Saucy Scene Showings: 10 Tips for Students Acting Intimacy

Almost a year ago, I graduated from Florida State University with my BFA in Acting. I loved my time at FSU and am thankful for all of my experiences.

At FSU, we often learned by doing “Scene Showings.” We would be assigned scenes from different plays and given a partner(s). Sometimes we would get to choose! Then, we would schedule a day to “bring the scene in.” With our partner(s), we would schedule rehearsals to work on the scene outside of class, and then we would do the scene for our teacher and peers for feedback. This process is really cool and challenging! Often, an element of the learning experience was working with your partner to navigate intimacy. Sometimes this experience was smooth; relatively easy to navigate. But other times, this was a tough thing to solve especially when young, inexperienced (both personally and professionally) and no one has talked about obstacles you may face or provided clear tools to work with these obstacles. As you can imagine, things sometimes got messy, awkward and weird.

Now lets talk about sed “Tools”

Here are 10 offerings for improving the Scene Showing process if Intimacy [1] is involved:

Sit with the scene that’s been selected. Find space and time to reflect on your first reactions to the play/scene you’ve been assigned. It is important to take a look at your feelings and intuitions in order to ensure that you feel prepared to take on the material. If you feel unprepared but excited, this is an awesome opportunity! If you feel unprepared and fearful or triggered, consider having a conversation with your teacher or mentor. It’s okay to discuss the possibility of a scene change! In the “real world,” you have a choice over the material you audition for so you should have a choice here too.
Consider the stage directions. If the scene describes actions, partial nudity or physical contact that you don’t feel enthusiastic about, discuss with your teacher the possibility of abstracting or changing the moment. This might offend the playwrights out there and I TOTALLY respect that. Just remember: this is school, not a professional production. The goal is to LEARN. There are a million things to learn from working on a scene, even if you are making adjustments for your safety.
Discuss Boundaries with your partner. I HIGHLY recommend Theatrical Intimacy Education’s (TIE) Boundary Practice. This practice is awesome because it’s super efficient and can be non-verbal. What’s difficult about the instruction to “discuss boundaries” is that people sometimes feel the need to disclose personal stories and trauma. If we define rehearsal as a time to collaborate and create, then these moments of disclosure are better for another time (given that they take time and care to unpack). Remember the task at hand: you are two (or more) people, discussing where you are and aren’t willing to go for the given material. Focus on what will serve you and your scene so you can get up on your feet.
Button. You’ve probably heard me talk about this awesome tool created by TIE. “Button” is a word that functions as a Pause Button (you can totally say “Pause” if you prefer). The goal of this is to give you a moment. This could be a second to clarify a moment you’re confused about or a 5 to get some air. The word Button doesn’t have any connotation to it like “hold!” so that’s why it’s a cool tool to bring in - it has no baggage. (Explained more in pages 17-24 of Staging Sex by Chelsea Pace).
Bring in a “Stage Manager.” By this, I do not mean literally. Let me explain: when you are working in a professional production, you should not be rehearsing intimacy outside of rehearsal [2]. Therefore, you will never, “in the real world,” be rehearsing without anyone else in the room. So here is my suggestion: have another person in the room when you're working on intimate material. It could be as chill as a friend doing homework in the corner or as serious as someone engaged and in charge of keeping you all on task. This helps keep things from getting weird because you’re not alone and you’re constantly reminded of how this would work in a professional production. (Note: scheduling rehearsals on top of all your other requirements can be a FEAT. I fully recognize that adding ANOTHER person in the room can be difficult. But remember, it doesn’t need to be the same person every time. It’s just important to have someone else present as a reminder to keep things professional.)
Say you don’t have a stage manager. Say your partner has the sniffles. Say we are having a tough day and intimacy is not something you feel good about doing. Have no fear! Placeholders are here! This tool is exactly how it sounds: you have something that can hold the place of the intimacy. My personal favorite is your placing your hands together, palm-to-palm. Now, this is not a moment where you halt the flow of the moment, high-five, and pick up on the other side of the intimacy. You can fill the placeholder with all the intention and quality that your intimate choreo has. Sometimes it can actually be a low-stakes opportunity to explore the action. (To learn more, check out pages 31-33 of Staging Sex by Chelsea Pace).
Discussing boundaries is an awesome first step. The next step: Choreograph. Intimacy Directors and Coordinators (IDC) teaches that all choreography needs to be notate-able, sustainable and repeatable. Basically, we treat the moment of intimacy like a dance (and not an improvised one). We assign steps and counts and practice them until they feel “natural.” But remember, if we are doing dance or fight choreography, we want it to be specific so no one gets hurt or looks like a fool - intimacy is the same way. After a while, it should actually feel better than if you were improvising it. If you’d like more tools for choreographing intimacy, check out TIE’s 10 Ingredients (outlined in pages 39 through 70 of Staging Sex by Chelsea Pace).
Nudity. This topic is kind of ~controversial~. Some believe it is inappropriate to have partial nudity in the classroom at all. The argument being, that it is unnecessary. Then there are the actors that want to craft the scene as true to the given circumstances as possible. Both arguments are valid. Personally, I think the opinion that matters most is the actors participating (and that the teacher has given the OK =)). Any student not wanting to show their stomach in class should NOT have to. Anyone who wants to use class as a place to explore partial nudity is welcome to do so. Personally, it really helped me to have the option of going to my “nudity limit” in a Scene Showing my freshman year. The awesome thing about class is that it is far more private than a production setting. [3]
Consent is required, not only to perform material but to observe it. You should never be forced to watch triggering material, you should never be blindsided by sensitive material and you should never be punished for choosing not to observe sensitive material. Some folks disagreed with content warnings because they believe it ruins an element of surprise. Sure it does - that’s the point. My suggestion is that everyone in the class knows the gist of what the sensitive material is in a scene IN ADVANCE of the scene showing day so that they can fully consent to observing the material on that day. If you do not feel good about witnessing the material that day, let your teacher know, discuss your needs and be sure there are no repercussions. If there are, this may require a bigger conversation within your university/college/school.
Remember, we are in a pandemic. You should not be making physical contact with other people unless it is in line with school protocols/regulations. If your teachers ask you to do something that isn’t, you have every right to refuse.

Footnotes:

[1]- Intimacy can be defined, in this case, physical contact, nudity (partial or full), or sensitive material (such as triggering concepts of language).

[2] - Rehearsing outside of rehearsal is also a tricky thing. Some directors love when you’re spending extra time with your scene partner to develop the work outside of the directors precious time. Other directors hate the idea of not being present at every moment of the story’s conception because they want to guide the process. Another thing to be clear about: running lines is different than working on intimacy. This could be looked at as a spectrum with “working on a given moment (without intimacy)” being somewhere in the middle. In general, I would recommend just coming to rehearsal early. The SM is usually there already so you aren't alone and you can also be in the rehearsal space. I would also recommend chatting with your director about it to get their OK before-hand.

[3]- Here is my caveat: if a teacher asks you to be more naked than you already are and you feel at all funny about it, I empower you to find your No. My other caveat: audience consent (which I explore in #9).