Have you ever had a story about something you experienced that you just had to let out? What if you could see it come to life before your eyes?

In Playback Theatre, personal stories told by the audience, your stories, come to life onstage using improvisational theatre, movement, and metaphor. The result may be joyous, sad, funny, or powerful, but it will always stem from a place of honesty in honoring the teller's story. Playback Theatre is an improvisational storytelling method developed in the 70's that is currently used worldwide in communities, schools, clinics, prisons, and many other diverse environments.

Former "playbackers" from the Illinois State Playback Theatre Ensemble have created the Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble to give voice to the stories of this great city's people and communities. We're committed to creating an ensemble that reflects the diversity of Chicago and are seeking civic-minded performers of all ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and silhouettes that have great collaborative skills, empathetic listening skills, and improvisational abilities. We are especially seeking performers of color, men, trans, and non-binary folks. Musical improvisers and folks with experience working with youth are also highly encouraged to attend.

This ensemble is an ongoing commitment where members are expected to train and perform until at least October, but know that this group has long-term goals to continue building upon well past this fall such as touring schools, retirement communities, and various non-profit organizations throughout Chicagoland. The ensemble will rehearse at least four times a month beginning in mid-February with performances throughout Chicagoland beginning in June, mostly on weekends and weekday evenings.

At this time, we cannot guarantee pay for rehearsals and performances because we want to ensure performances are accessible and affordable for all audiences. However, every effort is being made to raise funds to offer modest performance pay.

We're holding two auditions, indicate your preference in your email:
February 2nd from 2pm - 4pm at Unity Lutheran Church at 1212 W Balmoral Ave
February 22nd from 6:30pm - 8:30pm at the Pride Films & Plays rehearsal space at 1411 W Wilson

This will be a casual audition focused on team building where we'll play with some playback short forms, so come ready to move and play! If you cannot make this audition time but this work sounds exciting to you, please contact us anyway and we can try and arrange an alternate date!