 Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm Dr. Aisha. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to intimacy directing for theater book release number two. Whoo, whoo. If you joined us for part one, welcome back. If this is your first time with us, we are so happy to have you here and I'm really just excited to just have these readings by these amazing contributors today. So I would love to get us started by just asking if you are so inclined wherever you are. And just go ahead and I'd like to do an opening practice if you could tap. If you could tap in with us. It's just an inhale up and exhale down. Okay, and we can do it together. All right, so nice deep inhale. Nice clap. Exhale. Beautiful. Okay, wherever you are in the world, I just want to welcome you and I am right now I'm in New Orleans, Louisiana. And so I would really like to acknowledge that I want to honor this land and I know that I wouldn't be able to do my work. If it wasn't for those who came before me. And so please feel free if you would like to to also acknowledge where you are in the web chat or contributors you can also just put it in the zoom chat box. Yeah, feel free to put your acknowledgement. So I want to begin with this land acknowledgement that Choctaw and Chitamara and Biloxi and other native peoples have lived on this land since time immemorial. The city of New Orleans was not built upon virgin soil, but merely served as a continuation of a great indigenous hub known to Choctaw as Baboncha, the place of other tongues. For thousands of years, people lived along the Mississippi River, and Boboncha served as a place for diverse cultures to come together. I hope that the social justice work that we are doing here this afternoon, and in our daily lives, wherever we are right now pays respects to and honors the Native American legacy of this land. Great. And so for our lineup for today, we hope to, first, we're going to have Marie Pirce, and then we're going to have Collin Hughes, and then I'm going to share a chapter. And then we're going to go into Q&A we hope to have at least a half an hour in Q&A Q&A and we hope to wrap up at about it'll be 230 my time, Central Standard and 330 Eastern Standard time. Please we would love your questions and comments so if you have any questions or comments please put it into the web chat, and we will be able to address them during our Q&A. So intimacy directing for theater, creating a culture of consent in the classroom and beyond. Why here, why now, because we are doing the work we are hiring professionals we are trying to get certificates we are doing professional development and we are trying to push forward consent based work as much as we can. And so this book is for teachers who are artists and artists who are teachers and in no way replaces hiring an intimacy director and intimacy coordinator. But it really gives some foundational tips and strategies and detail exercises for teachers in the classroom to get started. So, with that being said, I would love to start off with introducing Marie Percy, a colleague of mine actually years ago when I first started my certification. Marie was one of the teachers and so I've really been impacted by her work. I just want to remind everyone to, if you could just some mute. I'm hearing some feedbacks if anyone is unmuted. So Marie Percy is an intimacy director certified LeBon movement analysts yoga teacher and movement director based in Connecticut. She currently serves as IDC's chief creative officer and oversees all curricula and educational offerings at IDC intimacy directors and coordinators. She has spent over 10 years training actors in an academic setting, and her students can be seen performing and national tours, national commercials, regional theaters and beyond. Feel free to contact Marie for intimacy work by just going straight to the IDC's website. So why don't we give it up for Marie Percy. My sound was off, but I was saying thank you so much Dr Asia for that wonderful introduction. So I'm just going to jump right into it. I'm going to start at the beginning of the chapter that I wrote for Dr Asia's book. It is chapter 10 and it's titled actor training and consent in the movement classroom. So we're going to dive right in. Actor training is a vulnerable process. Unlike other art forms, the student actors medium is themselves body, heart and mind. Pressure to make performances as real as possible can make it difficult for new actors to distinguish notes on a performance from criticisms of their personhood and identity. They are asked to take bold risks, always say yes and fail gloriously with body, heart and mind all on the line. Many students emerge into the professional world having gained self knowledge, confidence and other valuable creative skills. However, many students will also experience harm due to boundary crossing pedagogical practices. Students are unable to say no and may feel that they risk being perceived as difficult, resistant or not suited to be an actor if they speak up. Real harm is unwittingly done to student actors who are unable to clearly communicate their boundaries and protect themselves. Got Your Back's 2018 National Survey highlights the very real dangers inherent in actor training. Only 15% of students felt confident that they could turn down a role that was assigned to them if it involved something they were not comfortable with. Half of students of color felt limited in casting because of their perceived race. Nearly half of students experienced considerable mental health problems during their training with a four fold increase in the worst mental health issues. 70% of students felt a teacher's methods were reckless towards student mental health. Less than half of students who are asked to perform fully or partially undressed felt able to say no. And 81% of students were required to take part in exercises, scenes or plays which required them to engage in kissing or other physical intimacy with a partner. Half of the respondents did not have the ability to opt out. These statistics demonstrate the real harm that real harm is being done in acting training programs and that students' dignity, identity, personhood and mental health are all under attack. I have witnessed and experienced similar trends in the 10 years I have been training actors in American BFA and MFA programs. I began teaching movement for actors at 25 and as a young white Latina woman teaching among older white male academics, I identified more with my students experiences than my colleagues. Students dealt with tremendous pressure, overloaded schedules and the fear of disappointing anyone and they often dragged themselves into my class exhausted and unprepared. Teaching is like trying to push a string across a table. It simply doesn't work if the student on the other side isn't pulling the string toward them. The more power, agency, acknowledgement of their humanity and structured freedom I gave my students, the more they prioritized their work in my class despite their busy schedule. I rediscovered what Bell Hooks had written about engaged pedagogy and its emphasis on well-being. To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin. The greatest gift you can give your students is agency over themselves. As a woman movement expert with whom many students felt safe and heard, I was often asked to choreograph intimacy for our departmental productions. I attended Intimacy Director International's first pedagogy intensive in 2018 and found that my pedagogical and choreographic approach dovetailed perfectly with what I learned there. Engaged and transgressive pedagogy are complementary to the foundations of best practices for intimacy and together they can be exponentially transformative. What follows in this chapter comes directly from my professional experience and my ongoing collaborations with Intimacy professionals. I argue that structural change is essential for integrating consent and bodily autonomy into the acting classroom for people of all identities. And I then analyze the necessary components for consent to exist, identify barriers to its presence in academia and discuss pedagogical and structural changes to promote a holistic cultural shift. So my next the next section is titled Consent as a Model for Structural Change. Many well-meaning professors approach safety and inclusivity in their classroom through a benign but privileged lens, quote, I allow students to bring their whole selves to class, I listen and I'm empathetic, end quote. This is a particular pitfall for established white cisgendered