Jo Salas

In 1929, Thomas Mann won the Nobel Prize for Buddenbrooks. While he balked at working with a female translator, his standing in the Western canon can be in part credited to the translating work of Helen Lowe-Porter. Based closely on historical source material, the novel follows a young Helen as she struggles against gender roles in the early-mid 20th century to realize the life she desires as a writer and translator. Married to the charming classicist Elias Lowe, whom she met and fell in love with in Munich, the story weaves one woman's journey as her husband Elias's career soars, and her translation work earns Mann the Nobel Prize. The novel celebrates the life of Helen Lowe-Porter as she learns to risk stepping out from the long shadow of the dominating men of her life to become a person of letters in her own right.

Playback Theatre is a form of interactive performance and community engagement created in 1975 in the Mid Hudson Valley of New York, and now practiced in 70 countries in a wide range of contexts. Teams of actors and musicians listen to stories told by audience members then act them out without script, score, or rehearsal, building dialogue and connection. PERSONAL STORIES IN PUBLIC SPACES: Essays on Playback Theatre by Its Founders gathers together, for the first time in one place, key essays, articles, talks, and reminiscences by Playback Theatre's founders, Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. Covering a body of work that spans almost five decades and locations from war zones to great cities, this anthology takes the reader on a journey from the earliest days of Playback Theatre to the present day, and includes several essays written specifically for this collection.

Author Jo Salas, a music therapist and cofounder of Playback Theatre, created a drama and music program at a residential treatment center in upstate New York for children 5 to 13 years old who had been diagnosed as severely emotionally disturbed. Do My Story, Sing My Song tells the stories of the children she worked with, many of whom were the survivors of extreme neglect and violence. Despite their traumas and their resulting depression, volatility, and even psychosis, the children at St. Mary's were full of creativity. They longed to express themselves, to play, to love, and, remarkably, to contribute to the wellbeing of their peers. In one-on-one music therapy sessions, group singing, Playback Theatre performances with staff members enacting children's stories, and therapy groups where the children acted stories for each other, the author encountered the resilience and artistry of these young people. Although reflecting on the background and theory of creative arts therapies, Do My Story, Sing My Song More is in the realm of narrative rather than formal case studies, offering stories where children's voices are clearly and unforgettably heard. Jo Salas, MA, holds a master's degree in music therapy from New York University. She is the cofounder of Playback Theatre, an original form of interactive story-based theatre now practiced in 65 countries. Her book Improvising Real Life: Personal Story in Playback Theatre is now in nine translations. Her TEDx talk "Everyone Has a Story" is available online.