She says she has felt more vulnerable and self-conscious on film, with a camera right up in her face and all sorts of distracted people standing around set. Thuy can’t necessarily see the audience’s faces all the time, but she can feel their energy, and she knows that they are coming along for the ride. But there is something about nudity in theater - its immediacy, maybe, or the fact that it’s happening live in front of hundreds of strangers - that can feel particularly compelling. It may seem strange that sex and nudity strike theatergoers as novel, even shocking, when our culture is rife with both in television and on film. “Whereas, if there was no nudity, they would be able to keep a distance.” “They have become intimate with the actors too, in a way,” Bullard says. This is because, say all involved, sex and nudity onstage create a distinct bond with the audience, one that places the onlookers in league with the actors. In that subsequent scene, Bullard says, “The audience really begins to relax into a brand-new way of experiencing the play that I actually think casts one of the deeper spells - in terms of what a scene feels like - that I’ve been around.” “There’s a lot of emotional vulnerability and nakedness in ‘Linda Vista,’ which in some ways is as complicated as the physical nakedness and intimacy.”Īfter the play’s first sex scene, in which Jules and Wheeler have an immensely awkward misunderstanding, the actors repair to the living room for a scene that shows them verbally dancing around their mutual romantic fears. “Just because we’re following people into the bedroom doesn’t mean the actors aren’t doing what they’ve done the whole show,” Bullard says. In this play, Letts also lays them physically bare, which, to director Bullard’s mind, is especially effective in the context of a story about profound human frailty. In classic Letts’ fashion, the dialogue ricochets between pathos and caustic wit, with an ear toward laying his characters’ inner souls painfully bare in the process. The play dissects the character flaws of a committed misanthrope named Wheeler who, in the midst of a messy divorce and an ugly midlife crisis, drags down just about everybody around him, including the two women he professes to care for most, Jules and Thuy’s Minnie. Crucial to the artists’ participation in the play was the fact that “Linda Vista” was penned by Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts. Bad writing could easily make the nudity and sex seem gratuitous rather than essential to the fabric of the story. None of this care or attention would matter, Bullard says, if the script weren’t good. Having Fluty’s input was crucial to her development of - and comfort with - that scene. Vander Broek, whose character masturbates onstage, said it was important that the act did not come across as a performative moment for her male partner but rather as a deeply personal moment for her own character. “And I would say, ‘This is OK for me, and this is the no-go zone,’ and that was always protected.” “Early on in our conversations, we talked about what our boundaries were,” Thuy recalls. Thuy and Vander Broek were particularly thankful for the open dialogue Fluty fostered. “You wouldn’t say, ‘Hey, is it OK if I grab your boobs here?’ ” Fluty says, adding that she teaches actors to say “breast” and use what she likes to call “bony landmarks” when choreographing a sex scene, meaning: “parts of the pelvis that are specific, so I can say, ‘Put your hand right here on her sacrum,’ or, ‘Put your hand under the gluteal fold.’ ” She’s also a stickler for anatomically correct language, and she forbids the use of slang for any body part. She sets parameters for dealing with nudity and sexuality, and she makes sure those parameters are adhered to. She provides them with mental health tips and tricks, including meditations, in case they find themselves feeling less than OK. “In the day and age we’re living in, we’ve come to a place where frank conversations are necessary,” says Vander Broek.įluty makes sure the actors feel secure and listened to. It’s why Bullard recruited the help of Fluty, a modern dancer with a master’s degree in dance movement therapy and counseling.įluty has worked as an intimacy consultant on six plays in less than a year-a testament to the rising profile of the field in the wake of #MeToo. Variations of the word “safe” come up quite a bit, because the actors are making themselves vulnerable - physically and emotionally. In the day and age we’re living in, we’ve come to a place where frank conversations are necessary.
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