and heteronormative male academics. It is a privilege to be able to empathize with student struggles without also making systemic changes to foster a more inclusive consent forward learning environment. Mere empathy is not enough. During a Racial Equity Institute workshop I attended, the facilitator urged us to stop trying to pull people suffering from oppression out of the metaphorical river. Instead we need to go upriver and figure out how are they being pushed into the river in the first place and stop pushing them into the river. Creating a culture of consent for acting students of all identities must be approached in the same way. Identify the practices, systems and cultural norms that push our students in the river and find better ways to teach. I'm going to skip ahead a little bit and just share a couple of the bullet points that I share later in the chapter that are like tips on how to make some of those structural and systemic changes and how to shift away from some of the cultural norms that cause problems. So I'm going to pick a couple of the bullet points from my chapter at random now. Here we go. Let's see. Use specification grading or stop grading altogether. Grades have been established as counterproductive, diminishing student interest and decreasing their quality of thinking. Ungrading, as Bell Hooks calls it, suggests that we do away with grades since they are counterproductive to student learning. Some alternatives include asking students to grade themselves, critical dialogue with them about their self assessment, peer assessment, process letters and specification grading. Set clear expectations. When setting up any exercise or scene work, let students know ahead of time what they can expect to encounter inside of that experience. Set up a container, a collection of boundaries that allows actors to work impulsively within predetermined acceptable actions. It can include what kind of touch, movement, potentially traumatic topics, or interpersonal interaction is permissible or may be encountered within the exercise. Have frank conversations about the story. Who, what, when, where, why and how must all be answered if you're doing intimate work or if there's a scene with intimate, with an intimate moment. Just in the same way we would answer those questions during table work for a scene. I'm going to do, I'm going to do one more. Don't be a guru. When a teacher with extensive expertise encourages students to look to them for all of the answers, they leverage expert and referent power to gain influence over their students. This compounds when that teacher is working from the dominant Euro American Western perspective with students of the global majority. The role of the master acting teacher places the locus of control outside of the student. This forces students to do as they are told because of the illusion that they can only grow by doing what the guru says. This fundamentally undermines a student's ability to consent. So I'm going to wrap my reading there. But there are, there's more in my chapter so I hope you'll have a chance to read the book and the work of all the other brilliant people who contributed to this wonderful book. Speaking of amazing people who contributed to this wonderful book. I would now love to introduce Colleen Hughes. As an intimacy director and coordinator Colleen brings a trauma informed and human first approach to scenes of simulated sex nudity and hyper exposure. Through her collaboration with trusted colleagues, she is at the vanguard of a movement to bring increased agency and transparency to the entertainment industry. She has collaborated with artists from around the globe, including Maya Hawke on the official music video for Therese. Samantha Shea at the Pina Bouch Company in Germany and immersive work with Virgin Atlantic's cruise line in the Mediterranean and punk drunks sleep no more in New York City. Colleen is currently working on a book titled entitled a volunteer from the audience consent work in interactive performance that examines the role of agency in immersive performances. She's a treasure and a delight and I am grateful to be able to call her a colleague. Take it away Colleen. Thank you so much Marie. I was thinking back to when we were both in that really early intimacy directors, international program together and how lovely it is to still be sharing space and learning from you. So, thank you so much. My chapter is entitled Consent Culture and devised work. Since I'm not going to be reading the whole thing I want to just provide a quick definition for what I'm speaking about when I say the term devised work for folks that are not familiar with it. So within the live performance field devised work is refers to projects that are created in large part by the performers themselves, still often working with directors and choreographers intimacy professionals and often other collaborators as well like composers. But on the first day of rehearsal there is not a script in hand. These processes can last anywhere from three, three months to three years, because the development process is happening with the full group in the room. And so that is what I'm referring to when I'm speaking about devised work in this context. All right. The devised theater rehearsal space is unique in it performers are more than interpreters of others words. They are source creators themselves, coining text, crafting movement, and even making structural choices throughout an extended development process. The resulting performance is one in which their contributions are indelibly molded into the final product. It is in this setting that I spent many of my early years as a theater professional. When I began studying to become an intimacy director, many joyfully creative room swirled in my mind, as I began my work in consent forward practices. In the course of my time as an actor I also worked on productions in the traditional regional theater model, the three week rehearsal process in which an existing script is efficiently staged and produced. But it was not these processes that were foremost in my mind as I trained in consent and intimacy work. My thoughts went to the numerous physical theater projects that seem to uphold so many of the ideals that intimacy and consent professionals were now working to codify. What is it about these rehearsal rooms that lifted the human first and foremost, what about the device process open the door to the possibility of seeing performers not merely as conduits, but as creators themselves. From training into practice, I wanted to see what device work could bring to consent forward production methodology, and in turn discover how consent and intimacy work could support this subspecialty. In these pages, I will share what I've learned from a creative perspective as I have worked to merge these two fields. What does it mean to bring this practice consent forward work to a rehearsal space that does not function in a standard three week rehearsal process. How can performers consent to actions within a performance that is yet to be envisioned. Despite the wealth of positive experiences that I had had working in these processes in Philadelphia physical and dance theater are certainly not without their gurus and dangerous practices. So how can consent culture continue to uplift this non traditional way of developing work without demanding that it be something that it is not forcing it into a space with more structure and perhaps less of that dynamic that made it feel so affirming for me all those years. How can intimacy work lift up devised work just as devise work has lifted up intimacy work. Through ongoing conversations with dance theater organizations large and small, as well as work with intimacy directors and coordinators. I have found tools that serve many of these spaces quite well. As is always the case with works in progress. I hope and expect to have learned and built more a year from now, as well as a decade from now. But as of this writing, I am proud to be able to share some tools that have been adapted from IDI intimacy directors international and IDC intimacy practices specifically for those creating work and devise processes. The goal is to continue what is good and find ways to bring even more agency and helpful practices to the physical theater world. Boundaries of course have been part of the marrow of intimacy work since its inception, and we will soon break down the specific ways in which boundaries can still exist with clarity in a devise process. Prior to that list, it is essential to name that unlike oppressive