Everyone has a story to tell.
What if you could tell your story and watch it come to life before your eyes?
CPTE’s Mission:
Through community collaborations with Chicago organizations, small businesses, and nonprofits since 2019, CPTE uses Playback Theatre to bring the stories of our audience’s personal experiences to life onstage through interactive improvisational theatre, movement, and music. CPTE is a 501c3 nonprofit theatre that aims to facilitate community-building, dialogue, broadening of perspectives, and healing by celebrating, validating, and honoring the truths of the communities we engage with.
CPTE’s History:
Playback Theatre is a form of improvisational theatre and storytelling that was created in 1975. In Playback Theatre, audiences are invited to share stories of their own personal experiences which the actors then enact on the spot. Despite Playback Theatre’s reach as an art form practiced and taught across the United States and in over 70 countries, a professional Playback Theatre company did not exist in the Chicagoland area. To add Playback to Chicago’s rich tapestry of theatre, improv, and storytelling traditions and to utilize the power of Playback for healing and social change in Chicago, Allison Sokolowski founded the Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble in 2019.
Allison fell in love with Playback during her undergrad as a founding member of the Illinois State University Playback Theatre Ensemble, but she realized the art form’s power for change when she saw her own story about struggling with her mental health enacted by her college Playback troupe, which gave her the self- compassion she needed to seek support. From then on, she knew that she wanted to pursue working with Playback in her professional career as a theatre artist.
In 2019, she gathered some alumni from her college Playback troupe and auditioned new actors to begin the Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble’s first season of a summer series of performances that featured a different theme and community partner each week, such as State Matters, a nonpartisan civics education organization, that facilitated a discussion about civic engagement following CPTE’s show exploring stories about American identity. They also toured several Chicago Public Libraries to perform free family themed shows. As they headed into their second season, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and they quickly pivoted to adapting Playback Theatre for Zoom where they were able to partner with mental health advocacy organization, No Shame On U to offer healing through free virtual Playback performances focused on mental health themes during the crisis. Their virtual performances were also showcased to the international Playback Theatre community at Playback North America’s 2020 conference.
Following the pandemic, CPTE began expanding their programming to include youth workshops, starting with a pilot workshop with the Woodlawn Restorative Justice Hub (WRJH) that used Playback to explore mental health topics. CPTE and WRJH then received a grant from City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to expand their programming into a twice monthly semester-long workshop residency with WRJH’s youth, ages 14-24 that focused on improving mental health outcomes using Playback Theatre exercises for self-expression, community building, and processing challenging life experiences. The residency culminated in a performance showcase with the youth performing alongside professional Playback actors for their
family, friends, and community. CPTE is continuing to adapt this youth residency workshop and performance series concept for new partners, like Jamieson Elementary School’s Genders & Sexualities Alliance Club.
CPTE became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2023 and they currently operate from their artistic home, Third Space Chicago in Lakeview, though their work reaches throughout Chicagoland. They continue to be Chicago’s only professional theatre company performing and teaching the art of Playback Theatre. CPTE has cultivated a cast of performing and teaching artists with extensive and diverse performance and improvisation experience. Many of them have professional backgrounds in therapy, education, working with youth, and social justice activism, and some of CPTE’s performers have studied with the founders of Playback Theatre, as well as other leading Playback Theatre teachers worldwide. CPTE continues to provide free and affordable curated performances and educational workshops, with a particular focus on LGBTQIA+ communities, underserved youth, and mental health advocacy for disparate communities.
Select Collaborations:
- Woodlawn Restorative Justice Hub – Playback workshops for their restorative justice youth program
- Eli Tea Bar & Dorothy – Pride month performances centered on queer stories
- No Shame On U – Public virtual performances centered on topics of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Wise Up – Private virtual performance on stories about community for Wise Up’s senior members
- Sulzer Regional Library – Public shows centering family stories from storytellers of all ages
- Bezazian Branch Library – Public show for their Community Coffee event and a private show for a local summer camp’s grade school youth
- Lincoln Belmont Branch Library – Public show celebrating magical stories at their Pottermania Party on Harry Potter’s birthday
- Berger Park Cultural Center – Public show celebrating community stories at their Arts Showcase event
- Nothing Without a Company – Public outdoor performance at Douglas Park drawing out community stories for the company’s playwriting workshops
- State Matters – The director of this nonpartisan educational organization that provides resources on civic knowledge joined our post-show discussion after our show exploring stories on what it means to be an American
- Howard Brown Health – Provided us free pronoun pins and pamphlets on their resources for us to have available for audiences at our Pride centered shows and beyond