Some stories arrive trembling.
They carry more weight than the teller can put into words, and often more weight than any one of us in the company can hold alone. Yet they come to us. They come because something in Playback — the circle, the witness, the form itself — promises that what cannot be spoken plainly might still be received.
This four-day Level 2 intensive is for Playback practitioners who want to deepen their capacity to be present to difficult, painful, and traumatic stories without fixing and without harm. It is not a clinical training. It is a practice laboratory in the art of holding — the ritual frame, the protective beauty of symbol, the conductor's careful hand, and the company's shared care that together allow a hard story to be brought into the room and met.
What We Will Explore
Four interwoven inquiries align with the pillars of Narrative Reticulation.
Guidance. The container is structured through the conductor’s voice, ritual, and form. Care is exercised through pacing, titration, and, when needed, refusal—ensuring safety and coherence.
Story. The focus shifts from event to essence. Trauma is approached through symbol and aesthetic distance, allowing recognition without re-enactment.
Spontaneity. The ensemble responds in the moment with restraint—using slowness, stillness, and fluid forms to let meaning emerge organically.
Atmosphere. The field prioritizes holding the event. Presence, attunement, and intentional closure create an environment where experience can be witnessed and gently integrated.
Holding Traumatic Stories in Playback Theatre
Facilitator: Hane Alrustm is a psychoanalyst, theatre-maker, and accredited Playback Theatre trainer. He is the founder of SADA Playback Theater and the Founder and Director of Healing on the Move, a mental health enterprise supporting people on the move.
Dates: Thursday, August 27 – Sunday, 30, 2026
Time: 10:00 - 17:00
Location: Gent 9000, Belgium
Cost:
Please choose the preferred cost that you can afford. If you can pay the highest amount, you will support others who cannot pay to participate.
Cancellation Policy:
Cancellation must occur at least one month prior to the workshop. If canceled within the month of the training, you will receive a 50% refund. Any cancellation made less than 2 weeks before the training will not be eligible for a refund.
The Heart of the Story: Arc, Red Thread, and Echos
Before we speak, the room is already telling.
A four-day intensive in Playback Theatre, rooted in the classical long form, the Story. Day one opens with a community performance, and the three days that follow are a shared journey of reflection and learning through what that performance opens up.
Together we will explore the arc of the story, the red thread, and the echoes of a story — the heart beneath the events, and the quiet dialogue our stories are already having across the circle long before words arrive.
What you can expect to leave with:
A sharper ear for what lives beneath a teller's words.
A working sense of the arc of the story and how it shapes the unfolding of an enactment.
Capacity to find and hold the red thread under performance pressure.
An attunement to the echoes of the Story.
Deepening our work with the Story Form, Playback's classical long form.
A reflective practice carried across the full arc — beginning with the community performance on day one and deepening over the three days that follow.
Dates: Thursday, September 10 – Sunday, 13, 2026
Time: 10:00 - 17:00
Performance: 10th of September at 19:30 - 21:00
Location: Gent 9000, Belgium
Cost:
Please choose the preferred cost that you can afford. If you can pay the highest amount, you will support others who cannot pay to participate.
Cancellation Policy:
Cancellation must occur at least one month prior to the workshop. If canceled within the month of the training, you will receive a 50% refund. Any cancellation made less than 2 weeks before the training will not be eligible for a refund.
Facilitator: Hane Alrustm is a psychoanalyst, theatre-maker, and accredited Playback Theatre trainer. He is the founder of SADA Playback Theater and the Founder and Director of Healing on the Move, a mental health enterprise supporting people on the move.