Intimate Reform

HowlRound Theatre Commons: With the rise of Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement and an outpouring of stories about harassment and abuse in the theatre community, intimacy direction has taken root in performance spaces all over the world. However, intimacy direction is still very much about white feminist culture. In order for actors of color to be protected in this new field, the systems currently in place need to be reconstructed. We need a new code of ethics on how stories will be told when it comes to people of color and intimacy on stage. More specifically, we need to look at why intimacy direction is still so very white while the movement it sprang from was birthed by a Black woman.