systems of power that express themselves through actions that uphold white supremacy and other forms of oppression, some types of power that exist in a specific workplace such as title power and reference power are not inherently harmful. A producer holds the power to make the final decision as to where a production will be held. This is neither coercive nor problematic. But as I first stated in my presentation entitled consent and communication practices for a stronger community theater culture. Counterfactual denial of power can contribute to a coercive environment that can foster gaslighting and even abuse. This language has now been incorporated into IDC's core training on power dynamics. This reality is particularly important for those in devise spaces to reckon with. Unlike regional theater processes in which most people are uniquely aware of the hierarchy, it is sometimes artists in physical and dance theater spaces, often underfunded specialties who are not always able or willing to recognize their own power within a workspace. As such, they can perpetuate harm by pretending or even believing themselves that the workspace is a flat circle of influence. This is almost always not the case. Even in communal artistic groups in which no one holds any title power or non-democratic decision making power, referent and expert power still play a heavy role in the way in which power affects consent in the room. While we cannot wave a magic wand and make existing power dynamics disappear, we can and should look at how power is functioning in our creative spaces and take actions that help make sure that those with the least amount of it are able to express their needs and boundaries without reprisal or punishment. So now some tools. I have tools for engaging honestly with power dynamics in devise processes. Hey, an empowered stage manager throughout the entire rehearsal process. B. Elected cast representative, clear reporting structures, community agreements, organizational stance and stated response to bullying and harassment, anonymous reporting options, and a professional rehearsal space when financially feasible. Even on a next to nothing budget rehearsal in a park may be a better fit from a power dynamic perspective than a rehearsal in someone's living room. Transparency is one of the core tenants of consent forward work, but divisors might feel at a loss when looking at standard recommendations regarding communication, since their material doesn't exist before the first rehearsal process. However, by looking to share what you know when you know it, folks in leadership positions can model a culture of transparency, even when the project still has many unknowns. So tools for uplifting transparency and devise processes. Audition postings with as complete as possible description of the project and what artists may expect some examples. This piece will include scenes with extensive acrobatics, a certified acrobatics instructor with their name and link will be working in collaboration with the choreographer and will be available to work with performers throughout rehearsal process. Example two, final performance will depict multiple scenes of stylized violence representing the experiences of World War One soldiers. Example three, performance will be immersive audience members will not be permitted to touch the performers at any time. And example four, performances will be staged outdoors unless the temperature is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. So we'll continue with transparency continuing. Ongoing active discussion of project development with the entire team, regular brainstorm sharing sessions. These make sure that all team members are in on the latest proposals, even if those ideas were conceived over coffee or beer outside of rehearsal hours. Being an open communication about what story are we telling and how are we telling it. This is a communication that establish expectations regarding workspace behavior, particularly when divisors have overlapping dual or multiple discrete relationships, ie someone is both an instructor and a performer. Someone is both a mentee and a director. Someone is both a collaborator and a significant other. Dynamics, which are prevalent throughout the entertainment industry are particularly common in the highly specialized and quote small world of physical and dance theater. Finally, boundaries are arguably one of the foundational tools of consent forward work. The way in which they can be utilized and devise work is through a combination of methods standard and intimacy work, as well as some variations that are specific to generative processes. The tools for uplifting boundaries and devise processes presenting multiple options as often as possible to help facilitate a culture of personal agency. Model, expect and celebrate. No, no, but, and yes, if, and that is attributed to Marie C. Percy and Jessica sign rocks lesson yes, no and beyond consent and performance. Ask rather than assume boundary check ins as a regular part of the process which helps to uplift consent as revocable and sincere sincere and active apology if a boundary is crossed. At times creators working on material creators are working on material that is very close to their own experience. Some specific boundary tools that can serve these processes include conscientious word choice, potentially incorporating options such as work and colleague, a separate journal for the project separate from a personal notebook. Some specific physical shifts for a character and creating a physical practice moving into an out of character body at top and end of day. Scheduling field trips or research including books and films as part of one's individual workday, creating a more robust separation between work and recreation. And finally, consistent restorative closure practices. These offerings are tools, not rules. Use them when you find that one or more will serve your creative process and your own integrity based work. Some projects will be better served by some tools than others. Ultimately, as physical theater work continues to be in conversation with consent forward practices. We will collectively devise new healthful ways to create. I look forward to doing so with inspiring artists and educators as we continue to build a creative and human focused field together. It couldn't help the pun. Thank you so much. It is a true honor to get to introduce to you. Dr. Ayesha Mackie Stevenson who is the reason why we are all here today. Dr. Ayesha is an actor, scholar, activist, intimacy director, dancer, poet and award winning writer from Brooklyn, New York. With an MFA from Cal Arts and a PhD from UMass and Hearst, she uses theater and performance to investigate pleasure, sexuality and human rights. Her critical and creative work appears in Rutledge, Black Camera, qualitative inquiry, Boston University Press, international review of qualitative research, theater topics, howl around and research and drama education. Dr. Ayesha has directed or intimacy directed productions at The Huntington, Fresh Inc Theater, Jewelbox Theater in New York, NYC Arts at the Armory, Somerville, The Rockwell and the DC Black Theater and Arts Festival. She is an assistant professor of performance studies and women's studies at Xavier University of Louisiana. Dr. Ayesha. Oh, thank you so much. I love the way you read, Colleen. It's so beautiful and I'm just sitting here like getting butterflies as I listen to you and Marie reading and I'm wondering what is going on here. And so, yeah, actually, everyone, these are both my mentors, which of course I already knew but just being sort of intentional about the butterflies. I explained a little bit about my movie earlier and like my first long intensive at Eugene O'Neill and how she was a teacher there. And Colleen, I assisted her and Claire in Boston stage source intimacy workshop. I think this was just before the pandemic and you know, when they called me I was like, it was my first. It was my first gig and so I've just learned so much from Colleen from both of you. So thanks so much for that introduction. And yeah, I feel like going along the lines of what Colleen was talking about, you know, discussing white supremacy and power. I'm going to it works nicely with the chapter that I'm going to read from which is chapter 13 and it's building a feature of justice and consent for every project with how can this work and white supremacy. I want to tell you a little story of why this intention is important. I was asked to intimacy direct for Hurricane Diane at the Huntington Theater in 