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Personal Stories, Critical Moments, and Playback Theater

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Teaching Creatively and Teaching Creativity

Abstract

From the micro context of a personal history to the story of the family to the macro context of the saga of a people, constructed narratives remind us of who we are, how we came to be here, and our primary purpose in life. Narratives are evocative rather than precise; emotional rather than logical; personal rather than objective. In this chapter, we explore uses of story (narrative) to enhance creative imagination, to examine values that impact one's ability to nurture creativity, to explore uses of symbolic models through unpacking the creative ways in which they dealt with critical life moments, and to describe a method for integrating theatre techniques with narratives that open pathways to new perspectives in everyday life.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Teaching, University of Kansas, 321 Pearson Hall, 1122 West Campus Rd., Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Reva Friedman

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  1. Reva Friedman
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Correspondence to Reva Friedman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. South Esplanade 1116, Leavenworth, 66048-3522, Kansas, USA

    Mary Banks Gregerson

  2. , Department of Psychology, California State University, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, 92407, California, USA

    James C. Kaufman

  3. , Department of Psychology, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, 210 East Normal St., Compton Hall, room 106, Edinboro, 16444, Pennsylvania, USA

    Heather T. Snyder

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Friedman, R. (2013). Personal Stories, Critical Moments, and Playback Theater. In: Gregerson, M., Kaufman, J., Snyder, H. (eds) Teaching Creatively and Teaching Creativity. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5185-3_11

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