FACULTY

Jonathan Fox, the founder of Playback Theatre, is director of the School. He was the artistic and executive director of the original Playback Theatre company from its inception in 1975.  He is the author of Acts of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre; the editor of The Essential Moreno: Writings on Spontaneity, Psychodrama and Group Method; and co-editor of Gathering Voices: Essays on Playback Theatre. 

Jo Salas is a founding member of the original Playback Theatre company, and founder-director of Hudson River Playback Theatre, now in its 18th year. Jo co-produced and is featured in the DVD "Performing Playback Theatre". A core faculty member of the School since its inception, Jo also teaches playback internationally. She writes frequently about playback and is the author of Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre and Do My Story, Sing My Song: Music therapy and Playback Theatre with troubled children. Her two CDs include Listen and Remember, a collection of songs for groups.
 

Penny Clayton has been an actor, conductor, and administrator with Hudson River Playback Theatre since 1998. A graduate of the Centre training program, Penny presented last year at the “Playback in the Academy” conference in Windsor, Canada.

Hannah Fox is a professor of dance and theatre at Manhattanville College. She is artistic director of Big Apple Playback Theatre and the founder of Eugene Playback Theatre. Since 1996 Hannah has worked with young women devising original scripts around personal stories. She is the author of the “Playback Theatre: Inciting Dialogue and Building Community Through Personal Story,” published in the recent issue of TDR (The Drama Review).

Pamela Freeman is a psychotherapist in private practice in Philadelphia and a long time social activist in peace and social justice. She is currently working as an organizer and trainer for Spirit In Action, a national organization bringing spirituality into social change work. Pamela is co-director of Playback for Change in Philadelphia, and a graduate of the Centre for Playback Theatre. She is also on staff at Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and Social Research.

Sarah Halley is a co-director of Playback for Change in Philadelphia and past president of the International Playback Theatre Network. Sarah uses playback theatre and other experiential methods in organizational development work, including diversity change initiatives. She is also a lead facilitator for the Whites Confronting Racism series at Training for Change, a global training organization for activists, and an artist-in-residence with the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.

Judy Swallow is a senior psychodramatist at Four Winds Hospital, Katonah, NY. She is a founding member of the original PT company and founding director of Community Playback Theatre, now 23 years old. She is a body/mind psychotherapist with a private practice.

Marc Weinblatt is an internationally recognized leader in the use of Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed (T.O.). Marc has worked with diverse communities ranging from police to homeless youth to academics to refugees in Azerbaijan and, in November 2007, NGO workers in South Africa. Marc is the founder and director of the Mandala Center in Washington State, a multi-disciplinary education organization, as well as the multi-generational Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble, which combines T.O. and Playback Theatre techniques to generate deep dialogue on burning social issues.

Nina Wise, performance artist and writer, is known for her provocative and original performance works which have been produced in the United States, Europe and Asia.  Her pieces have garnered seven Bay Area Critics’ Circle Awards, and she has received three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. She is the founder of Motion Theater and the author of A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life. She also teaches Buddhist practice at Spirit Rock meditation center.