SDCF’s Staging Intimacy Symposium
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Boston Court Pasadena
70 N Mentor Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91106
The symposium began with a workshop with IDI (Intimacy Directors International) with Rachel Flesher, Jessica Steinrock and Zev Steinrock. Follow by two panels: “The Director/Actor Relationship” with panelists Mara Klein, Michael Michetti, Diane Rodriguez, and Eddie Ruiz; Moderated by Ann James and “The Director/Intimacy Choreographer Dynamic” with panelists Allison Bibicoff, Brendan Hughes, and Carly Weckstein; Moderated by Hannah Wolf.
Panelist Bios:
ALLISON BIBICOFF Allison Bibicoff is an Intimacy Director, Intimacy Coordinator, Director, and Choreographer. She has studied Intimacy Direction with three different companies in three countries, and is Mental Health First Aid Certified. Most recently, she was the Intimacy Director for the play Stupid Fucking Bird. She also has a strong acting and dancing background, which includes many scenes involving intimacy. Other favorite credits include Assistant Choreographing Xanadu on Broadway and directing Around the World in 80 Days three times at North Coast Rep, The Matrix and ICT (LA Times Critics Choice). She is a Garland Award winner, a two time LA Weekly Award nominee, and was nominated for an LADCC Award for Best Choreography. (She was honored to lose to Andy Blankenbuehler!) Allison has executive produced TV movies for Hallmark. A very active member of the LA theatre community, Allison serves on the Ovation Rules Committee and on SDC’s LA Steering Committee. She has been a proud member of SDC for 7 years, and of AEA and SAG for over 20 years. www.AllisonBibicoff.com
RACHEL FLESHER is an Intimacy Director, Intimacy Coordinator, Violence Director, Movement Specialist, blood and gore designer, SAG-AFTRA stunt performer, a teaching artist, an actor, writer, and director. Her acting, fight choreography, and movement training guided her to try to find a better way to choreograph and help facilitate scenes with sexual, intimate, and highly suggestive content. Through studying mental health first aid, trauma, and abuse, and collaborating with other directors, psychologists, and mental health experts, she is developing techniques to help actors safely portray trauma and abuse (Traumaturgy) on stage and screen. Rachel is an Instructor with the Fight Directors Canada, an Instructor with Tactics on Set, an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University. She has had the pleasure of traveling the world to teach workshops on consent, stage and screen combat, simulated domestic violence, and intimacy, for actors, directors, stage managers, and educators. She also specializes in consent and combat for youth. On stage violence and intimacy direction credits include Goodman Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Writers Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Steppenwolf for Young Adults. Intimacy coordinating credits include GLOW on NETFLIX and THE RED LINE on CBS, as well as many other television shows and films currently in production.
BRENDAN HUGHES is a director of stage, screen and opera, a screenwriter, an editor, an animator and a performance artist. He has directed critically-acclaimed theatre productions coast to coast, as well as some award-winning short films. He has taught theatre at Harvard, Yale, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Pace University, Occidental College and Warner Loughlin Studios in Hollywood. His second performance art alt-comedy concert album Mediocrity: A Sophomore Effort (a follow up to 2014’s The Pizzicato Effect) will be released in the spring. Brendan serves as Partner and Creative Director for Editing and Animation for Hairpin Communications in Boston and holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama directing program. He lives in Los Angeles.
ANN JAMES has an extensive career in theatre education. As an internationally certified educator she has had the opportunity to teach on 4 continents. Her stage directing career has allowed her to work on premier stages of the American Theatre such as Steppenwolf, Hartford Stage, The Alley & The Goodman. With over 100 directing credits & in addition to owning China’s only registered Expat theatre, DreamWeaver Productions, she is now devoted to making both stage and screen safe places for People of Color to practise their craft. To that end, Ms. James looks forward to pursuing America’s first doctoral degree in Intimacy Direction for People of Color.
MARA KLEIN is an LA based actress, originally hailing from the suburbs of Washington, DC. She holds a BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with training from the Stella Adler Studio of Acting (New York) and Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (London). The Judas Kiss at Boston Court Pasadena was her first collaboration with director Michael Michetti, followed shortly thereafter by Frankenstein u/s (A Noise Within). Other recent LA theater includes: Sucker Punch (Coeurage Theatre Company), What Happened When & the world-premiere Blueberry Toast (Echo Theater Company), Marina in Pericles (Porters of Hellsgate) and u/s Unbound (IAMA). TV: Most notably, she plays “Young Valerie” in Casual on HULU, with additional work on Startup, Young and Hungry, Fresh off the Boat and Suburgatory. More at: www.aboutmara.com Social: @mararklein
MICHAEL MICHETTI is an Artistic Director of Boston Court Pasadena where his directing credits include: The Judas Kiss, A Streetcar Named Desire, The House in Scarsdale, Stupid F**king Bird, The Twentieth-Century Way (also Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYC), Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, Pera Palas, and Romeo and Juliet. Elsewhere his directing credits include: King Charles III and A Life in the Theatre (Pasadena Playhouse); the world premiere of Robert Schenkkan’s Building the Wall (Fountain Theatre); District Merchants (South Coast Rep); Frankenstein, A Picture of Dorian Gray, Figaro, The Grapes of Wrath, Hamlet and As You Like It (A Noise Within); Brecht’s Edward II (Circle X); Noises Off (PlayMakers); Kiss Me, Kate, Carousel, and Man of La Mancha (Reprise). He has developed new works with Center Theatre Group, The Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Playwrights’ Center, Portland Center Stage, and many others. He is the recipient of many Los Angeles area theatre awards including an Ovation Award, a Stage Raw Award, and five LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for his direction.
