A Path to Integrity

Johnathan Fox

Lately I’ve been thinking about the word, “integrity.” To most of us it means a sort of honesty. For example, if you found someone’s wallet on the street, you will seek to find its owner without removing any money, if you have integrity. Integrity also seems indirectly related to gratification. If you have no integrity, you will indulge your need for more wealth, or power, or fame—even at another’s expense. When I think about it more, integrity also connects to sense of self. Having integrity is to pursue a path that leads to a higher good. In order to do this, however, we need a sense of where the boundaries of self lay. I cannot relate with integrity to my lover if I do not have a sense of our personal boundaries. A mother with no sense of boundary between herself and her children will not consider reading their private mail a lack of integrity.

A feature of playback theatre is that it demands integrity. I believe it also teaches integrity. How so? Playback seems almost by definition to demand self-honesty and discourage self-gratification. In playback we constantly have to make fine discriminations regarding self and other. For instance, as actors we hear the teller and get an impulse about how to act in the story; is this impulse truly in response to the teller, or is it merely based on our own stuff? On stage, I interact with the other actors; can I truly work with them to fulfill the story, or am I unconsciously taking center stage in my desire to be loved by the audience? As a conductor, can I enter into a truly mutual exchange with the teller aimed at bringing the story forth, or do I manipulate the process in order to enjoy my power and look important?

Tellers also face this challenge of integrity. As playback theatre practitioners, we sense at once if a teller has respect for the emerging story and humility before it, or whether she is gratifying herself, by any one of a hundred ways of demanding attention or manipulation. In my experience, the playback theatre process imparts integrity to company life—at least when the individuals involved are open to it. For example, an established company will arrive at decisions with a high level of mutuality because the members have learned to negotiate their personal wishes and the wishes of the others with integrity. They can walk together towards the higher good.

As playback theatre continues to grow and becomes more diverse, more individuals come to it without a developed sense of integrity. This is not a judgment. There are many factors in our education, or lack of it, which might lead to such a situation. The biggest, perhaps, is the materialistic and competitive value system of modern society. In fact, few of us these days are raised to live lives of integrity. In this sense, playback theatre and what it teaches run against the grain of modern life—to be generous in spirit; to think of the teller before ourselves; to willingly share focus with of our fellow performers; to be humble before the mystery of our stories.

It could be that playback as a vehicle of integrity is as important a characteristic as is playback as theatre, and a reason for its enduring appeal.

With this introduction, I wish to talk of two specific ethical problems confronting us in the pt community. The first concerns relations between colleagues. We often have an emotional response to other pt groups and other individual practitioners. We may feel envious; we may feel contemptuous; we may feel competitive. Such feelings may be inevitable. To act on them, however, is to deny the call of integrity and may lead to unethical behavior. Put positively, to act ethically with pt colleagues is show respect for them publicly. It means informing them of an activity that may in any way effect them. It means consulting them when a matter concerns both companies. It means respecting their intellectual property.

To act with integrity regarding a neighbor pt company is especially challenging when that company does not act with integrity towards you. In such a difficult situation we want to continue ethical behavior while protecting our own reputation and property as best we can. As playback theatre becomes even more diverse, we cannot expect that each new practitioner will be imbued with a strong sense of integrity. Therefore I support the idea of placing prominently on the IPTN website a statement of ethical conduct. This will give clear guidelines to those needing them.

Most important, however, is not a statement of how to behave but to emphasize building relationships. Where pt groups in a region have annual gatherings there develops a basis for ethical relations because relationships are nurtured over time. When we spend time with each other, we listen to each others’ stories. Having gotten to know each other, we have an incentive to seek a solution to any problem that promotes a mutual benefit. Our goal in collegial relations becomes similar to our goal on stage—to work as an ensemble to embody a larger story. For this reason, I support strongly regional gatherings. The second concern relates to newcomers to playback who think they know more than they do. Here is an example: A school teacher takes a two-day introduction to playback. Then the pt instructor hears that this teacher is teaching pt to students. The pt instructor feels uneasy, since she knows that the teacher does not yet know enough playback to teach it safely and responsibly. She feels she has perpetrated an unethical practice. She resents the teacher for not understanding how much time it takes to build up a secure pt identity.

The preferred course of action is patiently to nurture a connection with this teacher, so that she will see the wisdom of taking more training. At the same time, I think it is a good idea at the end of an introductory workshop to distribute a written statement of ethical practice, perhaps as part of a resource list. This statement should caution against moving too fast as a pt practitioner before obtaining a solid grounding in all aspects of the practice. (On the School home page there is a similar statement aimed at academics—see “Letter to teachers.”)

To conclude, I am suggesting two practical steps—a statement of collegial ethics on the IPTN homepage and a statement for new learners tagged onto a resource page that would be handed out at the end of an introductory workshop.

At its core, playback embodies ethical behavior. It demands our integrity at every turn. It also teaches us integrity and a way to reach for the greater good.