About the Trainers

Amanda Brown has been involved with playback theatre since 1995 and presently is Artistic Director, along with Alison Fairlove, of Mirror Mirror and Tarte Noire Playback Theatre Companies.  She trained and worked professionally as a dancer and choreographer in theatre and television.  Alongside her work with Playback Theatre, Amanda works in community arts and teaches movement and improvisation workshops internationally.   Amanda is a graduate of the Centre for Playback Theatre. http://www.mirrormirrortheatre.co.uk

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Anna Chesner is registered as a Senior Trainer in Psychodrama with the BPA. She is also a Group Analyst and Dramatherapist. She has been involved in professional training, coaching and consulting for over 20 years, and is widely published in the field of action methods. She is founder-core member of London Playback Theatre in London, a graduate of the School of Playback Theatre, and has training and mentoring links with a number of playback companies in Europe. http://www.londonplayback.co.uk/ & http://www.londoncentreforpsychodrama.org/

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Alison Fairlove has been involved with Playback Theatre since 1995 and presently is Artistic Director, along with Amanda Brown, of Mirror Mirror and Tarte Noire Playback Theatre Companies.  She has a background in Theatre in Education and as a Counsellor with particular experience in sexual and domestic abuse.  She has a commitment to discovering how we can bring some balance back to the world by remembering and embracing the deep feminine voice in us all which continues to be devalued and largely unheard.  Alison is a graduate of the Centre for Playback Theatre. http://www.mirrormirrortheatre.co.uk

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Simon Floodgate is currently Programme Director of Theatre Arts, Education and Deaf Studies at Reading University. A theatre professional for many years, he is highly experienced in Theatre-in-Education work and Forum Theatre; and is a graduate of the School of Playback Theatre. www.londonplayback.co.uk

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Davina Holmes joined London Playback Theatre in 2009 and has been performing Playback Theatre since 1995. She trained in her native New Zealand, performing and directing in several companies there. Since moving to London in 2004, she has performed with True Heart Theatre and has been teaching for the School of Playback Theatre (UK). She currently works as a Dance Movement Therapist with children, families and adolescents. and has extensive experience in teaching in schools.

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Kay Kay has been developing the skills which she now uses to facilitate positive change in individuals, organisations and society. She has worked in a variety of professions, within several industries, and draws from these experiences as a life coach, and facilitator. For many years resident in the spiritual community of Findhorn on the NE coast of Scotland, she initiated Friends of Findhorn, and enabled the flourishing of the New Findhorn Association. In her 60s, and an itinerant traveller, she is at last writing down the fruits of her experience. As founder of LISTEN FOR A CHANGE she is passionate about creating awareness of the importance and power of listening and in training people in the improvement of this skill.

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Veronica Needa has been actively involved in playback theatre since 1991, graduating from the School of Playback Theatre in 1995. Now teaching playback internationally, and faculty member of the School of Playback Theatre, she is based in London, core member of London Playback Theatre, and director of True Heart Theatre which specializes in playback theatre for the Chinese community in the UK. She coordinates the School of Playback Theatre (UK) programme of courses. Also a storyteller performer, she has created a solo show – FACE – performed in English and Cantonese, which explores issues of identity and belonging. http://www.trueheart.org.uk/ & http://www.londonplayback.co.uk/

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Fra Zeller is a Drama teacher; an Expressive Arts Therapist, a Practitioner Member of IPTN, Co-founder and leader of the Schule für Playback-Theater ( Germany and Switzerland), for 12 years a member of  Playback-Theater Zurich as actor and conductor,  since 2005 the Founding Director of Playback Theater Bumerang, and also of Interaktives Theater Knotenpunkt (Theatre of Oppressed) since 1995.

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Aviva Apel-Rosenthal is the founder, conductor and artistic director of Israel Tel-Aviv Playback Theatre since 1991, and currently the President of the International Playback Theatre Network. She has been an actress, theatre director, and group facilitator for many years. An international playback theatre trainer, she is also guest tutor in Tel Aviv and Haifa universities in Israel, teaching courses in Playback Theatre. She has a BA in Theatre Studies, an MA in Gender and Arts Studies, and Diploma in Arts therapy.SPT (UK) is happy to represent Aviva in presenting her course Ritual in the Heart of the Story to other playback theatre contexts and events. www.playback1.co.il &  www.playbacknet.org