder of the professional company Payback-Theater Zürich with about 1500 performances in Europe and Asia. Karina works internationally (Afghanistan, Burundi, Cuba, Europe, India, Lebanon, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Russia, Ukraine and Vietnam ) as trainer and performer, often together with Yakov Yakushevskyi.

Jaap Ostra

Niderlands

Workshop: The Playing Parlour – PT without actors
Can you do playback theatre without preparation, without actors, even with people who don’t want to act? Yes you can. The Playing Parlour was born in elderly homes, where stories needed to be shared theatrically. Now this method proves to be a great instrument for doing playback with unskilled people as well. Including everyone.

BIO:

Jaap Oostra, performing artist and art educator. Studied performing arts in Amsterdam (BA), and Community Art. Active in playback theater since 2004. Rehearsal leader and performer of playback theater group ‘Wordt Vervolgd’. He started working with elderly people in 2009, where he developed the Playing Parlor.

Olena Kalashnykova
Ukraine

Workshop: “How to feel contact with yourself?”

Grounding practices, It is often difficult to understand: Who are we? Where are we? What’s going on? What’s next? We seem to lose touch with reality, and thus with ourselves. At the workshop, we will try various practices that help to establish a connection with the body, and therefore with consciousness. We will see which parts of the body are most prone to stress in each specific case and how you can take care of them and support yourself. Come get grounded and sprout.

BIO:

Olena Kalashnykova  is Accredited playback theater trainer (Center for Playback Theatre, New York). Actress and conductor of the playback theaters “Living Mirror” and “Vakhters”. Co-founder of the Ukrainian Playback Theater School. Playback practitioner since 2014, playback trainer, and just endlessly in love with playback.I consider my main focus in playback to be working with traumatized communities (victims of military conflicts, victims of violence, etc.). I also actively work with the LGBTQ+ community, addicts, people subjected to gender discrimination, national minorities… Favorite topics: Conducting, Group dynamics, Team building, Trauma work, Body living, Metaphor, Performance.

Brian Tasker

UK

Workshop: “Men and Our Mothers”

A workshop for men only. Each participant will need to bring a framed photograph of their mother as an independent woman before you were born to display as our opening ritual.  We will look at our mothers in the context of their birth into what spiritual teacher Thomas Hübl describes as a ‘pre-traumatised’ society.  We will explore ancestral trauma through a mixture of structured exercises and enacted story generated by the group’s process, the exact direction of the workshop will depend on what participants bring as we work collaboratively as a group of men.

BIO:

Brian Tasker is a graduate of the Centre for Playback Theatre (2008) and served on the IPTN Board (2016 – 2019) and as editor of the IPTN Journal during that period. Co-organiser of the 2019 Conference in India, Brian co-edited the book Playback Theatre Around the World, Diversity of Application with Dr Baiju Gopal of Christ University published at the conference. In his day job, he is a psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer with a background in substance misuse, end of life care and mental health, now semi-retired.

www.makeshifttheatre.co.uk and blogs at briantasker.wordpress.com

Brian will be the DJ on the final EPTG party with World Music DJ Baba Ganoush.

link here: https://www.makeshifttheatre.co.uk/2016/01/03/world-music-dj-baba-ganoush/

Nir Raz

Israel

Workshop: The Antihero in Playback Theater

In this workshop, we will focus on a very important character that appears in almost every story “The Antihero.” We will research who is the Antihero, what they want, how they can achieve their goals, and how the different goals of the teller create a conflict between the Hero (Teller) and the Antihero. We will give the Antihero a 3-dimensional shape so we can identify with their motives and make them a significant part of the plot. Normally when we enact in PT a story, our focus is the teller and all the other roles are there to serve the teller and to move the plot forward. Unfortunately, that sometimes creates shallow characters.

In my experience as an actor and as a teacher when the Antihero is stronger, takes a bigger space, and comes with their own agenda (not just being against the teller), this will benefit the Teller by giving them a big obstacle that they have to overcome creating motivation to achieve their goals and at the same time create a more genuine and significant dramatic scene.

BIO:

Nir Raz, published author, artistic director, group leader, and stage artist, has been working for over twenty years in theater, group facilitation, and improvisation. He teaches internationally and is known for his work in group dynamics and medical clowning. Two times winner of “Best Theater Actor” in Tzavta, Tel Aviv’s “fringe” performance center, and at the Suzanne Dalal Performing Arts Annual Festival, Raz writes books and articles on theater and group conducting. He is the founder and co-director of The Institute of Psychotherapy in Playback Theatre and a member of The Playback Theatre Group, Mar’ot. He also works as a medical clown at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Israel.

Article: MacKenzie Gets Up on Stage – Raz, Keisari & Kowalsky published in the journal of the Israeli Association of Group Psychotherapy, Mikbatz.

Books- An Introduction to Psychotherapeutic Playback Theatre, Hall of Mirrors on stage – Kowalsky, Raz & Keisari published in 2008 by the Emily Segol Center and the University of Haifa. 2022 Routledge

50 Exercises Trilogy- Nir Raz Amazone 2020

Orly Kovo

Israel

Workshop: The Blues chorus – a new form in playback

The blues as a protest genre will connect us to ancient roots and give us wings for new districts. The protagonist will be the lead vocalist while the rest of the cast will be a supporting blues chorus. We will investigate and implement this interesting form in the enactment. The Blues chorus is suitable for reflecting the hero’s journey as well as a theatrical-singing form for performances. No previous experience in singing is required.

BIO:

Orly Kovo is an actress, performer and creator in Playback Theater since 2013. Creates, teaches and conducts music and singing workshops at Playback Theater. Group facilitator of playback theater groups for adults. Certified Trainer from CPT (Center For Playback Theatre) by Aviva Apel-Rosenthal. Founder and operator of ImprovisArt  – an improvisation and playback theater, together with Nili Lubrnik Rolnik since 2017.