2021. When I first met with the director Jenny Coons. Hi Jenny love you. I loved her immediately. The first question she had for me about the play was, how can we use this work here to end white supremacy. Just like that out of nowhere. Like the play was about slavery or something and it totally wasn't. I was like, whoa, and hell yes. Let's do this. I knew immediately that this was going to be a journey that I wanted to be a part of. On the surface, the story didn't seem to have anything to do with race. In the suburbs of the garden state, the Greek God Dionysus returns from the heavens in the guise of a butch gardener named Diane, who's hell bent on reversing climate change and restoring earthly order by seducing a band of mortal followers. So yeah, suburbs and climate change and oh, sex, godly sex. When it gets in line with our objective to end white supremacy phones also asked me to do a racial justice workshop at the beginning of my work with the actors, the afternoon of the very first rehearsal. I did it on power and privilege. In fact, I received this help the cast to treat each other kindly and to work with each other in ways that made them intentional about reducing harm. In the cast. There were a few actors who identified as bypass, and they welcome this racial justice approach. This play may not have been about race, but the people in it, we're going back to their neighborhoods their schools and elsewhere in the Boston area to spend time with their children to interact with bypass people to work as directors and community manager. The workshop held helped to really create a language of justice in the room and beyond that matters. Who did not have to do this. She did not have to use her power for good. In the play only one of the suburban woman was cast as black. She is very rich as its climax climax, she too will succumb to the whims of Dionysus and she can't. It's clear from the characters dialogue up until this point, she wants Dionysus, and she wants them to want her Dionysus plays non binary in the play. She, she just revels here if you can see that she's on the she's on the left Dionysus is on the right but she just kind of revels in the joy of getting to have Dionysus right of getting to have an experience with Dionysus. Dionysus definitely wants her. Yet, they must be invited. The actresses line to the Greek God to take her is tear me apart. As I was choreographing this scene, I shared with phones that this did not have to be a moment of angry black woman. Even though a black woman was casting this role. I read wholeheartedly. I explored a range of emotions with the character. I landed on asking the actor to further explore the joy in those words tear me apart. Tear me apart. And those words and in this moment where her character is finally going to get what she wants. We explore the flirtatious and teasing tones possible with the scene, and made it more exciting, playful and nuanced, which worked with the comedy scene. So yes, start every theater project with how can this work and white supremacy consent cannot be understood without understanding power. While Hurricane Diane was not explicitly about race. It's important to remember that white supremacy is the water, not the sharp white supremacy is the power in the US that impacts us all. If it can be seen and named, then it can be resisted and subverted in everything that we do. We can use every opportunity we have to use interest directing for its intended good. The two biggest barriers to this objective are white supremacy and sexism. And the former makes the latter grossly worse for by pot people around the world. Consents and sexuality are always in conversation. And therefore the tandem question is, how can we use this project to end sexism and sexist oppression consent is a powerful tool to end sexism and sexist oppression. By the way, you know, if we just think of bell hooks for a second, may she rest in peace. This is how she defined feminism right. We're going to clean our minds of some of the, you know, negative connotations refer to feminism, feminism quite simply is the process is the participation to end sexism and sexist oppression. That's it. And everyone should want this consent is liberation consent comes from justice and is inextricably linked to racial and gender revolution. And consent is freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic, specific pride and sense is an agreement to participate in any said activity. The person receiving the action must give consent and sense is a way that we can acknowledge our joy, transform our trauma, listen to each other and respect people's bodies. We can't control our past, but we can create art. We can create a world with consent, where we are allowed to control what happens to our bodies in theater. Gone are the days when the actor is told to just go and work out a kissing scene, leaving the theater feeling violated that their partner just stuck his tongue down her throat. If that happens to you, then say something, if that happens to someone you know, say something, give them this book. Let's be visionary and end the violence. In this chapter, I speak to the future of building and sustaining intimacy directing and consent practices that nourish and bring justice to our classrooms and rehearsal rooms. Knowing that our silence will not protect us, Audre Lorde is the first step in being present with integrity and building spaces where we're all included and heard. What does a future of consent look like. It means we have tools to navigate the revolution of intimacy direction that has served the field of theater and other modes of performance, and we use them. Know when to hire a professional. Why consent matters, and the importance of consent workshops. The institution of academia has such an impact on the field of live performance and film for many young artists academia shapes their foundational experience. Let's stop blaming the institution and recognize and act upon our roles and powers within it. Teachers are artists and artists are also teachers. Together and lead together and build together. Actors are human beings. Shout out to Claire warden there my mentor she so we say that and it just blew my mind. It's so obvious yet I just don't feel like we're always intentional about that statement. Actors are human beings. And consent is not a chore. It's a process to acknowledge and understand our humanity. This book is for teachers teachers who are artists and artists who are teachers, because at some point or another. Artists are put in the position to lead. We will not learn to cultivate a space that is safe and intersectional overnight, but respecting students race, gender, sexual orientation, and other integral roles of identity is a great start. Once we can collectively see actors as human beings asking for consent seeking consent will become second nature. Cultivating a space is about changing our minds about the binaries of yes and no. It's about realizing that no it's not about the person receiving but all about the person saying it and what they need what they want. So no if someone tells you no don't make it about you. They're saying no because they need to say no. They feel the need to say no. No is an expression of what they need what they want what they desire for where they are right now in this human journey and their human journey. Allow yourself to let go of the negative connotations around know and allow it to be a door that can lead us deeper into true intimacy. A place where we can show up as our authentic selves and be honest about our needs. Knowing yourself the grace to say no in your own life will help you to teach others this practice. A future of consent means recognizing that actors are human beings and being intentional about that knowledge. Stop compartmentalizing justice. All artists are human beings and that neither I know you are superior to any other human being, even if we make better choices in some circumstances. This book puts forth intimacy work that is based in human rights and consent for everyone as an act of resistance against the fragmentation of justice, you know, all too often. You know, there's a book, a theater book and it's like, oh, you know, this one, there's a chapter on justice, you know, there's a chapter on how do we deal with race, gender, you know, ability, disability, all neurodivergence all in one chapter or something like that right so I think what's really beautiful about this book and thanks again to the contributors really is the fact that the entire book is grounded in racial and gender justice, all