Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, presented by Jobsite Theater and running through May 31 in Shimberg Playhouse, tracks a courtship that’s profane, violent but also tender. It shows two bitter, guarded people, each finding something in the other that lets vulnerability slip through.
A rom-com this isn’t. Danny (Alex Teicheira) and Roberta (Georgia Mallory Guy) struggle to articulate their feelings, and their frustration is sometimes expressed with violence. Other times it’s expressed with a physical tenderness that neither is sure they deserve.
Danny and Roberta are the play’s only characters, which makes these demanding roles even more so.
Portraying an act of love or an act of violence on stage in front of an audience can place an actor in vulnerable positions. Making those scenes true to the script’s intent while protecting the actors is the focus of an intimacy coordinator.
David Jenkins, Jobsite’s producing artistic director, is serving in that role on Danny.
Although Danny and the Deep Blue Sea has no nudity nor simulated sex, there are scenes of emotional and physical intimacy, as well as violence.
The theater has long employed combat choreographers or violence coordinators to ensure violent scenes are realistic but safe. Many of these professionals have added intimacy coordination to their skill sets, Jenkins said.
“A lot of people now work as combination intimacy coordinators and violence coordinator or combat choreographer,” Jenkins said. “In the case of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, I’m doing both.”
Intimacy coordinator is a relatively new title. It’s a response to the MeToo movement which began roughly a decade ago to raise awareness of sexual harassment and assault against women.
An intimacy coordinator ensures director and actor are on the same page regarding how a sensitive scene will be staged. The I.C. also serves as a liaison between actors and directors.
Jenkins was part of a meeting with the actors and director Summer Bohnenkamp, Straz’s Chief Programming and Marketing Officer and Jenkins’ wife.
“The director had a pretty clear idea of what she wanted,” Jenkins said, “and honestly, I was there as a consultant, I was in the room to hear them all out and make sure all those bases were covered.”
Intimacy coordinators have devised a set of guidelines known as the Five C’s or Five Pillars of Intimacy: context, communication, choreography, consent and closure.
“There have been closure rituals in theater forever,” Jenkins said., “Acting in itself is intense. You might be doing a play where you fight with somebody, where you yell and scream at them for two-and-a-half hours every night.”
The attraction that sometimes develops between actors during a performance, known as a “showmance” is another situation addressed by closure.
Closure helps actors acknowledge the end of an intense on-stage relationship.
“Closure is a way to sidestep all that and take out the weird, take out the awkward” Jenkins said.
Traditionally, actors weren’t encouraged to voice concerns or express their discomfort with an intimate scene. Jenkins knows from experience.
“As a young actor, I had a director look at me and a girl and go, ‘Well, y’all go in the closet and figure that out,’” Jenkins said.
Intimacy coordinators “are there to facilitate the work, to circumvent the power dynamic, to be there to advocate for everybody in the room,” Jenkins said. “I’m here to make sure the director gets what they want and I’m here to make sure the actors are respected and are heard.”
All images courtesy James Zambon Productions.