One of the great benefits of the intimacy director is that they typically occupy a position outside the existing power structure of a company hierarchy. There is real value in that. I currently occupy several very different roles in my work as an intimacy professional. Most often, I serve as an outside contractor in educational and theatrical settings. I also hold the title “intimacy director in residence” for a regional company which brings with it certain institutional auth

Much of my work in intimacy direction has shaped the way I think about teaching. Consent-forward practice is often associated with staged intimacy, but its underlying principles—clarity, meaningful choice, communication, boundaries, and shared responsibility—have implications far beyond the rehearsal room. What happens when we bring those same ideas into the classroom? In my recent essay for Inside Higher Ed, I explore consent as a framework for creating learning environments

Kelly Sikkema, via Unsplash When people first encounter the role of an intimacy director, they often imagine someone brought into the rehearsal room to choreograph a kiss, stage a moment of sexual contact, or help establish boundaries around particularly vulnerable material. All those things are part of the work, but I have come to think about intimacy direction more broadly. I see the intimacy director as a curator of relationships onstage. Every theatrical story is built up

Aneta Pawlik, via Unsplash The work of Intimate StageWorks draws from a number of overlapping conversations: intimacy practice, performer agency, ethics, trauma-informed care, directing and acting technique, and scholarship about bodies, gender, and storytelling onstage. These are some of the books I return to, recommend, argue with, underline, and keep within reach. Intimacy, Consent & Rehearsal Practice Chelsea Pace, Staging Sex: Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for T