of it. And I think if we're coming from that space, the practice that we do is going to illustrate that. The future of consent is grounded in racial justice. The future of consent is grounded in gender justice. That means giving black and BIPOC people credit when you take workshops from them, and then write journal articles or trainings based upon what we've taught you. That means not talking about power, race and intersectionality in ways that don't honor the fact that black feminism and black critical theory has done that work for you for all of us. That means recognizing your privilege, acknowledging that it has done damage to others and actively working to end white supremacy in your classroom, artistic spaces and beyond. That means loving yourself enough to know and show up as if you belong in the room and at the table. That means not questioning someone's blackness and allowing black to be and mean many things. That means loving our brothers and sisters who are lesbian, gay by transgender and more fully without trying to change them or make them think that they can't be all they want to be, including black and gay. That means no, it will never be enough until women are running the world. It's our turn. That means that actors are not here to serve you but that art is here to serve them. Us and our humanity and our booty to be good to each other. That means realizing that a black woman led us to intimacy directing and that matters to run a book. And more women and men and all of us can break the silence around violence and harm. The more we can communicate what we want and what we don't want. The more we create spaces where we are free to love ourselves and receive love from others is the closer we are to feeling and knowing that liberation is already here. We are all in this together, and we are all out there doing the work in our classrooms and rehearsal rooms. And intimacy directing may be a new feel, but it has clear intentions. This book is to acknowledge the ambitious and necessary intersectionality of the field and honor the roots that intersectionality and black feminist theory and activism have the intention for intimacy direction to open doors for consent, and mutual violence against women, men and non binary people is a human rights legacy. Maybe we all have the courage to make consent so important in our classrooms and rehearsal rooms that no one will have to break the silence and say me to intimacy directors are advocates, intimacy direction is advocacy. The intimacy director assumes the responsibility of holding the room and caring for the safety of the actors and everyone else in it. To do this work on any level carries the responsibility of advocating for others as a whole person. This book is a nowhere replacement for an intimacy director. Nothing can replace a highly trained intimacy director in your classroom in your rehearsal room. Without a highly trained intimacy director, the potential for harm is too great. Yet, basic intimacy training serves us all. And I'm so happy that you're reading this book and that you're here with us today, no matter where you are in your journey. Know that you are reading that know that you reading this can make a difference. Change is possible with collective action. As artists and as teachers and artists, let us be reminded of and live by the sacred Europe attacks of West Africa. The old Eva, the fundamental meaning and mission of human life is to constantly bring good into the world and not let any good be lost. If we do this, if we all start every theater project with how can this work bring good into the world. How can this work and white supremacy, how can this work and sexism, how can this work make women feel good about their bodies. How can this work uplift LGBTQ plus community, then imagine our classrooms, our country, our world in just a year, 10 years, 50 years, 100 years. This fills me with hope and joy, and I'm sending it all your way. Let's make justice contagious. Let's make consent contagious. Love and life. Dr Asia. Okay. Oh, just getting that. Oh, beautiful people. Yay. I'm so excited. Look how excited we are. You need the book. Clearly. Look at us. We're so excited. Okay, so we would love to open up for questions. And so, hopefully you've been putting them into the web chat. And so we'll give Emily a little time to post questions into the chat box. But I just wanted to give us check this opportunity to give a shot. Shout out and just knowing that you know this book is great on, I think many levels but one of them is, you know, it also traces the history of the field. And so again, Toronto Berg me to movement have to give a shout out here to Tonya Sina. Okay, just your work on curriculum and intimacy really was so foundational to this field and so thank you. And some of the chapters that I think are, we have so many amazing chapters here but I just wanted to share some of them with you. We have a letter from the director explaining why it's important for directors to just welcome intimacy directors, coordinators and choreographers. We have a chapter from student student actor on why intimacy work is important and what they need. So this is really great for listening if you just want to learn more about what student your students need your actors need. We have chapters on, you know, not colorblind choreographing intimacy, directing and human rights gender queer intimacy. Of course, consent culture and devise work we heard from that Colleen today staging violence is in here also virtual intimacy, do's and don'ts of intimacy. We also have a whole chapter that gives definitions. Okay, and a whole chapter just on resources. So this is a generally I think a great resource to get your hands on. Okay, where are we with. Well, Marie and Colleen is there anything as we're waiting for questions comments is there anything that you'd like to share or say that you're feeling in the moment. I was just listening to you offscreen I was like, yes, yes, yes. I was doing the same thing when you I was like, I don't even need coffee I'm just like, I just need an intimacy reading and I'm just like, you know, go excited. Yeah, yeah, because I think that I think that you know your chapter is really I think that is really critical just because just knowing how to meet the student where they are. Right. Yeah. Yeah, and allowing them to be where they are that, you know, you can't force them to be where they're not. So, so your options are to either try to force them to be where they're not or just be where they are with them, and figure out the way forward with them. Yes, absolutely. Well I have a question as we wait to hear more from out there I do have a question I was wondering how for contributors. How was this process for you, of you know just being the fabulous, you know, you're out there doing the work as artists and then you know you were asked to write a chapter how was the process for you both ways in terms of it informing your work and vice versa. I found it really useful for my work to have the task of doing the introspection and kind of putting together the pieces of what's been working in real time, and specifically to be called into an invitation to create tools. It really helped me wrap my mind around what I've learned from other practitioners and what has been developed in collaboration with other folks, as well as things I've created myself for various processes and it's given me a stronger sense of what those pieces are and how they can come together to serve. Yeah, I am. I'm such a like, I like to write and I like to think about things and, and so, you know, as soon as you sent me this, this request. Yeah, this sounds amazing. And part of it was like, Oh, and we have to have citations, you know, got to cite your work and I immediately was like, Oh, what am I going to cite I get a, and I, I immediately was like, Okay, I need to go find the books and what this is so that I can do a better job of naming and honoring the lineage of some of the things that I'm doing. And so that required a level of rigor that I had not previously done. So that was a really wonderful way in which this project called me in and called me up to be able to do that within the chapter. And, and then I wrote way too much. And Dr. Asia's like, you got to you got to we got to cut it back it's to and I was like, Okay, okay. So the editing process was a little excruciating. But, but I'm just so happy with how it came out and happy to be included. Yeah. Oh my gosh, I really didn't want to have to ask you that because you know when something it was just like there and