Writing Challenge
Write something that would be illegal to do to an audience.
Bonus if it’s something that is morally right but legally wrong. Don’t let it
be boring, this isn’t a law class- don’t get into the weeds. Keep it human.
Keep the play going longer than you’d planned. Deal with the consequences.
SEX WITH THE AUDIENCE, by
Matthew A. Everett
The problem is, the more I
thought this particular notion through, the more I realized I couldn’t script
it. Not like a traditional play. I found I didn’t want to make the audience
feel they were in peril, by pointing a gun at them or verbally abusing them or
shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater. I
also didn’t want to dull their senses by altering their consciousness with
drugs or alcohol. Theater for me is more
about bringing people together for a common human experience they don’t get in
their daily lives. So if I was going to
transgress the law in any way, I’d want it to be in service of greater
intimacy.
When my plays have been
performed in the past, guys whose characters were meant to be intimate with
each other onstage, often simply kissing, had to work hard to allow themselves
to let go of their basic heteronormative programming. One of the nice side effects of a production
like that is the guys were much more physically comfortable and affectionate
with one another off-stage. They were
much more relaxed and comfortable in their skin. I guess I just wanted to push that further –
both with performers, and by extension the audience.
They say that a flaccid
penis on stage is art, but an erect penis is pornography. The shame around the human body and sexuality
is kind of ridiculous, and the source of all kinds of unnecessary tension and
heartache. One of the best shows I’ve
seen in recent years was an intimate little show, a scrappy theater company
taking over an abandoned building and presenting the human body, and human intimacy
in an inviting, non-threatening, almost fun way – rather than anything serious
or clinical. It was reveling in human
connection between the performers, in all levels of dress and undress.
This concept would seek to
extend that intimacy between performers and audience further. Ideally it would be in a small, arena style
space, with the audience on all sides, able to see each other as well as the
performers. There would be two classes
of the audience – those who wanted to simply watch, and those who might want to
participate. Watchers basically remain
in their seats and nothing more is required of them than a little civility and
the price of admission.
The performers would
essentially be improvising around a common set of actions. The ideal cast would be a rotating stable of
men and women – straight, bi and gay – of all shapes, sizes, races, ages and
physical abilities. We’re not casting a
porno here where everyone looks like an underwear model. The cast reflects the makeup of the
audience. The cast would be interviewed
about preferences in terms of both their fellow castmates and types of audience
participants. An equal opportunity
performance, if you will. It’s not
prostitution, though technically these people would be having sex for
money. No one’s forced to perform sex
acts with anyone they don’t want to. And
if there’s a situation that looks like it’s getting out of hand, there will be
security on hand.
But let’s say everything’s
healthy and consensual and no one needs to be escorted out. How does the audience that wants to potentially
participate get included? First,
everyone on both sides of the equation is going to have to be tested for
STDs. All the necessary precautions are
going to be taken – condoms, IUDs, the pill.
I imagine the release form for something like this would be ridiculous
but set that aside for a moment. Just
like the cast, the audience would make its preferences known in a
pre-performance questionnaire, at the time of ticket purchase, long before the
show. No “day of” tickets for sexual
audience members.
So the theater has to
coordinate, based on the audience they know they’re going to have, which
performers are going to match up with the widest array of the audience
preferences. My feeling is that you’d
want to make sure that all the potential sexual audience members would be
notified ahead of time if they were going to be called upon to join the
action. And of course, in the moment,
they can feel free to decline. There would
be backups and alternates.
The most obvious backup
would be the performers simply engaging in sex with one another. And in fact, they’d probably lead off with
this each performance, in order to set the audience of all types at ease. So everyone knows what they’re getting into.
But the idea is to
connect. It’s not just sex acts, but
intimacy. Full penetrative sex may even
be a rare occurrence. There’s all kind
of ways to enjoy the human body and give another person pleasure. And they can be as clothed, or not, as they
prefer, and as visible or shielded, from the audience as they prefer. At all times, someone’s going to be in full
view. And at all times, there’s going to
be a variety of sexuality on display. It
shouldn’t just be for straight people or for gay people. People should be (you’ll pardon the
expression) exposed to things they haven’t seen before and might themselves
never do.
(I’d been thinking in
terms of a largely “vanilla” repertoire, but you could also repurpose the
template for people who are into leather or bondage or whatever other things
aren’t even crossing my mind right now.
The point, however, is always consent, and mutual pleasure – so animals
and children are out, for instance. I
can’t believe I just had to make myself type that as a clarification. Also, we’re not endorsing proven risky behavior
so no barebacking. Again, I can’t
believe I just had to make myself type that, but you can take this idea and twist
or push it to all kinds of extremes I personally wouldn’t endorse because
that’s not what I’m after.)
I want this to be a
celebration of shared intimacy between people.
Now, of course, I can imagine this all going horribly wrong in any
number of ways – pregnancy, stalking, you name it. Let’s hope that by setting the right
atmosphere, the right sense of community, we attract the right performers and
the right audience and the idea accomplishes its goal, which makes sexual
relations a healthier thing in general. To
get the performance rolling before the sex gets started, maybe people tell
jokes, maybe people sing songs, maybe people dance together. Anything to break the ice. Maybe the performers and the audience need to
take themselves on a collective date before they expect anybody to put out.
It’s going to take a
pretty special performer to sign on for something like this and execute it
without crossing lines, or encouraging and allowing others to cross them. The rehearsal process is probably a lot of
talking and a lot of shared boundary dismantling between people. If the ensemble can break down those barriers
among themselves, they’ll be better able to set the audience at ease.
Anything I’d script in
this regard would just be hokey. The
actors will just have to engage each other and the audience in the moment,
after a rehearsal process in which they work through all the possible scenarios
they can think of, good and bad, on how things might go. After a couple of preview performances, a lot
of real world adjustments would no doubt need to be made. An actual audience in the mix always teaches
the producers and performers the many things they hadn’t anticipated in the
closed world of the rehearsal room.
