How Do We Stage Intimacy?

“The body doesn’t distinguish between reality and playact, so it cannot tell the self from the character.” We held workshops led by accredited intimacy coordinators.

Film industry has already included intimacy coordination among standard protocols for several years, while performing arts are only beginning to explore the practice of intimacy choreography. How can actors convincingly portray intimacy for the audience, while still playing it safe? Physical contact, nudity, erotic situations, violence — have long been among the touchstones of staging and dramatic literature is plentiful of such moments. The audience is aware that what they see is “just playacting,” but actors take part in it with their own mundane body. Part of the risks involved are notoriously illustrated in cinema-history by the infamous “butter scene” of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris.

Intimacy choreography fundamentally changes this practice by conceiving intimate scenes as technically planned, set and performed sequence of movements, recommended to be be staged as such—through the informed consent of the actors involved, mutual agreement on-, and respect of redlines, and through continous, explicit communication. The aim is a safe working environment in which artistic creativity is not confined by exposure.

As part of our project series, The Ethics of Theatre-Making: Good Practices in the Rehearsal Room and the University Classroom, we invited two internationally trained intimacy coordinators to lead training sessions for the academic communiy of the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș. Polett Kasza completed the accredited IC training of the American SAG-AFTRA union, while Sára Lujza Tóth learned in the IDC program. On October 16–17, they held four practical workshops for students and teachers from the Theatre Institute and the Institute of Visual Arts, Film and Media.