Impact Playback Theatre

Impact Playback Theatre

Five performers on stage at the Blue Sage Center. A performer in a green turtleneck stands center stage gesturing expressively, while three others cluster together on the right in an animated physical tableau. A fifth performer stands apart on the left, holding a gray fabric and watching. The Blue Sage Center's logo is visible on the backdrop.

Making Space for Real Emotion

A theater ensemble of nine performers on a stage. Most are seated in a row on wooden blocks, laughing and reacting animatedly. Two performers sit apart on the left holding microphones, one gesturing expressively. On the far right, a performer plays a cello while another stands nearby. A costume rack with colorful fabrics is visible in the center background, along with a patterned area rug and floor microphones on the stage.

Your Stories on Stage

Seven performers in a joyful, chaotic group embrace on a darkened stage, laughing and leaning into each other with exaggerated expressions of delight and surprise. The energy is warm and celebratory.

Empathy In Action

Six performers moving together across a stage in an energetic, urgent group tableau — arms raised, mouths open, leaning forward with intense expressions as if caught in a dramatic moment. A colorful costume rack is visible on the right side of the stage.

Improvised Theatre, Intentional Impact

Five performers on a stage at CU Boulder. In the foreground, a performer in a white shirt and blue fabric skirt sits on steps with one arm dramatically outstretched. Two performers lean over them supportively from behind, while a fourth looks on from the left. A costume rack with props and wigs is visible in the background.

Capturing the Heart of Communities

What is Playback?

Playback Theatre is an interactive, improvisational theatre form in which audience members share true stories or experiences from their lives and see them “played back” by an ensemble of trained actors in ways that encourage insight across difference. 

Like a cross between a town hall meeting and an improvisational performance, one actor from the ensemble (“the conductor”) engages the audience in a collective conversation, asking questions that address the specific concerns of those gathered. The audience’s responses are played back on the spot in non-confrontational ways that boost insight, strengthen social bonds, and lift civic spirit.

Impact Playback logo
Poster for the Cortez Story Share Event on May 12, 2026
Poster for the Grand Mesa Story Share Event on May 7, 2026
Event poster for Impact Playback Theater on a teal and orange background. Large white bold text reads 'IMPACT PLAYBACK THEATER.' A color photo of eight performers in an expressive group tableau is featured at the top, with two smaller black-and-white performance photos below. Event details at the bottom read: May 8, 7 PM, Paradise Theater, Paonia, CO.
Event poster for Blue Sage Presents StoryShare 2026 on a light blue background with red star decorations. Four polaroid-style photos show featured storytellers and performers. Center text lists featured artists including Tara Miller, Sam Brown, Lindi Mereness, Reina Nelson, Don Foster, Marty Durlin, Olivia Johnson, Chelsea Bookout, Steve Harper, Keaton Spitzer, and CU Playback Theater. Logos for the North Fork Valley Creative Coalition, CU Boulder, and Impact Playback Theatre appear at the bottom, along wit
Event poster for 'Goodnight Moon – A Fiber Tale' on a bright blue background. A photo of an elaborate fiber art recreation of the classic Goodnight Moon bedroom scene spans the top, with crocheted and knitted versions of the book's iconic room and characters. Text reads: 'Your favorite children's book. A brand new story. Featuring Impact Playback Theatre. Sept 26 7pm / Sept 27 2pm & 7pm, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302.' Logos for the Dairy Arts Center, Reach Out & Read Colorado, and Du

Recent Events

May 12, 2026: Story Share Cortez

Through a generous grant from the LOR Foundation, Impact Playback helped create the first annual Story Share Cortez.

A North Fork Valley favorite since 2021!

Another unforgettable Paonia evening honoring community members’ stories through Playback Theatre at the Paradise.

Three dynamic Cedaredge stories interpreted through storytellers, videographers, musicians, writers, visual artists and Impact Playback Theatre at the first annual Grand Mesa Story Share. 

