DC Theatre Scene: The theatre can be a messy place, and often this is most evident in the rehearsal process. Violence and intimacy scenes stand as two of the more interesting challenges. How do we display violence on stage, while keeping the actors safe? How can an actor sit there and take a punch every night, for 20+ performances, not to mention every rehearsal, without getting injured? How do we make it look believable? If the audience sees even an inch of air, they’re likely to tune out and go: “Whoops, that was fake.” We actor-combatants need the audience to believe that the moment was real. Paradoxically, we need them to know that it’s fake, otherwise they’re concerned for the actor, and are taken out of the story.
4 comments:
I hadn’t previously considered the sheer time and effort that goes into choreographing stage fights, and the discipline needed to make it look both believable but not believable enough that the audience becomes concerned for the actor’s safety. However, the article made a fascinating comparison of stage violence with intimate moments on stage-- both can be extremely different to choreograph, but both can also cause potential harm to the actors. I didn’t even know intimacy choreographers existed at all, let alone work on productions to orchestrate these moments. The point that the article made about intimacy choreographers being needed as to prevent a troubling hierarchy between the director and the actors in the scene was a really important one-- it can be dangerous for a director to order people to do things that could make them uncomfortable, yet the actors are afraid to speak up in fear of losing work because they are “unwilling”.
Similarly to Lily, I didn’t even know intimacy choreographers existed let alone how important their role could be. I think it could be easy to dismiss this position, and say “oh thats dumb we don’t need that.” But the fact that we have so many sexual assault claims coming out, many of which are on set demonstrate the need for someone to help people navigate those situations. In this day and age when we have people like James Franco and Quentin Tarantino accused of putting actors in uncomfortable situations, the need for an intimacy choreographer is increased. I think it's important to have someone in the room whose sole concern is making the actors feel comfortable and making sure the intimacy is believable. As the article said, it’s important for actors to have a liason in the room who can voice their concerns without them having to worry about the power dynamics.
The fact that intimacy choreographers aren't common knowledge in the theater industry, where intimacy is par for the course in many performances, points to a huge issue. Like the article says, with the huge revelation of the widespread nature of sexual assault in the entertainment industry these choreographers are more important than ever to making sure that the actors involved are safe, comfortable, and aware of their rights and their ability to defend their boundaries in a scene. One quote really stuck out to me as a huge reason to have these people on a production involving intimacy - "If an actor has emotional scars, why don’t we have someone to help them with choreography so that they don’t have to improvise their way through something that could aggravate that emotional injury?". This is so huge of an issue, but up until the beginning of these assault allegations no one even talked about it, let alone would have thought to accommodate people who may be uncomfortable or need help making a scene okay for them and their experiences.
The importance of fight choreographers and intimacy choreographers are growing day by day with the change in how directors and stage managers run their rehearsals. It's easy for a director to just say that there is going to be a fight here or that there's suddenly a rape scene, but most of the time most people don't recognize that there are people that are trained both psychologically and physically to handle those aspects of the show. First and foremost, privacy must be provided and respected when it comes to rehearsing these aspects of the show. After it's been safely choreographed with immense consent from the actors, there has to be a habit of rehearsal that goes on, I've been in situations where the director doesn't see need for fight calls, but I don't think they realize the level of liability that ensues when these aspects aren't met. This article also highlighted previous trauma, which often times actors are told to check at the door, but its the fight and intimacy choreographers job to set those boundaries when needed. I hope more directors are able to read this article because they can get really headstrong in their vision, that matters of health and safety are often times ignored.
Post a Comment