DIANE RODRIGUEZ is an Off Broadway Obie Award winning theatre artist. For nearly 25 years she was a principal artistic staff member at Center Theatre Group where she was Associate Artistic Director. In 2007, she won an Off Broadway Obie Award for performance in Heather Woodbury’s Tale of Two Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks. She has directed at South Coast Repertory, Center Theatre Group, Pasadena Playhouse, East West Players, Playwrights Arena (LA Weekly Best Director nom), the Fountain Theatre, City Theatre (PA), Mixed Blood (Minn.), Actors Theatre of Phoenix (AZ) (two Arizoni Award Best Director noms), Teatro Luna (Ill.), among others. Most recently she directed the premier of Janine Salinas Schoenburg’s, LAS MUJERES DEL MAR, Richard Cabral’s FIGHTING SHADOWS and the updated BORDERTOWN NOW by Culture Clash at the Pasadena Playhouse. She will direct for San Francisco Playhouse in the spring of 2020. Diane directed the world premiere of two of her own plays THE SWEETHEART DEAL at The Los Angeles Theatre Center (2017) and LIVING LARGE at Teatro Luna in 2011. She has a new commission at Yale Repertory Theatre to develop a new piece with her collaborators, Janine Salinas Schoenburg and Hana Kim. In 2016, she was the Denham Directing Fellow for the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation and in 2017 she was a Sundance Theatre Directing Fellow in Arles, France. As a 2016 President Obama appointee, she continues to serve on the NEA’s National Council on the Arts. Diane was inducted into the College of Fellows for the American Theatre in 2018.
EDDIE RUIZ was born and raised in Boyle Heights, CA, Eddie received his MFA in acting at The Central School of Speech and Drama in London, UK. He also studied at Cal State Fullerton and Pomona. Eddie has performed in over 50 plays here in Los Angeles. He also has worked on numerous Films, TV and commercials. Visit www.eddie-ruiz.com for more info. He’s also a founding member of Obviam Entertainment where they write, produce and perform in film, TV and theatre. www.obviamenterainment.com
JESSICA STEINROCK (She/Her/Hers) is a Certified Intimacy Director for theatre and Intimacy Coordinator for TV and film with Intimacy Directors International (IDI). She is currently based in Los Angeles, California. She came to intimacy work by way of improv comedy and has developed techniques for giving and receiving consent during improvised theatre while maintaining spontaneity, teamwork, and comedic timing. Her work has since expanded to encompass film, opera, improv, devising, still photography as well as scripted theatre. Steinrock is both a working professional and an academic, making progress towards a Ph.D. in Theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her dissertation details the rise of and makes a case for the importance of Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. She travels frequently to research and implement intimacy direction/coordination in professional and academic settings, speak at conferences, and consults with professional organizations to promote consent in a variety of performance workplaces. Intimacy Coordination credits of note include CLAWS & ANIMAL KINGDOM on TNT & LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE on Hulu among others.
ZEV STEINROCK is a professional actor, fight director, & intimacy director. He recently completed four years as a professor of stage combat, acting, & movement at the University of Illinois. Zev is now based in Los Angeles & works professionally as a freelance artist, choreographing professionally & teaching stage combat & intimacy. Zev specializes in working with University faculties to help them create & implement safe protocols for intimate work both in the classroom & in performance. Additionally, Zev works at professional theatres all over the United States. He completed his MFA in Acting from Michigan State University, along with certifications in yoga & college teaching. Steinrock is also a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. As an enthusiastic supporter of Intimacy Direction, he is humbled to have the opportunity to advocate for Intimacy Direction as an emerging field.
CARLY WECKSTEIN is a theatre director, sex educator, intimacy director, and facilitator living in Los Angeles. She creates at the intersections of theatre, community, healing, sexuality, and art as activation. She founded and directs at The Illyrian Players (est. 2011), a feminist ensemble for theatre artists. She currently works as a freelance intimacy director (EST LA, Son of Semele, Directors Lab West, Skeleton Key, Theatre 40, Richard Lawson Studios), and as a facilitator for Art With Impact’s college workshop Our Bodies Our Minds, that uses theatre to help communities better support survivors of sexual violence. Carly regularly teaches a variety of sex ed and theatre workshops, including Navigating Intimacy and Consent for Actors and Directors (next workshop 12/12/19). Carly comes to the exciting new field of Intimacy with years of experience in both theatre direction and sex education. She confidently navigates discussions around consent and communication and how those translate into the world of artistic collaboration. At the center of her practice is the belief that excellent storytelling does not have to be sacrificed in order to bring consent culture into artistic spaces; telling challenging stories that include sexuality requires artists’ vulnerability and growth—it never needs to come at the cost of anyone’s dignity, respect or mental health. Carly has choreographed various scenes of simulated sex, sexual violence, kissing, and more for the stage. She approaches intimacy direction from a trauma-informed lens, using somatic tools for re-centering and grounding and ritual practices for reinforcing healthy boundaries. Carly is dedicated to bringing these practices to theatre companies, acting studios, immersive productions, films, and artistic communities who are looking for tools to practice what they preach about the #metoo and #timesup movements. Feel free to reach out and stay in touch: www.carlydweckstein.com