AN INTIMATE LOOK AT THE BOOK CLUB PLAY - BY LANA SUGARMAN

One of my favourite aspects of being an Ensemble Member with Seat of the Pants is that each season we are offered an ‘Opportunity for Growth’ where we can take on a role that we haven’t been able to explore previously, or to dive deeper into a specialty. Some of our actors have put on the producer’s hat, others have begun writing grants or tried assistant directing. Designers have stepped into stage management roles or have participated in the acting exercises throughout a rehearsal process. This season I will assist and be mentored by our Intimacy Director, Julia Fisher, on our production of The Book Club Play by Karen Zacarias.

Like many of the folks that work with Seat of the Pants, Julia is a multi-hyphenate artist (skilled in a variety of areas), so you may recognize her name as the playwright for some of our Salon Series, which stages readings of new plays. Julia and I first connected in 2018 when she was assisting in an Intro to Intimacy Workshop with Ohio Shakespeare Festival and I have had the privilege of working with Julia as an actor and director on a handful of shows. Julia has since become one of the leading Intimacy Professionals in Northeast Ohio and is currently the Resident Intimacy Director at Dobama Theatre. I’m thrilled to learn how her process has evolved over the last 7 years and to refine mine along the way!

So, what the heck is Intimacy Direction? It is a relatively new field in the theatre world and first came into my awareness in 2016 when I read an article on the first Intimacy Director at the Stratford Festival in Canada. At the time I was working on a play called Same Time, Next Year, which follows two people who have an affair that spans 20 years, meeting one weekend every year. Before Intimacy Directors came around it was either up to the actors or the director to ‘figure out’ moments of touch or physical intimacy. During this production, my fellow actor and I came up with a progression for our kisses, starting with an air kiss, then the cheek and eventually moving to lip-to-lip contact but I had been in rehearsals on previous shows where it was just a deep breath and a hoping for the best. There often wasn’t much discussion about the dramaturgy or details of these moments (who is initiating and ending the kiss? How long will it last? Will it be consistent every night? Who is watching for that? Do I have a mint in my bag? What do I do with my hands?) So many unknowns can lead to a lot of anxiety, a lack of consistency, and I’m sure in many cases, harm. 

In these instances (touch or lip-to-lip contact between actors), Intimacy Work offers tools and language that aim to give actors agency, and which lead to clearer, more specific storytelling. We can set a kiss or an embrace to be 4 counts long, and this is something a stage manager can watch for. We can utilize ‘placeholders’ for a kiss so that actors have an alternative to lip-to-lip contact for the early phases of rehearsal, or in case of illness.  In many ways, the role of Intimacy Director is akin to that of a Fight Director, someone who stages violence. There is set choreography that will keep the actors safe as well as bring thrilling moments to life. The role of an Intimacy Director on a broader scale can involve fostering an environment of shared accountability, where a ‘no’ is respected, and folks in the space can create Room Agreements that clarify expectations and nurture community care.

I look forward to popping into rehearsals this spring to witness and collaborate on the hilarity and poignancy of The Book Club Play!