Intimacy Coordination project at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw activity | E:UTSA – Europe: Union of Theatre Schools and Academies

About the project

Safe Space. Good Practices and Tools for Transforming Theater Education is a project implemented at the Alexander Zelwerowicz Theater Academy from 2022 to 2024. Its aim was to strengthen and develop the actions taken by the academy to increase the safety of students and the quality of education at the Theater Academy, as well as to test and disseminate tools and techniques for creative work in the spirit of informed consent, respect for boundaries and democratization of artistic processes.

Several cycles of workshops were held as part of Safe Space. Kaja Wesołek-Podziemska and Marta Zygadło conducted workshops on coordinating intimate scenes for those studying directing and acting majors, as well as for the academic staff of these majors. In theaters cooperating with the project – Chorea, Teatr Polski in Bydgoszcz, Teatr Współczesny in Szczecin, Teatr im. Jaracz in Olsztyn, Krakow Choreographic Center and Krakow Dance Theater – while workshops were held on coordinating intimate scenes (led by Kaja Wesołek-Podziemska and Marta Zygadło), giving constructive feedback (Malgorzata Wdowik), developing a dynamic contract for the creative process (Ula Kijak and Konrad Cichoń) and countering manipulation in teamwork (Ula Kijak).

Also part of the project was the development and preparation for publication of three books: a translation of the textbook Sex on Stage. Best Practices, Tools and Techniques for Coordinating Intimate Scenes in Theater by Chelsea Pace and Laura Rikard, and two anthologies of texts, Coordinating Intimate Scenes in Theater and Film. A Toolbox and New Sensibilities in Performing Arts, Theater and Film. A box of theories edited by Agata Adamiecka, Malgorzata Jablonska, Katarzyna Waligóra, Izabela Zawadzka. These three complementary and dialogic volumes bring the latest knowledge of the dynamically developing discipline of intimate scene coordination, showing it in broader theoretical contexts and against the backdrop of transformations in contemporary theater and art related not only to issues of work process safety, but also inclusivity, diversity and its representations, and various transformative strategies.