History of Istanbul Playback Theatre

1999 “İstanbul Playback Theatre**” was founded by Deniz Altınay* in İstanbul. After a large conference, Deniz Altınay started the first “Spontaneity Training” program. The training group included both psychodrama students and people who do not have any connection with this discipline.
2000 With the 5 people chosen from the training group, İstanbul Playback Theatre started performing.
2001 “Sahnede Yaratıcılık” (Creativity on Stage) which is Deniz Altınay’s first book about spontaneity was published in İstanbul.
2002 Within the İstanbul City Youth Theatre Festival, the group performed to the largest group in history, of 400 people, at Haldun Taner Theatre.
2002 Workshops Carried Out with The English Culture Board:

· Two professional guests from England have done a workshop for İstanbul Playback Theatre
· In Ankara, a 3 day workshop has taken place with a group of 15 people from National Ankara Theatre. From that group 5 people were chosen to play in a series of perfromances directed by Deniz Altınay.
· In the Ankara Ministry of Justice Juvenile Hall,the group made a performance for the children who are abused, live on streets and recieved a sentence for various crimes.
· Diyarbakır Children Festival: A 2 day workshop was accomplished for the actors of National Diyarbakır Theatre. After the workshop, two separate performances (in which the English professionals were playing) were organised for the kids living on the streets who were gathered by the government of the city. One performance for the ages 4-6 the other 7-13. These performances were important revealed the fact that the actual beggining is where the words come to an end. Moreover the performances made the dynamics of the Playback Theatre clear, which were experimented by all the participants.
· Performances were carried out wihin the ODTÜ (Middle East Technical University) Theatre Festival.
2004 The book “Sahnede Yaratıcılık” (Creativity on Stage) 2nd edition was published with an extended part explaining the use of spontaneity in companies.
2004 With a new group of 6 people gathered from training groups, performances were made monthly at different stages of Istanbul.
2005 A workshop in Istanbul was organised for a small group from Bursa Uludağ University Theatre, on their request. Afterwards a performance was organised in Bursa for the whole theatre group, again on their invitation.
2006 A 3 day workshop was organised within the traditional IPI Summer Conference in Antalya. Anna Chesner from England was the guest instructor for the conference titled “Psychodrama and Spontaneity Theatre; Encounter.”
2007 Istanbul Playback Theatre started to perform monthly at the Beşiktaş Belediyesi Afife Jale Sahnesi (Beşiktaş Town’s Stage).
2009 and still continuing working on new projects...

**The group’s name is “Spontaneity Theatre” being loyal to Moreno’s original naming. The group decided to use both names beacuse on international platforms the name “playback theatre” is used.
*** Deniz Altınay’s “The Spontaneity Training” classes formed in IPI, continues the training program every year with a mixed group of participants from many different socio-cultural backgrounds.