The performance features the Playback Theatre actors listening to true stories from audience members. The “teller” then casts the actors in different roles and they use all their creative resources to immediately play the story back to the audience. The resulting “re-enactments” are often poignant as well as funny, finding the heart and the funny bone embedded in each tale.

“We’re pleased to be bringing back Playback,” says RAAC Theatre Artistic Director Patty Hardee. “Before covid, the group led a well-attended workshop that drew people interested in learning Playback’s unique improv techniques. That evening they demonstrated in performance the range and fun of Playback improv.” Boomie Pedersen, a talented actress and long-time member of the Playback troupe based in Charlottesville will help lead the workshop. Last September in the Little Washington Theatre Boomie performed the one-woman show “The Man Who Eats Books,” a play by the late Julie Portman.

“Playback brings to the stage stories and story fragments suggested by the audience,” says Boomie. “The workshop introduces the participants to the forms used to play back stories, starting with the simplest one-word story and moving to fully casted longer stories. Everyone has stories and feelings and those are really the only two requirements for Playback, along with a spirit of adventure and a ‘yes, and’ attitude.”

Tickets are $17.85 and can be purchased at Eventbrite.