Thursday, December 05, 2019
What LARP can Teach Theatre about Consent
Liz Christensen: I play with the Utah Chapter of Alliance LARP, a live action role play game, and I’ve been a theatre professional as an actress, director and choreographer in Utah for almost three decades. I have my own #metoo story, the inciting incident of which took place at a beloved local community theatre a long time ago and was lawfully resolved. In this highly charged moment, I want to briefly share some thoughts that I think could be of benefit.
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This is certainly an article I never thought could exist but I am certainly glad it does. I think the tone of the article is beautifully written and starts out with an amazing point about how asking for consent takes no time at all. Also, how it must be done out of character. I have heard at CMU some intimacy advisors ask for consent of the actors as if they were in character and that is simply not a good plan. Consent needs to be given by the actors themselves. I think this article also makes a great point by phrasing consent as asking to touch something that isn’t yours because this world we grow up in being told only use what belongs to you and at least for me, my parents and teachers never tried taking that idea and putting it into terms of human to human consent. I think Liz Christensen made a great point about the actual staging of intimacy choreography and how it should be set and practiced. Something that I wish she advocated was for sensitive content directors or choreographers because so many times even at CMU I have seen or heard about directors who don’t realize that what they are staging is sensitive content or even warrants outside consulting. This is extremely problematic. I’ve seen actors in professional theatre have to coach a fellow actor on how to make the intimate moment safe and that is just ridiculous. Even if the director feels comfortable blocking sensitive content, it is great to have another ally and advocate in the room.
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