Chicago Tribune: A one-act festival of 10-minute plays "incorporating an element of nudity" was announced today by Stage 773, the Lakeview venue. If you've been around Chicago theater long enough, either as a spectator or participant, this is just the latest in a long tradition of baring one's body on stage.
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I was just talking about this the other day with a friend of mine who went to go see A if for pron with me. During that show a few actors changed costume on stage, and we were discussing whether that was useful or impactful or whether people were just made uncomfortable by it. In the case of that show I don't think it was absolutely necessary, but for the rest of theater my answer is it depends. I think it can be really impactful for an actor to bare it all on stage, and it allows the audience to just look at the person for who they are. However, I think the article is right in pointing out that it makes it hard to know what to focus on as an audience member. You want to admire the persons body, or just look at them, you don't want them to catch you just looking at their body, and not their face, even though by making them naked their body becomes a much more integral part of their acting performance. I think that nudity has become much more acceptable in theater, and that is something to celebrate, but just because we can finally use it, doesn't mean that we have to. It is great to be able to see someones body, and to see an actor use their body, but used distastefully it makes the audience uncomfortable and makes them shy away from the actor rather than opening up to them.
I am the friend Sarah Battaglia was talking to about this! This year at Carnegie Mellon three shows have had scenes where women strip down on stage in order to push a them of vulnerability. We also had a show where 5 men stripped for money, but I think the fact that it was about empowerment and the fact that even as characters they were consciously performing puts that show into a different category. My gripe with nudity onstage is exactly what this article cites, nudity for nudity’s sake. There is a clear audience reaction, but I think if the reaction is the one this article discusses, the holding your breathe freaking out because someone is naked, then the creative team has failed with their use of nudity, because they have broken the sense of disbelief. It’s no longer about the character, but about the naked actor. What came into discussion specifically is how clearly it seems to have an effect on the casting of the role. To be frank, the women cast at CMU had similar, thin frames. This is totally seen throw out Hollywood too. Don’t curvy women get to be vulnerable? I guess not. But anyway, If your nudity scene breaks people’s focus on the plot, you’re doing it wrong
This is article was really interesting. Nudity in general is one of those taboos that honestly shouldn’t be a huge deal, but is. If someone is OK being naked, and you’re OK with them being naked, then why do we still get so awkward when it happens? I think the author of this article does a good job of describing this as the “audience freeze.” Nudity in theatre is especially interesting because you are in the room with the person. The realness factor jumps up any awkwardness. I think this is an important thing to note, because it changes the dynamic so significantly. If a director wants to use nudity for a certain reason, they have to keep in mind that the audience may be completely distracted from the symbolism due to their focus on the nudity and inherent awkwardness. I think the author explains this well: how nudity can zap an audience out of the story, but maybe that isn’t an entirely negative thing. The idea of using that jolt to re-engage the audience is something I hadn’t considered.
Nudity in American culture has always been a divisive issue, so articles debating it never surprise me. Nudity isn't such a big deal in Europe, but they are much more mindful of violence in media, whereas everything in America is about guns and explosions. When it comes to the argument for no nudity, it often boils down to keeping our children innocent, but in a world where people are on the internet from Kindergarten on, seeing things they shouldn't see, it's not really fair to have the century-old stigma on bodies that we as a culture once had. I agree with the author in that there's a difference in whether or not you are actually physically in the room with the naked person, as there is very little seperation between you and that other person like there is on the internet, but you are still experiencing similar things. I have never felt particularly awkward around nudity, but I think I can attribute that to growing up with a sibling who was naked around me frequently without it ever feeling weird or uncomfortable. I agree with Scott that jarring an audience with nudity is an interesting metaphorical trick, but I think we as audiences could stand to grow up some.
For many people, and many years, nudity onstage has fallen into the category "adult content" which has become more puzzling and problematic to define than ever before. Due to the prevalence of technology in the hands of increasingly young generations, content that was previously inaccessible to such demographics - and subsequently labelled as "mature" - is more readily available than ever, making a moot point of censoring certain kinds of content for kids. I think this provides theater as a whole with a truly unique opportunity to reshape the significance, meaning, and treatment of nudity on stage. The author's highlighting of the inherent shock value of nudity onstage is a key point to examine. Nudity's ability to reawaken an audience to the play's plot is crucial, though I wonder if this will actually hold true over coming years. As in TV and movies, nudity might be developing into more of an expectation, rather than something surprising or inherently shocking.
I tend to be pretty distracted by nudity on stage, specifically by the lead up to any nudity. If an actor starts taking their clothes off, I immediately stop thinking about the show/plot and start wondering how far they are going to go. If someone is actually just standing there naked, I don’t find it that distracting, it is just the wondering what will happen and then the moment of “okay, so this is happening.” I don’t think there is anything wrong with nudity in theater, and there is definitely and certain power to it, since breaking any social taboo with draw attention. Because of that, I think it is important to keep the likely audience reaction in mind and not have nudity for nudity’s sake, but if nudity tells the story/ creates the desired reaction, I think it is something our society needs to just get used to.
