[Exhibitionist] My nude performance on stage

[daveduchovny]

Originally Posted by meg2001

Thanks Dave! You have been quite helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to brainstorm suggestions.

11) A selection of masks (animal masks, carnivale masks etc)
12) A polaroid camera
13) A large roll of blank paper
14) A hessian sack
15) A box of donuts
16) A mattress
17) A cool-box of ice cubes
18) A lady's silk scarf
19) A chamber pot
20) An electric razor

[ENF Hero]

Might I suggest candles? With still poses they still have the action of wax falling and that might be interesting to play with (as well as the danger of fire)

[Saddledrifter]

My husband asked me to recall for you my first time to dance on stage for a group. It wasn't in a strip joint or club. Instead, it was at a biker rally on a make-shift stage on a 5th wheel toy hauler trailer. The trailer owner had lowered his back door and set up a stage with a stripper pole. I had been drinking all afternoon and evening. Initially, I had been recruiting ladies from the audience to get up and strip on the stage. Some did and some didn't. I was about 40% successful in my recruiting, but for some reason as the evening wore on fewer women wanted to get on stage. Then one of the ladies that had already stripped about three times grabbed me out of my chair and pulled my fishnet top off, and pulled me on stage with her. I danced with her on the pole for a short while, and then she left me up there by myself. The guys in the audience were all whooping and calling out for me to take my little bikini shorts off. I was commando that evening and was reluctant to drop the shorts and dance naked. Finally, my song was over and I had only pulled my shorts down to expose my ass, but no pussy during that dance. I was glad when the song finished, and I was able to climb down off the stage. However, with all the guys hollering, clapping and whistling for my dance, I felt somewhat empowered by it and hot at the same time.

After a few more girls had danced, the boyfriend of the woman that had pulled me up on the stage the first time, grabbed me out of my chair and said, you are going to dance on the pole with me. I was still just in my shorts with no top on. He got me up on stage. He was just wearing a pair of jeans with no shirt. We started out by sliding around the pole in opposite directions. Initially. I was facing in toward the pole and would dip under his arm as we crossed paths. However, after a while I turned out toward him and would rub my tits across his bare chest as we passed. Then he started rubbing my tits with his hands each time we passed one another. Then I reached down and pulled my shorts down below my ass and rubbed that hot ass against his package still buried in his jeans. I don't remember whether I then pulled my shorts down to my feet or if he did it, but soon my shorts were down around my ankles. I stepped out of them and he tossed them to my husband in the crowd. Then we continued twirling around the pole with me naked, and he continued by feeling my tits, ass and pussy with each revolution around the pole. I began to realize that we had danced through three songs since i first hit the stage. But before we stopped, someone painted my tits with chocolate syrup, and my dancing partner dropped down and licked those tits clean. The crowd went wild. I was so drunk that I was having trouble standing up and twirling on that pole. We had several more trips circling around the pole, but I think my studly guy realized that I was about to fall down, so he helped me back to my chair.

By the time I was escorted back to my chair, I was so hot, I was about to squirt. I was still nude. I told my husband that I better get back to our motor home. He was O.K. with that. As we started to walk away, my dancing partner pulled up with a golf cart and told us to get in and he would carry us back to our motor home. I think my husband was happy to see the cart, because he was afraid that he might have to carry me back to the motor home. As we got out of the motor home, my dancer guy was telling us how hot I was and how he was getting stone aches from having danced with me. He said that he could sure use some relief from those aches. I turned and asked my husband if he cared if i helped him out. He agreed to let me. It took both my dancer guy and my husband to get my naked body up the stairs into that motor home. Once I was in there, I laid back on the couch and said that I was too drunk to give my dancer a head job, and that he would just have to fuck me there on the couch. He slipped off those jeans and exposed a really good sized erect dick. He climbed on me and proceeded to pump away. I remember getting one climax before he ever came, but then I think I passed out before he was finished. My husband tells me that before he was all done, I had gotten three climaxes. All I know is that I was a little sore the next morning and didn't recall anything after that initial climax. But that is the story of my first stage dance and strip. It was a lot of fun, and I did feel empowered with all those guys hollering and whistling for me. I hope i can do it again sometime in the future.

[Jobin]

Originally Posted by meg2001

Part of me wants a role in an edgy drama where I have dialogue and character development. Acting is the reason I got involved in this group to begin with. But so far the plays we’ve looked at are too tepid. This is where I ask for your help - if you guys know of any really edgy, boundary pushing plays, I would love to hear about them. I think our troupe has developed a bit of a shock reputation, which we like, but it seems hard to find material out there to perform.

