Intimacy for Stage and Screen

Applications are no longer being accepted for this program.

Time to completion: one year (18 credits)

Columbia College Chicago’s Intimacy for Stage and Screen Certificate program is a rigorous examination of responsible and responsive approaches to the rehearsal and performance of staged intimacy, and the broader exploration of culturally informed, inclusive, and consent-based performance practice.

The program supports individuals seeking to engage in a range of professional intimacy work in theatre, film, and other live performance contexts, including work as a choreographer, coordinator, consultant, educator, and/or consent and boundaries specialist. 

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In the Classroom

Certificate coursework investigates tested methodologies applied in professional and educational settings where theatrical storytelling necessitates a heightened level of vulnerability in performance, including staged depictions of sex, nudity, and sexual violence. The certificate curriculum is grounded in academic inquiry and evidence-based research that supports dynamic, equitable, and sustainable performance practice in collaborative professional environments.

We place a heavy emphasis on practical work and prioritizing opportunities for students to apply their developing skills while collaborating on theatrical productions, assisting in workshop situations, and integrating new tools into their existing practice as artists and creatives. Research projects and practicum opportunities allow students to explore specialized applications of intimacy work adapted to their individual interests and experience.

Classes meet on weekday evenings and weekends to support mid-career learners and working professionals. This 9-month, 18-credit hour course of study is among the first offered at an accredited college in the U.S., and qualifies as full-time, graduate level enrollment.

As a result of successfully completing program requirements, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate cultural competency by engaging in training and practical activities to support diversity, equity, and inclusion specific to the fields of Intimacy Choreography and Coordination;
• Exhibit comprehension of consent, power dynamics, and boundaries specific to the fields of theatre/live performance, cinema, and education, and practice techniques for mitigating and addressing those issues
• Utilize choreography and physical storytelling and acquire tools and techniques specific to coaching and crafting intimate scenes; 
• Demonstrate theatre/live performance specific processes, roles, power dynamics and hierarchies, collaborative methods, team structures, and procedures for working in the theatre/live performance industries; and
• Demonstrate an understanding of cinema and television specific processes, roles, power dynamics and hierarchies, collaborative methods, team structures, and procedures for working in the cinema/television industry.

Intimacy for Stage and Screen Courses

Grow your consent-based skill set

As a result of successfully completing program requirements, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate cultural competency by engaging in training and practical activities to support diversity, equity, and inclusion specific to the fields of Intimacy Choreography and Coordination.
• Exhibit comprehension of consent, power dynamics, and boundaries specific to the fields of theatre/live performance, film, and education, and practice techniques for mitigating and addressing those issues.
• Utilize choreography and physical storytelling and acquire tools and techniques specific to coaching and crafting intimate scenes.
• Demonstrate theatre/live performance specific processes, roles, power dynamics and hierarchies, collaborative methods, team structures, and procedures for working in the theatre/live performance industries.
• Demonstrate an understanding of film and television specific processes, roles, power dynamics and hierarchies, collaborative methods, team structures, and procedures for working in the film/television industry.
  
  

Who might be interested in this certificate?

• Mid-career performing arts professionals seeking to evolve their skill set and expand their practice to include ethical and sustainable approaches to vulnerable work.
• Emerging arts professionals who are passionate about a culture shift within the performing arts community that celebrates resilience, diversity, and consent-based work & learning environments.
• Practitioners of live and recorded mediums where consideration of heightened vulnerability is of particular focus or particularly complex (i.e. improvised work, immersive performance, or collaboration within vulnerable communities)
• Performing arts educators invested in equitable classroom practices that support a lifetime of creative inquiry and healthy, sustainable approaches to performing arts training.