Defining Intimacy in Theatre
In theatre, intimacy refers to moments of staged physical, emotional, or vulnerable interaction between characters. This can include physical touch, romantic or sexual situations, emotional closeness, and scenarios that require performers to explore vulnerability within their roles. The goal of staging intimacy is to enhance storytelling while maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all participants.
Understanding the Role of the Intimacy Director
The intimacy director is a trained professional in theatre, film, and television who:
Advocates on behalf of the boundaries of the actors.
Supports the actors, director, and choreographer in the storytelling process.
Navigates power dynamics in the rehearsal and performance spaces.
Creates choreography that is repeatable and supports safer working conditions, ethical storytelling, and stronger storytelling.
Something Rotten! is a high-energy satire packed with musical-theatre references, exaggerated characters, flirtation, and a fair amount of tongue-in-cheek innuendo. While the show is comedic, it contains moments and language that require transparency and intentional staging.
This disclosure outlines all intimacy, physical contact, language, and content considerations present in the show based on the licensed script. These elements will be handled with respect, consent, and school-appropriate boundaries.
To ensure student safety:
All physical intimacy (kisses, embraces, grabs) will be fully choreographed, consensual, and modifiable.
Students may always request:
Adjusted distance
Non-contact alternatives
Stylized or comedic substitutions
Alternate costume pieces
Innuendo will be delivered suggestively but not graphically.
Intimacy Considerations. This is a list of considerations that concern actors touching each other in an intimate or violent way (choreographed).
This play requires:
A kiss between Portia and Nigel.
Brief married affection between Nick and Bea (hugging, short kiss, hand-holding).
Physical proximity and gentle contact in moments such as:
Nigel panicking and Nick steadying him
Brother Jeremiah pulling Portia away
Troupe members clustering, grabbing arms, or touching shoulders in comedic chaos
Dance sequences often involve linking arms, brief partnering, lifting, or shoulder contact.
All physical contact will be choreographed, consent-based, and modifiable.
Subject Matter and Language Considerations. A list of considerations that concern serious or triggering subject matter or language.
This play requires:
Mild to moderate profanity and euphemisms, including: “shit,” “turd,” “ass,” and crude references to bodily functions.
Sexual innuendo and double entendre, primarily for comedic effect, such as:
Brother Jeremiah’s accidental sexual phrasing (“ungodly erections,” “stiffen my… resolve”).
Nostradamus’s butt-shaking and “titillating beat” lyric.
Shakespeare and Bard Boys’ gyrating and codpieces.
Nigel pulls out a parchment from his codpiece.
Nigel and Portia’s “I Love the Way” (“seductive appeal,” “I pleasure myself,” “You scream? So do I!”)
Nigel and Portia’s reading of poetry (pages 89-90; “I finished too quickly.”)
Genital references in The Black Death number (“peepee,” “vagina,” “dangling/dinglin’”).
Historical religious satire, specifically Puritan condemnation of theatre and “lustful desires.”
Jokes about bodily fluids, plague symptoms, and death, all stylized for comedy.
Debt, poverty, and class struggle are referenced through Shylock, Bea’s labor, and the Bottoms’ financial challenges.
Cross-dressing as a core historical element:
Robin, a male troupe member, regularly performs in women’s costumes and “flirts with men for research.”
Bea disguises herself as a man (“Johnny”) to get work. She flirts loudly with women in a fake macho persona. This is comedic.
Students who accept these roles must understand and consent to work within their boundaries with the director, intimacy director, and choreographer to safely and ethically stage these moments.