On the 21st of March I attended an intimacy workshop, the workshop focused on the issues with intimacy that happen in a performance and rehearsal environment.
Main Points of the Workshop
- As a director of a project, you need to have clarity in your contracts and documentation as to what you want to accomplish. Meaning that if you plan to have intimate moments in your projects you need to let performers know before they sign your contracts.
- All members of the crew need a contract
- If you decide to have an intimate moment after the start of the process and after the documentation has been filled, you need to let your performer know in plenty of time and give them the opportunity to decline. (Have a back up plan!)
- Intimacy directors exist and can be a very useful tool if you are running into many intimate problems.
- Communication is important in the rehearsal environment. If you aren’t comfortable as a performer doing something that a director or creator wants to do, then speak up and they are obliged to change the idea.
- Intimacy isn’t confounded within a single moment, there is a before and after to every intimate moment.
- Meetings are very important to clear up all questions and necessary information all members of the cast and crew have.
- Make sure the person who is offering their intimacy with you is sure of the moment, listen to their voice and if there is any uncertainty, make sure they feel comfortable with exactly what they are doing.
- Consent is freely given, and at any point can be retracted.
The most important information I got as an aspiring performer and director was the fact that “Consent is freely given, and at any point can be retracted.” I think it’s important that we put ourselves in the shoes of others
“How would we feel in this intimate moment?”
I can apply the information I got from this workshop to my own workshops and my own experiences.
- Making sure every performer is comfortable with each other.
- Giving them the opportunity to communicate how they truly feel.
- Make sure every member of a team knows they can retract consent whenever they feel uncomfortable
- Making sure that if there is an intimate moment we want to perform in a project, the people involved have plenty of notice before the rehearsal that the moment takes place. (giving the performers time to process whether they are definitely comfortable with this moment.)