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Many among us have endured the dreaded intimacy rehearsal, when performers must suddenly enter each other’s personal zones—touching, kissing, simulating sexual acts—and generally becoming much more familiar with one another than co-workers typically might. Directors often breeze through intimate stage moments by saying, “Just kiss each other,” while actors pretend to be at ease, holding back potentially overwhelming fears and insecurities. An uncomfortable intimacy rehearsal is at best excruciatingly awkward and at worst can cause lasting trauma. Staging Sex: Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Staging Intimacy by Chelsea Pace with contributions from Laura Rikard provides a practical approach to staging intimacy, nudity, and sexual violence. Pace and Rikard are cofounders of Theatrical Intimacy Education, one of the groups setting professional standards for staging theatrical intimacy. This book serves as an overview of their unique methodology; it is filled with concrete tips and exercises, making it easy for eager practitioners to incorporate the tools right away.
Staging Sex begins by listing many of the usual methods for staging theatrical intimacy, acknowledging why they might seem appealing, and explaining the shortcomings of each. Readers will surely recognize many of the outdated approaches Pace targets, such as a director leaving the actors to choreograph the intimate scenes themselves or stepping in to demonstrate intimate blocking with an actor. She argues that these approaches fail to establish fully informed consent and are often inconsistent, regardless of the good intentions of the director, performers, or other production personnel. Pace introduces best practices focused around three big ideas—creating a culture of consent, desexualizing the...