Open Forum

Hello! I know you didn't ask for any specific answers or advice but I had this to offer:  have posted on here regarding what I call intimacy rehearsals- if you search for that in the forum you'll no doubt find it. First off- I recommend (if you don't already) to include a question regarding intimacy/ staged pda on your audition form. This gives students the ability to opt out of consideration for a role that would include those sorts of things in the event they are not comfortable. The flip side is if they say they are comfortable they put up less of a fight even if they have cold feet about it later. Secondly- never hold those first rehearsals for that with other students around. It's much better to complete those rehearsals with just those students so they can become comfortable with one another with their peers sitting around gawking at them (and let's face it- judging them). Make it something that's old news to them before it's done in front of anyone else. That way they can shrug over it and make sure everyone knows that it's no big deal and that their immature if they think it is. I have a handout I use with my students that I've attached below. I use it to set parameters between the two on one what's comfortable and what's not. Hope this helps.

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Victoria Kesling Councill
Chapter Director - VA EdTA/ Virginia Thespians
Theatre Director- Fine & Performing Arts Department NKHS
Artistic Director - NKHS Trojan Theatre
Artistic Director - Kent England Exchange Production
Virginia Commonwealth University BFA Theatre Education, BFA Art Education '08
University of Houston - MA Theatre '16

"Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art." - Konstantin Stanislavski
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-27-2017 11:05
From: Stanley Gibbs
Subject: Romantic(?) Lead

So my leading couple in our current play (Grace andTom in "Radium Girls") had both never kissed a non-relative, even on the cheek, so, (as is so often the case) there was a certain awkwardness. 

I think some of the discomfort starts with cast and other friends suggesting there is more to it, and when good acting takes over, they start to ask themselves questions about the other actor and whether it's real, etc. I try to help them establish boundaries for those thoughts in the following manner:

I sit them down facing each other and play, "Repeat after me..." while looking into their stage partner's eyes:

(Partner's Name Here), I am ACTING. I am not in love with you. I am not falling in love with you. In this play we will be ACTING in love. We must try our best to make it realistic. I am ACTING. Do not take any of my actions with you on stage to mean anything other than becoming my character for our time on stage and for the audience's belief. Thank you for ACTING in love to the best of your ability and I promise I WILL NOT read anything into it.

One exercise that has work for me as an inexperienced actor and as a director is to talk about how a stage kiss is acting and it is literally just touching lips.  Then make them touch lips and hold it.  That's right make them kiss and hold it for 10-15 seconds.  Way longer that they have to for the stage kiss.  I count it off out loud.  At that point it becomes clinical.  I know it sounds like shock therapy, but it has worked for me.

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Kevin Phelan
Vernon Hills High School
Vernon Hills, IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-27-2017 11:05
From: Stanley Gibbs
Subject: Romantic(?) Lead

So my leading couple in our current play (Grace andTom in "Radium Girls") had both never kissed a non-relative, even on the cheek, so, (as is so often the case) there was a certain awkwardness. 

I think some of the discomfort starts with cast and other friends suggesting there is more to it, and when good acting takes over, they start to ask themselves questions about the other actor and whether it's real, etc. I try to help them establish boundaries for those thoughts in the following manner:

I sit them down facing each other and play, "Repeat after me..." while looking into their stage partner's eyes:

(Partner's Name Here), I am ACTING. I am not in love with you. I am not falling in love with you. In this play we will be ACTING in love. We must try our best to make it realistic. I am ACTING. Do not take any of my actions with you on stage to mean anything other than becoming my character for our time on stage and for the audience's belief. Thank you for ACTING in love to the best of your ability and I promise I WILL NOT read anything into it.

Stanley, I've done almost the exact thing with having actors address each other over the years. There will always be knucklehead friends who pass on odd bits of wisdom that freak out young performers. It sounds like you've been handling it well.

I like what the other folks on this thread have to say and have a similar approach. I can add three things that have worked for me and my kids in the past which may be of use:

1. I use the words "illusion" and "storytelling" a lot when I'm talking about a stage kiss. The actors and I talk in terms of what the romantic moment is meant to communicate to the audience, and how the language of gesture can convey meaning.

2. I tell my kids that a stage kiss has 3 parts: eye contact before, the actual kiss, and the eye contact after. Beginners can sell a pretty perfunctory kiss with some good storytelling to bookend it. Of course, later they realize that making eye contact and smiling afterwards can be harder...but in the moment, they are usually willing to throw themselves into anything that isn't kissing.

3. My first kiss was a stage kiss. It is an awkward and hilarious story of an unsympathetic director, a terrified freshman me, and a senior boy of epic pomposity. I sometimes also tell the story of a student in my summer program whose home director gave him no other advice beyond "ATTACK!!!  ATTACK!!!!" Obviously, my purpose is to show that fears and worries are completely normal, but to give them confidence that they can achieve this moment of storytelling in an untraumatic way.

The first time I ever blocked a stage kiss during one of the many times I've done Romeo and Juliet, the two actors (who were both facing first kisses and were super jittery) asked if they could pray together over the matter first. They did, and then were perfectly ready to work. They had terrific chemistry. 

Best of luck to your kids. They'll be great!

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Meg O'Connor
theatre artist lost in the woods of Vermont
oconnormainstage.com
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-27-2017 11:05
From: Stanley Gibbs
Subject: Romantic(?) Lead

So my leading couple in our current play (Grace andTom in "Radium Girls") had both never kissed a non-relative, even on the cheek, so, (as is so often the case) there was a certain awkwardness. 

I think some of the discomfort starts with cast and other friends suggesting there is more to it, and when good acting takes over, they start to ask themselves questions about the other actor and whether it's real, etc. I try to help them establish boundaries for those thoughts in the following manner:

I sit them down facing each other and play, "Repeat after me..." while looking into their stage partner's eyes:

(Partner's Name Here), I am ACTING. I am not in love with you. I am not falling in love with you. In this play we will be ACTING in love. We must try our best to make it realistic. I am ACTING. Do not take any of my actions with you on stage to mean anything other than becoming my character for our time on stage and for the audience's belief. Thank you for ACTING in love to the best of your ability and I promise I WILL NOT read anything into it.