Camille Pfister
Editor-in-Chief
Art is bold. It pushes boundaries and asks questions. Controversial, heartbreaking questions. It asks these questions of its audience, its viewers, readers, and listeners. The only way it works, though, is if great care and consideration are taken to make sure everyone involved is comfortable and safe.
In the theater and film industries, one way this is done is through the use of intimacy choreographers. A lot of scenes in plays, movies, and television shows involve explicit and sexual contact between its actors. intimacy choreographers provide a safety measure, put there to make sure that every actor is able to properly consent to the situations they are placed in.
“For years, there wasn’t a set process for how to handle moments of staged intimacy,” Sarah Hamilton, Assistant Professor of Theater, said. “Often, the directors would just look at the actors and say ‘Okay, you two, just figure it out.’ But there wasn’t any standard practice. So this led to, unfortunately, people being harmed. So intimacy choreography gained a lot of visibility after the MeToo movement.”
Hamilton has trained in Intimacy Choreography, working with the Intimacy Directors and Coordinators and Theatrical Intimacy Education, and is working closely with the actors involved in this production.
“[Intimacy choreography] was being introduced into universities and school systems as a way to create safer and healthier working conditions for performers engaged in intimacy,” Hamilton said. “After I finished my M.F.A., I continued to do some online training. Since I’ve been at Sewanee, I’ve continued to do training.”
This week, The Tennessee Williams Center (TWC) will take on an emotional and complex show, A Streetcar Named Desire. This play, written by the TWC’s namesake, focuses on the relationship between two sisters, Blanche and Stella, and Stella’s abusive husband, Stanley. The intensity of the characters and the relationships they are portraying require a lot of attention to be given to the actors and the safety of the set.
“The first steps start at the audition,” Hamilton said. “In order for actors to consent to something, they have to know what they are consenting to. So I worked closely with Jim, the director, and Olivia, the stage manager, to create an audition form where we disclosed all the moments of staged intimacy, and we disclosed all the loaded content of the play.”
Intimacy Choreography starts with a few steps between the actors. One exercise involves tracing your hand over every area on your body you consent to them touching. Then, you take your partner’s hand and guide their hand over each area. Another key piece of Intimacy Choreography is “opening the space” which is a physical indicator, like a high five, signaling to the actors and everyone involved in rehearsals that the actors are entering into a consensual environment, where physical intimacy will take place in a professional capacity. When rehearsal is finished, you do the indicator again, signaling the closure of the intimate space.
“I came to an early rehearsal and did a workshop with the whole cast that showed them how to do some boundary practice, how to do a boundary check-in with their partner, and establish some basic techniques that they can do on their own, whether or not I’m in the room,” Hamilton said.
Each rehearsal, every partnership, requires different exercises and boundaries, so the presence of an Intimacy Choreographer allows for everyone involved to feel relaxed and protected throughout the process.
“I met with each of the actors who are engaging in intimacy individually, and chatted with them about concerns, needs, anything they wanted to have a one-on-one conversation about,” Hamilton said.
Intimacy Choreography is not only necessary for the actors, but also it also creates a space that is honoring of everyone’s boundaries. The director of the scenes and the Intimacy Choreographer work together, along with the actors, to design the scene so that the actors, the audience, and all background workers feel secure, and the scene produces the desired emotion.
“I’ve come in for any moment of staged intimacy in the play, and worked with Jim and the actors, and created choreography around those moments, so that we’re talking about it in a desexualized way,” Hamilton said. “Also that we’re being really specific about what the gesture is, so that it remains consistent every night. And that the actors have a say in that, so they are determining what choreography works with their physical boundaries.”
Intimacy choreography is a relatively new field, which is why it is important to have someone trained in it involved, and why the TWC is lucky to have Hamilton on staff. It is also good to know that this field is still being explored, and for those interested in learning more, there are classes and online resources available.
“We need to all have a conversation about what is happening, set some boundaries around what we’re going to do, what we’re not going to do,” Hamilton said. “The goal is that we can communicate this narrative in a way that works with the actors’ boundaries, and so that we all know what’s going to happen, so that there are no surprises.”
A Streetcar Named Desire opens Wednesday February 28, and runs until Sunday March 3. Showings on Wednesday-Friday are at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday matinee is at 2 p.m. The show includes sexual violence and is not recommended for anyone under the age of fifteen. The show is currently sold out, but if you arrive 30 minutes prior to show time, they will put you on the waitlist and can usually get about 15-20 people in!