Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

194595

Crucial unspeakables, or pedagogies of the repressed

directing sex in the plays of Naomi Wallace

Beth Cleary

pp. 103-116

Abstract

There is no faculty handbook for staging sex with college actors. Those of us who do theatre with students know the importance of scheduling special, separate rehearsals for any intimate physical interaction—violent or sexual—that a play requires, building trust before working on "those scenes' and talking through the power dynamics to make sure emotional safety is acknowledged and ensured. Everyone—the student actors, the faculty director, others in the rehearsal room, and even ultimately the audience—needs to feel prepared before tackling the parts of the play where somebody can get hurt. If this is true of staging, say, Romeo and Juliet, it is profoundly and problematically true of staging the plays of Naomi Wallace, where feeling unsafe is part of the process. Sex is never innocent or easy in Wallace's theatrical world, and it is always political. Two characters may come together in private, erotic exchanges, but they are always also indices of history, of family and work, of race, class, and gender.

Publication details

Published in:

Cummings Scott T., Stevens Abbitt Erica (2013) The theatre of Naomi Wallace: embodied dialogues. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 103-116

DOI: 10.1057/9781137017925_9

Full citation:

Cleary Beth (2013) „Crucial unspeakables, or pedagogies of the repressed: directing sex in the plays of Naomi Wallace“, In: S. T. Cummings & E. Stevens Abbitt (eds.), The theatre of Naomi Wallace, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 103–116.