it was beautiful. It was great. But you know, yeah. I was like, No, it's hard to cut down a great piece. So but I think you did a great job of really keeping the, it's the same, you know, really keeping the heart of it while cutting off some pieces. And I think we have a question here. I want to get to the question but I also want to share mine too and it was really a journey for me with this book because it really made me think where the mistakes I've made. It really made me think about, you know, where I am now compared to when I first started doing, you know, and it's Claire Ward. Oh, she always says where we should always be learning right but there were just things I did before I had any intimacy training that I just, you know, looking back after after training and after certification that I was like, Oh, gosh. Oh yeah, don't leave actors alone stuff like that. Um, that you know I just didn't know I just didn't know and so, and I remember in the student chapter. She said, Oh, you know, but this is you know I felt like I needed more direction or I this or that and she said, you know I don't want to talk about that she's like you're the editor I was like no I need you to be honest and talk about that. I need to talk about that because that's the part of what I'm trying to show right is that we have to we have to self reflect we have to do the work and we have to learn and realize that we've made mistakes and that harm is inevitable but how can we reduce. Right, how can we reduce, you know. So, so yeah it was really good reflective process for me. And so carlin says I love this work. Can you all speak to how this work can be done and other disciplines. Both in the classroom and or and other performance settings, who would like to go for this one. Both of you. All right, I'll I'll say I'll go first. How this work can be done and other disciplines in the classroom. So, when I am in the classroom. This work is informing everything I'm doing. There is there is no piece of me as an artist that is left unchanged from doing this work studying this work and implementing this work. And I think a really important part of bringing this work to any project is having done the internal work the like internal introspection of like, how do the cultural norms of entertainment how have they affected me. And so one of the things that I just take for granted is normal that actually, we don't have to do it that way actually there we, we can figure out another way to do it we can be creative and compassionate and find other ways. And so, so that's a really big thing for me because you know to to Dr. Aisha's like call of like how can this project and white supremacy how can this project and sexism and I think part of that is, is ending it in yourself right because we're all cultured and brought up in the swimming pool of white supremacy and sexism and the various other isms that negatively impact people and, and yeah like doing once you do that and really start to dig into that. It changes everything about how you show up and how you do things. I have no idea if that actually answers your question or not. That's that's my first stab at it. Yeah. Because it's broad and wonderful. I think what I'm thinking of first is what you wrote Dr. Asia throughout this book and particularly in the chapter that you read is the full throated way in which you speak to how consent work in general and intimacy work in particular cannot and should not be parsed out from other vital anti oppression work. And I think that for me that really lifts what is essential about all of it and the way that I also have had the experience that engaging with this material has shifted. Every way that I moved through spaces, deeply imperfectly and constantly in, in an attempt to move towards deeper understanding of these principles. So everything from, you know, when I'm, you know, teaching second graders in a theater class to even just how I show up in in my family life and ways in which thinking about both consent and the impacts of oppressive systems on consent that that that that study and that an engagement with those ideas has also really impacted so much of the way I move through the world and I take in information and attempt to share information out. So that's what strikes me, I would love to throw to you Dr Asia because it really was so well captured in that chapter. Yeah, I just, yes, yes, so both of you are saying and I just I just have to go back to that eight day intensive that Eugene. Oh my gosh, it just, you know, I can't go back, it just changed my life. And just, I feel like it's a paradigm like you both were saying it's just like for me it's just like a world, a way of seeing the world now. And so it's just a part of everything that I do it's a part it's my work as an artist it's also like, you know, what you know what I'm doing in the classroom. It doesn't matter if I'm teaching a theater class or not like so much of this work has also been my feminist theory stuff class we're talking about that stuff so I think I just feel like, you know, this idea of making consent and justice contagious I just feel like we need to put it on everything and put it everywhere, right. I mean, and it's more and more becoming, you know, part of title nine conversations and right this is just so connected to everything that we do. And to the fact that we just really, we just really need to love women I just, I just really we this this world really really really needs to love women more we need to love ourselves and everyone more but we just really really do and I think that consent work is one of those tools of freedom that once you start doing this work. It just ends up just trickling into every part of your life, and it's really, it's so liberating. It really is. Yeah, thank you for that question. And just to like piggyback off what you're saying I love this, I love the phrase use tool of liberation, because I feel like so sometimes people are really confronted by it and they're afraid it's going to be constraining. And it's, and it's, it's not about constraining or holding back. It's about shifting and approaching with a new paradigm and a new just a new set of parameters, right. And that those that new parameter is actually going to allow everybody to do better work. And this is one of the things like I'm really passionate about like, if you are an artist you are already a creative problem solver. And so including consent in your process isn't about like throwing a monkey wrench in the, you know, throwing a wrench in the works and gumming everything up it's about actually just, okay, if there are no comes up. There are creative problem solving skills to move forward and and work through it and and if you're an artist you already have those skills it's just a new type of problem that you're learning how to engage with and frankly like be excited about tackling I love a no. I love a no so when I get a no I'm like okay this person's being honest with me. I feel more relaxed and able to trust them and then it's like, let's go. Yes. I love that I would talk to my students it was I just let's say listen if you're not saying no. Are you honest. We would have this conversation just think back to your relationships and those relationships where you just felt just okay to just say no. What kind of relationships were those relationships where you felt like there was, there was trust you can really communicate you can, and I said that's it. That's intimacy to be able to say no and just be held in that right and be supported in that. Yeah. So let's see. Well you know sometimes people I know we have a lot of viewers watching I think sometimes people just love to listen to and I totally hear that as well. Do you have any questions for me or. I would love to hear more about how your, like, Oh gosh, I don't know what are the what are the really some of the exciting practices or things that you've developed that have come out of your social justice work, meeting intimacy direction work and the way that they it all needs to come together like do you have you have like a couple, you know, bullet point tips or tricks for folks that that you really, I know I just gave the most non specific answer in the world but now I'm asking you for something but I'm just, I would love to hear you riff more on that. So some of the work that I've developed that's come out of this work right. Yeah, yeah, some of the practices that has come out of you really putting the social justice with the intimacy direction together and what's come out of that for you. I think it's a great question