In partnership with Main Street LIVE and Trinidad History Museum.

Human stories of water in the west and the meanings of the river to Indigenous leaders, water scientists and other water-dependent humans – Legacies of Water with the CHA, Center for American West and SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education.

About Impact Playback Theatre

Since 2019, CU Boulder’s Impact Playback Theatre Ensemble has delivered dynamic performances and workshops across a wide range of campus and community events—including the CU Diversity and Inclusion Summit, Health and Wellness Summits, the Just & Equitable Teaching Program, a variety of conflict management courses and other student- and staff-centered initiatives.

Since 2020, the ensemble has also led the Outreach-funded Critical Conversations Project, promoting empathy, deep listening and civic dialogue in rural communities facing destabilizing social, economic or environmental change. This has included three collaborations in support of the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibit, Crossroads: Change in Rural America.

Partnership with CHA
Officially partnering with the Center for Humanities and the Arts formalizes a shared commitment to fostering inclusive storytelling, community engagement and arts-based dialogue across the CU Boulder campus and beyond. Through this collaboration, Impact Playback and CHA aim to support the transformative power of performance and humanities scholarship in advancing equity, empathy and creative expression.

Ruby Anderson, Elise Collins, Lauren Fiddes and Tania Guzman Jurado perform at Grand Mesa Arts Center

PHOTO CREDIT: Marianne Potje
DESCRIPTION: Impact Playback Theatre Ensemble at the Grand Mesa Arts Center, Cedaredge, Colorado, March 2024.
SHOWN (l to r): Ruby Anderson, Elise Collins, Lauren Fiddes, Tania Guzman Jurado

Grants & Commissions

  • Five Outreach and Engagement (now PACES) Awards to conduct multi-day residencies in rural communities experiencing destabilizing social and economic change
  • Eight UROP Awards to support ongoing recruitment and training of undergraduates from across CU
  • Two Arts in Society Awards to support further outreach residencies in Walsenburg, Trinidad and Paonia Colorado, in support of the traveling Smithsonian exhibit, Crossroads: Change in Rural America
  • Two UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center Commissions for private keynote performances / facilitations for Belonging Colorado initiative
  • CHA Graduate Student Award to support grad student collaborations with the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Just and Equitable Teaching (JET) Program
  • President’s Fund for the Humanities Award for a Renee Crown Wellness Institute collaboration in support of Donna Mejia’s Fumble Forward initiative, a framework for holding constructive intercultural dialogues
  • City of Longmont Commission for public performance on gentrification and economic change: “Don’t Boulder my Longmont!”
  • Boulder Jewish Community Center (JCC) Commission for public performance on history, community and belonging: “We Are Our Stories”
  • Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) Grant through CHA for project on Colorado River and its meanings to various regional and Indigenous communities
  • Research and Innovation Office (RIO) Award in support of CHCI Colorado River project
  • LOR Grant to coordinate Cortez, Colorado’s first annual Story Share Event and aligned community programming (multi-day residency) 

Who We Are

The Impact Playback Theatre Ensemble comprises CU faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates from across disciplines. Members train weekly through rehearsals, and all performances are paid.

The ensemble is led by Dr. James F. Walker whose work centers on undergraduate education with a focus on diversity, metacognitive learning and active, inclusive pedagogical practices. His additional research interests include race and gender studies, dystopian literature and film, and the rhetoric and praxis of performance—particularly Playback Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed and other applied, interactive theatre forms that support social change.