Meg

My top suggestion would be "A Thought in Three Parts" by Wallace Shawn. Proper writing from a well-known playwright, but denounced in Parliament after protests when put on at London's Royal Court Theatre in the 1970s, and I think it has only been performed once since in the UK. I went to that revival, by a student group at Battersea Arts Centre in 2002; it remains easily the most explicit piece of quality theatre I have seen on stage (with one exception, which is another story).

The long second act - the majority of the play - involves a prolonged orgy of sexual experimentation among four students in a hostel dormitory. There's no way of portraying it demurely - the actors are naked from the moment the exceedingly shy Bob manages to ask Judy to undress and masturbate for him. But you can decide how far to push the boundaries: at Battersea it was half-under, half-on top of the bedcovers, but I think the scene where Helen invites the two boys to compete to see how high up her chest they can squirt was probably faked... There are reviews online of more recent productions by Rubber Repertory in Austin and Yale University which will give you a good idea.

In return, can I ask how the nudity in your own production was first broached? How did you or Lucy decide which of you was going to be the naked female? Was Lucy disappointed or relieved? Or was the nudity only decided on once you'd taken the role - in which case was it your idea, or did someone pluck up the courage to ask you - or just try stripping you? Was the request matter-of-fact or a big deal; your choice, or something expected of you as an actor? How did you and the group react to the knowledge that they were going to see their friend naked for the first time?

Jobin

[meg2001]

Originally Posted by daveduchovny

12) A polaroid camera

Thanks again! I enjoy your ideas.

You say a polaroid camera, but a digital camera could be quite interesting. What if we had one poser with a digital camera (or phone). They go around the scene taking provocative pictures of our poses and we project the most recent photo on a big screen on the stage. It could have a few added benefits.

First, the camera will be able to get close ups and project things large on the screen that members of the audience would otherwise be unable to see - especially if they are not right up close to the stage. We could introduce a bit more subtlety in some of the poses where the details would otherwise be lost. We do a bit with me in doggy style, Andrew pulling my ass cheeks apart and having his face pushed up into my parts. With a camera projecting onto a screen, I think you could introduce more tension. He spreads my cheeks, then the poser pulls out his tongue. Get a picture of his outstretched tongue an inch from my holes. Push his head forward, maybe see his tongue touching my cheek. Maybe more I don’t know we’d have to rehearse it. But a lot of those small details are lost without the close up of a camera.

Second, I wonder if it triggers a more sexual response from the viewers. Imagine a pose where Andrew is on his back, I am on all fours over him, his fist is holding the base of his cock and my fist is wrapped around his, my mouth is open, my tongue extended and two inches from the head of his penis. When you see that in the performance, it’s of course highly sexual, but not mistaken for a blowjob. You see our bodies morphing into that pose and holding still as they move different parts of ours.

Now imagine a picture of that pose projected on a big screen. Because it’s a moment in time, I wonder if it tricks the brain into thinking this is a frozen moment from a moving scene. You are used to seeing pictures in porn that you know what happens next, so I wonder if the brain sort of fills in the gaps and interpolates the motion. What do you guys think?

Or what about the idea of audience participation! We have two phones. We run through poses for about half the time, then we bring up a male and female audience volunteer. Then we let them take whatever shots they want with the camera and they are broadcast on the screen (side by side).

We could label which is the guy’s phone vs the girls. It would be interesting to look at the gender differences. Do you think the guy volunteer would take extremely explicit pictures of my genitals? Would the female volunteer focus more on the shapes of our bodies, facial expressions? Andrew? Would be an interesting psychology experiment.

Of course I don’t know how to hook up a phone to a screen like that but I’m sure it could be done. I like the idea of projecting pictures, rather than video. For some reason I just feel it would make the already still poses come to life more - paradoxically.

Then of course there is the matter of the pictures! I would certainly want them destroyed after every performance. Or maybe I would just want to own them myself so they didn’t fall into the wrong hands. In fact I would love to see what we look like from a voyeurs point of view. I might enjoy some alone time with those pictures haha and save them as keepsakes.

What do you guys think of this idea? Do you think it would add something?

[meg2001]

Originally Posted by ENF Hero

Might I suggest candles? With still poses they still have the action of wax falling and that might be interesting to play with (as well as the danger of fire)

Candles are a great idea!! Thank you for your suggestion!

I think it actually can introduce quite a bit of drama. Imagine a poser lights a long stemmed candle then places it in Andrew’s hand. The poser moves Andrew’s other hand directly over the flame, far enough away that we have rehearsed and know it is safe but close enough that the audience is worried. They leave it there and pose me.