so I feel like, you know, originally, when I was doing intimacy direction. This was at the Huntington, and it was for our daughters like pillars, which is about a black family that like goes up to New Hampshire, just like everything you know everything about the families together and all of a sudden, everything just comes out right. And it was so fun because I never really got to. It was the first time that as an ID that I got to work with an all black cast and just work on a black story about love and family. And so I remember like during break. One of the actresses this older beautiful lady, as she said oh you know I really would love to chat if you have a minute I said of course so we went to the hallway and we're talking and we're just like there in the stairway. I talk about right about in the book to where we're there in the stairway and just you know the way that the light was hitting her face you just see just every line in her face and it was just the the the just the beauty it was just so she was just so beautiful quite frankly, and she said you know all my years she said, I have never seen black love on stage. You know, um, and when she said that I was just like, oh my gosh I'm just like in the hallway I'm just like, because I realized I was like, neither had I all these years that you know I grew up in Brooklyn right and I'm sure you should take me into the city is I really get excited my first show is Muppet babies and they got more more mature after that. But I'm like all this time all these years seeing all different types of theater. I've seen you know so many stories about pain and historical stories but I all I had never seen black love and so. To answer your question that really is what got me thinking more intentionally about not just racial justice with this word but in particular just the importance of how the representation of black sexuality really impacts us can really impact us and something like that which just feels so missing can be such a source of pain and I said oh so from there I was like okay. This is not just about me choreographing a hug or a kiss right and it's even beyond the point of representation but this is really a human rights issue it really really is. Because you know how you are how you are represented is the way that you're going to be treated and I had I remember having another viewer on a similar how around talk I was doing a how around talk on intimacy directing and black love. And she and she just said you know, I don't even know if black people if we do even know how to touch each other you know it's like we don't even see that gentleness right so it's like it's building that imagination. As well and so that really got me to start. Looking at sort of the relationship between intimacy directing and human rights right so I did this chapter on. Intimacy directing race and human rights but I think you know we don't often think about the fact that. sexual is not not not only are sexual rights human rights but sexual rights just aren't you know the normal maybe typical rights that we think of it's also the right to be represented in multiple ways it's also the right to see. People in the image of you loving each other being vulnerable with each other right these are aspects of that as well. And so, in this chapter I do give you know, some tips right on ways to explore human rights and this kind of work right like, for example. Some of the things that you do right human rights access to actors by providing information and education, and this deals with chapter article 26 everyone has the right to education, letting the actors know who you are what your role is what their rights are as students. The right to be free from torture to cool and humane or degrading treatment or punishment has to do with article third article five no one shall be subjected to torture or to cool in human in human, or degrading treatment or punishment. And this this really goes to, I think to the heart of not just doing consent and choreography that is not just recognizing that consensus fluid and that choreography is repeatable, but also that like, what are the ways in which we can choreograph that does not. Even if the character is being degraded the human is not being degraded. Right. So, and then I go to like the and boom to healing circles I've started to get into that as a way for, because one of the things I realized is that people of color by pop people. Often we sometimes just feel we talk about just feeling invisible in some artistic and theater spaces and so don't want to healing circle activity is really great. And bull tool, you know, meaning collective is really great because it just starts off with everyone in the circle, acknowledging that the other that another person in the circle is present so someone says like you know, I would say, for example, Marie, I see you and you would say I am here, right. And so, and these are just ways that like again you were talking about sort of the, and calling some of the human, the human is up at all and just a way human to human. In particular, for, for everyone, but for BIPOC people to make sure that BIPOC people are recognized and feel visible in this space. So I think that the human rights work is probably what I'm most proud of in terms of actual. You know, tips and strategies that I could sort of lay out. But I think most recently the work that I've been doing with on choreographing, choreographing interracial romance has been really exciting. And that came from, again, a responder just saying, Oh, you know, I am an actor and as a black woman actor, I don't even know how to approach a scene. It doesn't have to be romantic. I don't even know how to approach a scene with a white male actor, right. So doing that work has been really exciting to you because you have to get it so there's so much, there's so much violence and there's so much happening outside of the room that in the room, getting them to see each other as human and getting them to be vulnerable and allowing them the space to trust each other is so, so critical. So that was a really long answer to your question. I hope I answered your question. Oh, it was fabulous. Yeah, it was great. Yeah. So, okay. And so well I have, I have a question actually I'm wondering because I know that we're dealing here with. So we have this idea of actor training and consent and then also consent culture and advice work. I was wondering, and maybe Colleen can speak to this a little bit more but it's up to you both but I was wondering, where do you all see trauma with the work that you do. I just, these questions, whether or not it's being asked right now, people are always asking about that and how we deal with that in the room. Yeah. Yeah, I think speaking just for myself, and very much based on, you know, following in the footsteps of what Claire Warden was and is doing in terms of her own research around the ways in which embodied physical work can be in conversation with trauma histories. That's something that I've, I've felt is a real central part of my approach to the work from the beginning, not just in terms of responding in a moment if someone is activated although certainly that is an important part of it. But also, I think the really revelatory piece of, of training and learning that I have found from trauma informed work specifically is that trauma informed work is really, as I actually believe consent work is as well, an accessibility issue. And that when someone is intentional as a facilitator about the fact that we, as humans have experienced various traumatic instances in our life, you know, both systemically or, or one off events or things that are repeating in someone's life or intergenerational. You don't know what those specifics are with our colleagues that we're working with, nor is it our job to ask, but by being aware of the impact of trauma in our world that we as facilitators and whatever role that is whenever we find ourselves in a position where we're, where we have an element of leadership that being intentional about, frankly, choice is a big piece of it in terms of how individuals engage with material allows more people to access whatever the creative project is or whatever the educational space is. To say regardless of their trauma history and I've been searching around for a better word in relationship to the way that their trauma history impacts their own today body. And so for me the two are really deeply intertwined trauma, trauma work as a non mental health practitioner but just as a lay person engaged with with the ideas of how trauma not always