Publicity

Press Kit

Six performers moving together across a stage in an energetic, urgent group tableau — arms raised, mouths open, leaning forward with intense expressions as if caught in a dramatic moment. A colorful costume rack is visible on the right side of the stage.
Two performers on a black box stage in dynamic, exaggerated poses. One balances on one leg with arms outstretched and a finger pointed upward, while the other crouches low to the ground with a wide-eyed, startled expression. Blue prop boxes are scattered in the background.
Two performers on a black box stage in a comedic contrast of poses — one stands tall with both arms raised overhead and mouth wide open in triumph, while the other hunches beside them with a pained, exaggerated expression. A costume ladder and blue prop boxes are visible in the background.
Colorado River Stories ~ Legacies of Water
Colorado River Stories ~ Legacies of Water
Two people seated side by side, each holding a microphone, sharing a warm and laughing exchange. One wears a richly embroidered floral jacket and a beaded necklace; the other wears a gray long-sleeve shirt and smiles attentively.
A packed audience in an indoor venue. In the foreground, one audience member holds a microphone and speaks, wearing glasses and a colorful scarf. Other attendees listen attentively in rows behind them.
Five performers on a stage at CU Boulder. In the foreground, a performer in a white shirt and blue fabric skirt sits on steps with one arm dramatically outstretched. Two performers lean over them supportively from behind, while a fourth looks on from the left. A costume rack with props and wigs is visible in the background.
Six performers on a stage with an audience visible in the foreground. One performer stands center stage with arms wide open, head tilted back, and mouth open in an expressive gesture. Four performers stand in a line to the left, watching. A guitarist sits to the right providing musical accompaniment. A costume rack with props and wigs is visible in the background.
Four performers on stage at the Grand Mesa Arts & Events Center, whose sign is visible on a rustic wood-paneled wall behind them. Two performers are paired on the left — one kneeling with arms crossed over their chest while another stands behind them. On the right, one performer raises a fist in the air while another crouches low to the ground. Costume racks flank either side of the stage.
Three performers seated on a stage with a rustic wood-paneled backdrop. Two sit together on the left, smiling and engaged with each other. The third sits apart beneath a ladder draped with colorful feather boas, wearing a wary expression. Blue prop boxes are scattered across the stage.
Eight performers posed together in front of an exposed brick wall adorned with a colorful rainbow soundwave sculpture. The group smiles and leans into each other casually, dressed in a range of bright and neutral colors that echo the artwork behind them.
Six performers on a stage against a stone wall. On the left, two performers stand upright watching the action. In the center, a layered group creates a dynamic tableau — one reaches forward with an outstretched arm while others crouch and lie low on the floor. To the right, a cellist seated in a chair plays accompaniment
Eight performers on a softly lit stage forming a close, layered group tableau. Most are clustered together in poses of connection — leaning, reaching, and touching — while one performer extends an arm upward dramatically. A performer on the left stands apart, clapping. One performer kneels in the foreground wearing a feather boa. A costume rack and ladder are visible in the background.
A theater ensemble of nine performers on a stage. Most are seated in a row on wooden blocks, laughing and reacting animatedly. Two performers sit apart on the left holding microphones, one gesturing expressively. On the far right, a performer plays a cello while another stands nearby. A costume rack with colorful fabrics is visible in the center background, along with a patterned area rug and floor microphones on the stage.
Five performers on a theater stage. In the center, a tall performer in a green button-up shirt and black pants stands on a wooden box with arms outstretched, being steadied by two performers on either side holding their hands. The performer on the left wears a magenta top and holds a blue garment; the performer on the right wears a blue top. A person in a white sweatshirt walks toward the group from the left, and a performer in a green shirt stands to the five improv performers stage a dramatic scene
Four performers on a stage in two pairs. On the left, one performer moves forward while another stands behind with a hand to their chest. On the right, one performer drapes an arm around the other, who gestures outward with a look of surprise. Colorful costume racks flank the stage, with wooden blocks and a patterned rug underfoot.
Six performers arranged in a playful, layered group pose on a dimly lit stage. Two performers stand tall at the top, while the others cluster below in various crouching and leaning positions, all mugging expressively for the audience. Colorful costume racks are visible on either side of the stage.

Get In Touch With Us

To learn more about participating, fill out the INTEREST FORM. 

Submit the PERFORMANCE REQUEST FORM to request a performance or workshop for your group.

For other inquiries, contact: James.F.Walker@colorado.edu

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