Maybe they pose me with my feet on the floor, knees bent, bum on the floor. My back is arched severely, elongating my abdomen, nipples pointing to the sky, my head is on the floor - almost the top of my head and I’m looking upside down away from my body. Arms flat on the floor for balance. Sorry this is a hard position to describe but it’s a beautiful shape and it leaves me quite vulnerable in the midsection and also (importantly) not able to see my body.

Then they move Andrew and he holds the candle tilted above my body. They can continue to pose different parts of us, but as the candle burns hot wax drips down and lands on my body.

What’s exciting about this is that the timing of the drips is unpredictable and I can’t see them coming. And if I flinch, then I’ve broken character, so I really need to be able to take the hot wax without flinching. But the audience is wondering where the wax will hit me and if I’m going to flinch or gasp. The posers can decide if they position the candle above my tummy, my breasts, my groin, etc, they can make Andrew hold it in his mouth, etc escalating as they go.

Of course I have to figure out if I can do this without flinching. Maybe I’ll do some homework. I also wonder if the height that the wax drips from affects the temperature (maybe more time to cool through the air). Maybe I’ll have some wine and burn myself tonight haha.

[meg2001]

Originally Posted by Saddledrifter

My husband asked me to recall for you my first time to dance on stage for a group.

Thanks for sharing your story! I’m glad you had a good experience, certainly sounds adventurous. I do think female nudity can be empowering when you retain control. I’m a bit sorry to hear that you were so drunk and your husband let the guy fuck you while you were passed out. But I’m glad in the end you felt it was a fun experience!

[meg2001]

Originally Posted by Jobin

Meg

My top suggestion would be "A Thought in Three Parts" by Wallace Shawn.

In return, can I ask how the nudity in your own production was first broached? How did you or Lucy decide which of you was going to be the naked female? Was Lucy disappointed or relieved? Or was the nudity only decided on once you'd taken the role - in which case was it your idea, or did someone pluck up the courage to ask you - or just try stripping you? Was the request matter-of-fact or a big deal; your choice, or something expected of you as an actor? How did you and the group react to the knowledge that they were going to see their friend naked for the first time?

Thank you so much for the suggestion! It sounds like a great play!

I googled it and found that Wallace Shawn is the guy from the Princess Bride. Inconceivable! Haha, sorry. I read some reviews and it does sound intriguing. I’ll see if I can hunt down a copy of the script.

I’ll try to answer your questions about how the nudity came about. The amdram group I’m in has a reputation for and really a focus on provocative material. Before this we’ve only done plays, this is the first performance art piece. But all the plays were edgy, typically short-form pieces that we had developed on our own.

Not everyone who’s in the group has been nude yet, but I think it’s widely understood that any play and any role might involve nudity. If you’re not comfortable with that idea then you wouldn’t join the group. Or maybe we are all uncomfortable with the idea but confronting that discomfort is the reason we’re in it. Either way when we’re considering or developing a new piece, it’s always something that’s looming. And not just nudity, but what is going to be required of you to really deliver this performance that is going to be memorable and shocking for the audience. I think we all are interested to try to push ourselves beyond our comfort zone and so far everything we’ve done has been pretty rewarding.

So when the idea for Puppets was first discussed, the guy who presented it had thought it through a lot. And he proposed this piece about societal pressures and puppets and posers. We know from the beginning that sex and violence were going to be strong themes. And we knew from the beginning that we wanted it to be bold, provocative, memorable.

I was interested and volunteered right away. At the time I wasn’t sure what my role would be but I have caught the bug so to speak and want to be involved. Initially we all took turns with both roles and just did improv and experimentation where we would fluidly switch from puppet to poser and back. 6 of us (at the time) rehearsing at once was chaotic but we were starting to understand what worked and what didn’t. There was no nudity involved yet, but we all knew that would likely come.

Over the course of about a week a few things quickly became clear:
1. We needed to separate sex and violence into two different acts. Trying to incorporate them together was too interruptive and made it harder to follow the escalating narrative flow we wanted to achieve.
2. We needed to have dedicated puppets and posers. Switching between the two took away from the impressiveness of the feat of the puppets. I don’t know if it’s obvious but it’s incredibly physically challenging to hold certain positions still for extended periods of time. And the idea that you could just switch to a poser when your arm got tired took away some of the awe.