does but can land physically and show up again later, when a stimulus comes in that's reminiscent of early events feels really important when it comes to telling any stories but frankly particularly telling stories that might be sensitive as a lot of our work is. So, yeah. I'm, I'm going to add a few things which is, I think, when you're, when you're thinking about trauma informed work rule number one is just assume it's in the room. Show up and assume that somebody in the room at some point in their lives has experienced an adverse life event. And so, so that's kind of like the first thing for me it's like okay, it's in the room somewhere. We can just acknowledge that and know and be proactive, moving forward. And then the other framing that I think is really helpful. So thinking about trauma it's impacting the nervous system right so it's impacting the way the nervous system is interacting with the world and how the nervous system is responding to particular stimuli. And so this is not a perfect metaphor, but it's kind of a fun metaphor, which is if you if you think about sort of like a smoke alarm. And, you know, I've lived in places where you put a toast in the toaster and like just the tiniest little thing of smoke comes off right and the smoke alarms like. And I've also lived in places where you know I like I open the oven and it's like whoosh, and the smoke alarm doesn't go off. Right so like it. When you're thinking about trauma, part of the definition of trauma is that these are difficult events that are difficult to speak about and categorize. But if you can think about it as okay, everybody in this room has a different kind of smoke detector. Some of these smoke detectors are going to be a little bit more sensitive than the other smoke detectors or a little bit more attuned to particular things in the air. And then it's, and then it's like, I don't need to know what's burning in the oven. I don't have to ask you those personal questions we don't have to get into what the trauma is. You can go open your oven with your therapist and get treatment if you want or you can just let the cookies in your oven keep burning and live your life that way too. That's not for me to decide, but, but then it's just like, okay, somebody's cookies are burning and the smoke alarm is going off. What do we let's open a window. Let's turn the fan on. Let's push the little button on the smoke detector to get a little reset going. And then we can move on and when you start to think of it as just like a, it's a system that's maybe working sub optimally around certain stimuli. Then it's just like, okay. Well, I feel like it's a lot less scary when you think about it that way. Yeah. Yeah, before we move past it, I would love just to share this book by Alex Sherman, the net. I pronounced that correctly equity centered trauma informed education. In my walk through trauma informed work. I definitely encountered some problematic approaches. And so I wanted to really lift some of the thought leaders who are, who are keeping equity at the center of their work, because it's something that if it's if it's not approached. Much in the same way that we were talking about consent work rate, if, if anti racism isn't at the core of what we're doing, because of the, because white supremacy is so in the water. It, it will show up in a harmful way and I think it's very true for trauma informed work as well. And so this is one resource that I found to be really good and it is pretty classroom. I mean it is, it is specifically classroom oriented. And so I wanted to share that as well with this particular group of folks. That's wonderful and I just wanted to put it in the chat box and perhaps Emily could share it with with folks so they could just see who the author is and thank you for that resource and so I get I love the analogy there to Marie and so what does anyone want to share any practical tips in terms of like what you do if like someone's smoke alarm was really going off like the cookies were burning. Yeah, so there's like a five four three two one protocol which is really useful right so it's like, ask them to point a name five things they can see four things they can feel three things they, what's the next one is it here, and then smell and then one thing they can see, yeah. And so like, leading something that just actually helps them interact with what is true in the present moment in their senses. That's a, that's a really like quick and easy anybody can kind of do that one I think. Yeah, something else that was really useful for me to reckon with as somebody who very much wants to fix and make things better is that not all the time, but often, especially when we're working with adults, as we are with consent work. So the adults will have a sense of what works for them. When they're experiencing activation, and so the simple practice that has, you know, been in the zeitgeist for a long time in the consent world of saying, Hey, what do you need right now with paying attention to my own. My own breath, and voices living right because there is that idea of like, we can we sometimes mirror each other. Right so making sure that I'm coming in, in an energy that is hopefully a useful place to perhaps match towards but also at the same time, not assuming that I necessarily know what the fix is but that I can offer space and and offer a particular practice or, or just time away and trusting, trusting adults to be able to tell us what those needs are, even when they're activated, because you know if you're imagining a zero through 10 scale, like even up at like eight and nine. Most adults will be able to verbally or physically let you know like what they need right now which might be like contact or might be space right and so as is often the case like for me it was resisting the impulse to constantly like be the firefighter and save the day, but be willing to be open to, to what needs actually are, in addition to having some offerings myself. And that was really that, that often takes a while with advocacy work, certainly for me and it's ongoing thing to know that I don't always have the answer but that I can still show up in a way that is that can, that can help hold space in a useful way when it's in a listening stance. Yes, powerful, powerful. Okay, so we're at 228 now and so I thought this would be a great time to give our thank you, give our thank you. I love how this turned into an artist talk and just just just listening to you, both and having these conversations. So beautiful. I really want to thank the contributors. Thank you so much for your words, your stories, your strategies, your tips, your knowledge just. Yeah, it's really just been an honor and a pleasure to work with you. I want to thank my husband, Carla, my mom, Brian, all my friends and family, I feel like I'm on the Apollo. Shout out to everyone. I grew up in the 80s and 90s. So anyway, okay, Apollo was how around BJ Emily, thank you so much and you I want to thank everyone out there who's just really trying to build a better world with their art practice and thank you for supporting our work. Thank you for being with us today and Marie and Colleen, would you like to say any thank yous or no pressure. I mean, I didn't have one plan but thank you for being the spearhead of this particular project. It's a beautiful book and thank you for conceiving of it and doing all the hard editing and running after people to get their manuscripts and all the work that you put into make this book a reality. It's a beautiful thing. Thank you. Thanks so much Marie, you're welcome. Thank you for that. Similarly, but just in my own words, Dr. Aisha what you've put into put into the larger world is something that I think we're going to be seeing the impact of indefinitely. In other words, today really capture so much of what has gone into this work in terms of you pulling together your lived experience and your deep expertise, in addition to being generous enough to, to invite others of us into this, this wider conversation. So as, as a human being and as a professional, I am deeply grateful for all of your work and specifically the fact that you've been able to share it widely like this. So, thank you. Oh, thank you so much. Oh my gosh, I love you both and as my colleagues and my mentors. Again, I'm just honored. Thank you. Thank you for your work as well. What else do we want to thank by a book by a book follow us on IG stock us a little bit. Be the change that you want to see in the world everyone. Okay, why don't you want to join us with a little tap out. Until next time.