A caring act
CityU’s Playback Theatre event allows students to act out the stories of victims of illness.
It takes a lot of courage to open up and tell a personal story to an audience of 300 people. It takes even more courage to watch that story be performed by a group of university students, even if they are specially trained for the task.
The “Narrating Faith, Love, Hope: Playback Performance Part II” event was hosted by the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. Leung Kam-pui, a retiree who donates his time to the elderly as a caregiver in Sik Sik Yuen, was one of the brave audience members who volunteered for such an experience. The performance took place on August 25.
Leung reminisced about a time when, every morning for six months, he accompanied his visually impaired younger brother to the ophthalmologist for treatment. Leung made the trip, rain or shine, until his brother regained his sight. He was happy to recount this uplifting story, and enjoyed reminiscing on a time that he got to show some brotherly love.
To get the performance started, experienced playback trainer and facilitator Mercy Liu asked Leung some questions to discover the underlying values of his story. Leung and Liu spoke of commitment, life’s purpose, love, and resilience. Liu worked to understand Leung’s overall philosophy, and his personal values like faith, to find the focal part of the narrative.
Five of the event’s 11-strong team of students performed the story for Leung, an audience of 150 chronic illness survivors, and caregivers from 32 NGOs. “Seeing the way the storytellers overcame their hardships inspires people who face similar challenges,” says Dr Esther Chow, CityU associate professor of applied social sciences, who is the students’ lecturer and the host of the event. “Their lives touch and resonate with the audience,” she adds.
The performance was developed within the framework of CityU’s service-learning project, which has been running since 2005. The concept, borrowed from the US, was developed Dr Esther Chow along with the rest of the playback team. in order to integrate academic pursuits with the needs of the community in a way that benefits both sides. At CityU, the non-credit bearing, student-initiated, and often cross-disciplinary community service activities are regarded as teaching and learning opportunities, and are integrated into the curriculum.
The Playback Theatre actors are all budding psychologists and social workers who have received up to 30 hours of training. The performance was led by Liu, who asked the storytellers questions to identify the story’s focus and deeper meaning. The performance itself combined the sharing of experiences, taking place with a psychological drama about the different people’s traumatic experiences.
