Speak Out: Theatre for Transformation is a playback theatre group based in Cork City and embedded in the Creativity & Change programme at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design.

The group has been around since 2008, and its aim is to create empathic spaces for people to connect through personal stories and to challenge dominant narratives by opening opportunities for lesser heard voices.

Playback theatre is a form of improvisation where the audience share personal stories that are then "played back" by a team of actors and musicians. We aim to create a welcoming space where everyone is heard and community unfolds. 

 Through Playback theatre we aim to generate social change through the subversive act of deep listening in a time of sound bites and political polarization. We do this by creating space for the marginalized stories, the lesser heard stories, and the stories that just need to be told.

The group has worked with many community organizations throughout the years including the Traveler visibility group, Amnesty international, local schools,  the YMCA, the Cork Migrant Center and the Irish Refugee Council. We have performed as part of the "Critical Voices" conference at UCC and the Cork Anti-racism summit. 

We perform and offer workshops every 6 weeks, often in collaboration with community  organizations including the Irish Refugee Council and the Cork Migrant Centre.