3 Ways Interactive Improvisational Theater Ignites Racial Healing

The National Day of Racial Healing is a nationwide initiative launched in 2017 by the W.K.Kellogg Foundation as a time to contemplate our shared values and create the blueprint together for #HowWeHeal from the effects of racism. As we approach the 10th annual National Day of Racial Healing here in Albuquerque, New Mexico communities are preparing to engage in one of our most powerful tools for transformation: Playback Theatre, a form of interactive improvisational theater where audience members share moments and stories from their real lives and actors play those stories back on the spot.

In our three-year partnership with Explora, the local convener of the National Day of Racial Healing, we've witnessed firsthand how Playback Theatre creates space for healing conversations that traditional forums simply cannot provide.

"I had never experienced Playback Theatre before. The High Desert Playback actors had an amazing ability to capture the essence of each person’s story with empathy, humor, compassion, sensitivity and care. In the space of an evening, they created a sense of belonging, safety, community care, and support," shares Tina Kachele, a participant in our "Our Freedom Can't Wait" gathering last January. "The message of together we are stronger and can build the world we want and need was clear."

Through our work at High Desert Playback, we've discovered that when communities come together to share their stories, magic happens. Real healing begins. Here are five powerful ways interactive improvisational theater ignites racial healing right here in New Mexico, backed by stories from our own community.

1. Creating Brave Spaces for Difficult Conversations

Traditional community meetings often leave the hardest topics unspoken. Playback Theatre breaks down these barriers by creating brave spaces, allowing vulnerability to become strength and difficult truths to be shared more freely.

Last year, a participant who chose to remain anonymous commented:

"High Desert Playback created a magical space that helped people share without judgement and helped everyone in the room build a deeper understanding of the way racism and oppressive structures impact lives."

The Playback Theatre format allows the tellers to maintain control of their own story while inviting other audience members an authentic way to understand and relate to their experience. This creates psychological safety that traditional dialogue often lacks. We're not just talking about racism: we're feeling it, processing it, and transforming it together.

2. Processing Collective Trauma and Historical Wounds

Racial healing requires acknowledging historical trauma while creating space for collective processing. Playback Theatre as an interactive theater form provides a container strong enough to hold these difficult truths while gentle enough to allow healing.

"The way you all hold the dynamic tension between grief and sorrow, celebration and humor is incredibly powerful medicine" explained Kendra Toth, an anti-racist consultant who regularly attends High Desert Playback shows. "I was frozen today and then coming here (to Our Freedom Can't Wait) to experience this stretch from grief to humor opened up some cracks and tears were able to shed a bit of the trauma of (the current moment)."

Dair Obenshain, a local musician and self-proclaimed "permanent fan" of High Desert Playback added, "(High Desert Playback) performances quickly and lovingly embrace and draw in their diverse audiences, and serve to heal our many experiences of trauma as well as remind us of our own and each others' beauty and strength."

We don't just process individual experiences: we hold space for generational healing. During the Our Freedom Can't Wait gathering last year, participants shared stories spanning generations and the globe, creating a timeline of both trauma and resilience that illuminated pathways forward.

3. Strengthening Community Bonds Across Difference

One of the most powerful aspects of interactive improvisational theater is its ability to build authentic relationships across lines of difference. When we create and witness stories together, we develop bonds that extend far beyond the performance space.

"By bookending their performance between a meal and an audience sharing space, High Desert Playback created a space to practice in real time the goal of community building as well as receive its message through theater," shared Lena, a participant from last year's event.

Community building and social cohesion are central objectives of our work. In all of our performances, audiences regularly report a sense of belonging, developing friendships, and feeling more connected to people in institutions in ways that foster trust and strengthen community resilience.

A regular High Desert Playback participant puts it this way: "It is very rare to see in action the actual building of community. High Desert Playback does this. I leave every event feeling more empowered and a stronger connection to my community."

When we witness each other's humanity through Playback Theatre, we cannot remain strangers.

Join Us for Racial Healing on January 22

In celebration of this year's National Day of Racial Healing, we're gathering once again to harness the transformative power of interactive improvisational theater. Our upcoming event will create space for storytelling, witness, and collaborative visioning for the year ahead.

Whether you're a longtime community member or new to New Mexico, whether or not you've experienced Playback Theatre before, your story matters. Simply showing up with your mind and heart open contributes to our collective healing and liberation.

We're not just processing the wounds of racism: we're actively co-creating the world we want to live in. Through interactive improvisational theater, we're proving that healing happens in relationship, justice emerges from empathy, and transformation requires all of us.

Ready to be part of this powerful work? Visit our events page to learn more about our National Day of Racial Healing gathering and discover how you can contribute to racial healing in New Mexico.

Because our freedom truly can't wait: and together, we're making it happen.