I think this article brings up an interesting point. Of Course, people are going to notice when the show takes that extra step into the world of nudity. Sometimes, like the article was saying, it helps the audience be more involved in the motives or focus on what the raw emotion is in the scene. Other times however, I think it can bring the audience completely out of the experience of the show. I think it really comes down to the audience and the theatre being able to bring their audience a level of nudity that they feel will best get their message across. It has to add something, When you put nudity in a show it has to be there for a purpose or else the audience will fail to get the message. Personally, I have never seen a show use nudity but I have seen some scene in where the audience has reacted in the same way. I think that this audience self awareness can be a very powerful tool that, when used correctly, can make the audience members experience more relevant to the individual.
I remember the first time a took a drawing class with a nude model, my mom told me “Ok, it will be weird for the first couple minutes, but then you’ll start looking at them as shapes, lines, and curves.” Every time I’ve been in a setting where people have been drawing a naked person, I can almost feel that shift in the room, especially if there are people in the room who haven’t done this before. At first they will freeze up, then they will start focusing on just one tiny section of the body, while trying not the stare at anything “inappropriate”, and finally they will start drawing the whole figure, just focusing on the beautiful machinery of the human body instead of any cultural taboos about nudity. I think the main issue with being naked on stage, is since we have such a strong taboo against nudity in our culture, once someone is naked onstage that’s all anyone can focus on. It would be interesting to compare how nudity is treated in European countries, where the taboo against nudity is much weaker.
The use of nudity on stage is a very interesting concept, because while it’s sometimes meant to simply explore the human body, other times it can be unnecessary. It’s sometimes hard to tell a director’s intent when a character appears naked on stage. More often than not, women will be more likely to be asked to appear naked or undress on stage. It’s a trend that a couple of people were talking about here at CMU. Half of the shows this season featured women undressing on stage in some way. While that might simply be for a costume change, one has to question that fact that it seems only women were asked to change on stage. I think in a lot of cases that kind of nudity is entirely unnecessary. It doesn’t move the plot forward, it isn’t meant to explore the human body, it’s mostly just there for shock value and that fact that women being sexualized is so ingrained in our society that we sometimes can’t notice it.
I feel like our tendency as audience members to immediately reel back and feel very uncomfortable in the presence of nudity, even in an artistic theatrical setting, shows how much we glorify the human body to be much more than it actually is. We are taught to, for the most part, see nudity in an almost exclusively sexual sense, and this makes it awkward for an audience member to see a complete stranger on stage naked, even if it’s for the development of the character/ scene or just for dramatic effect. Maybe that awkwardness/ surprise is what the director wants the audience to feel and helps careen the story forward (like in The Full Monty). I think it’s awesome that this festival exists for the sole purpose of exposing people to more nudity in theater, since it’s breaking down the barrier of discomfort we tend to have in regards to bodies. However, I definitely agree that these is a line between nudity for story development and nudity just for the sake of it. I’m still iffy on the many plays which use disrobed/ partially naked female actresses in what could be perceived as a mostly suggestive purpose.
I think it's really interesting that the author brought up etiquette when talking about nudity. Because what etiquette is there in a show where there is nudity? I agree with the reasoning for putting nudity in shows - to make people uncomfortable, to bring the show to a deeper level of provocativeness, etc. It is so interesting to see people react to shows where they feel a social faux-pas has been made. The general consensus seems to be keeping completely still and thinking so hard to not look at anyone's genitals. I think this often takes people out of the show, at least for a while.
So why the etiquette? Why do we feel like this is how we are "supposed" to act (ie not looking at genitals) instead of letting ourselves enjoy the show however individual way we see fit? I think this with the other unspoken social rules of theater provide for a classist and elitist view of theater, and kind of takes my favorite part of theater away - the rawness. Letting yourself get fully enveloped in the experience without worrying "what am I SUPPOSED to be doing/feeling?"
I can definitely relate to the collective audience freeze when actors get naked on stage. I think the production of The Full Monty here did a really good job because it's the only show I remember where I didn't experience the freeze/consciousness that people are getting naked on stage. I feel like (at least from my experience) nudity is a lot more common and less awkward in literature and film than in theater because the naked person isn't physically right in front of you. On another note, I really appreciate the fact that nudity on stage is something that can be openly talked about and discussed here. Just last year, a TV show in China was be banned by the government after airing their first episode and then so heavily edited that it's pretty much unwatchable because the period costumes were made true to the historical time period for accuracy - and that involved actresses partially showing their cleavages. All the stunning costumes were completely edited out of the tv show, audiences were angry, but there was no room for negotiation or any kind of conversation. I think nudity is definitely starting to evolve in theater here and I'm curious to see how it grows in the future.
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