Seven months and over 223,948 lives lost. As a theater practitioner who has given her heart, soul, and emotional well-being to her craft, I think a lot about how we protect artists going forward. As studios resume production, theater conservatories open up to students, and theatrical unions release their own COVID-19 guidelines, we have to consider the importance of personal boundaries and emotional safety of every individual involved with these productions.
Rodis was one of the key players responsible for bringing this practice to TV/film during the #MeToo movement with HBO’S The Deuce. Cast member Emily Meade advocated hiring an intimacy director to showrunner David Simon, in part because of past uncomfortable on-set experiences.
Chelsea Pace, an intimacy choreographer, coordinator, and educator, developed her own pedagogy for staging theatrical intimacy. She eventually collaborated with Laura Rikard in cofounding Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE) in 2017, specializing in “researching, developing, and teaching best practices for staging theatrical intimacy.”
They hosted workshops for both undergraduate students and faculty supported by the department “to create a culture of consent and to outline a system of best practices that we can work together at this department, so that everyone in my program is speaking the same language,” said Silkaitis. She and Pace are also currently pushing for a graduate certification program in collaboration with TIE.
We’re in a time when individuals are trying to navigate their own boundaries and what that means, especially while sharing a rehearsal space with someone else after being quarantined for nearly seven months. We need intimacy directors now more than ever, for our emotional, mental, and physical safety. v