Because of my dance background it was quickly suggested that I be a puppet. I have good flexibility and balance and can hold interesting shapes for long periods of time. We decided that we wanted the violence act to be between two guys - we considered alternatives, but introducing gender into the equation we felt would be a distraction from the central message. And for the sex act, we debated two female puppets but again felt like the core message was about sexualization of individuals by society, not LGBTQ and keeping a traditional guy/girl pairing made that more focused. So I sort of fell into the role of the female puppet in the sex act because it just made the most sense

I think Lucy was a bit relieved but honestly she is also quite clever as a poser. It’s really up to the creativity of the posers to make sure that the act is engaging and she is full of innovative ideas. She is also quite horny and I think she got off on the idea of making Andrew and I do things. She admitted to a crush on Andrew and she is also bisexual, but that is neither here nor there.

Anyway I signed on to be the female sex puppet knowing that we wanted to include some level of nudity in the performance. I certainly did not imagine I would spread myself explicitly in front of the audience for extended periods of time. I said it before but it was just constant butterflies knowing I was going to be nude, and doing bold things, but now knowing how far we would go with things. But I sort of enjoy those butterflies, the knot in the stomach, the whole thing is a rush for me and that’s part of why I like to do it.

And from there it all just developed organically. We eased into the nudity over a number of rehearsals. It was quite thrilling and nerve wracking the first time my bra came off, the first time my panties slid down, etc. We didn’t really talk in advance about it (never said, like, today’s rehearsal I am going to take your panties off). We just tried more and more each time.

My consent was really my complicity. If I didn’t want the poser to strip me, expose me in a certain way, or have Andrew touch me in a particular place, I was always free to move or stop. But I never did. As I’ve said before we developed this trust. I think they knew not to take things too quickly for me and I was open to try slightly bolder things each time.

I remember the second rehearsal where I had been stripped fully nude, I was laying flat on my back, Lucy pulled my knees up so my feet were on the floor. Then she slowly started to spread my knees apart. I knew this meant that I would be exposing my vagina to everyone in the group for the first time. I can’t describe the mix of adrenaline, anxiety, arousal, and excitement that the moment had for me but I let her do it. It was intoxicating. And for the better part of a month, each rehearsal held many such moments. Each time we crossed a new boundary.

There was a lot of sexual tension in the air through all the rehearsals. We were striving for eroticism and we definitely all felt aroused by the experience. We talked about that and gave ourselves the allowance to be aroused. I think in most such productions there is this sort of faux professionalism denial - “it’s just a part I’m playing but it’s not at all arousing to me personally”. We sort of broke that down in this piece and said the objective here is this message of sexualization and eroticism. We want the audience to be aroused by what they see. And therefore we want to allow ourselves as performers to explore our own desires and fetishes.

It was a safe space for us to all explore the essence of arousal together. I think that gave Glenn the freedom to acknowledge and explore his foot fetish - and that was good because it’s a real thing in society. Similarly we played with themes of masturbation, domination, submission, exhibitionism, role play, degradation, lust, etc. Because those are all authentic reflections of sex in society.

And I think that’s why I feel like it’s okay for me to talk about this in the way I have here. Because we talked about it with each other and we acknowledged that we were all aroused by the whole thing.

It wouldn’t have worked to sit down at the beginning of each one and say - well today I’m going to try to put your hand on Andrew’s penis for the first time. They were just things that we experimented with spontaneously in the moment. And I think not knowing what was coming made it so much more exciting for me and to some extent I think that’s the experience the audience has as well.

We did always talk about things afterwards. Share our thoughts on what worked the best and what didn’t. What turned us on the most or what made us uncomfortable. So I could say things like I don’t think I want my anus in view for such an extended period of time haha. But we would sort of take the best bits from each night and then slowly developed a sequence and flow that we would begin to follow, introducing new things along the way.

Excuse the extended ramble but I wanted to try to give you a sense for how it came about. Feel free to ask any more questions!

[ENF Hero]

Originally Posted by meg2001

Candles are a great idea!! Thank you for your suggestion!

I think it actually can introduce quite a bit of drama. Imagine a poser lights a long stemmed candle then places it in Andrew’s hand. The poser moves Andrew’s other hand directly over the flame, far enough away that we have rehearsed and know it is safe but close enough that the audience is worried. They leave it there and pose me.

I love all your ideas. I wish I could see this play! The idea of not being able to see the wax drip is really smart and adds a lot of tension to the performance.

I miss my college days when performances like this were more easy to find. I would t know how to find one post COVID even though I’m on the younger side (I suspect we may be the same age)

[ENF Hero]

Originally Posted by meg2001

Candles are a great idea!! Thank you for your suggestion!

I think it actually can introduce quite a bit of drama. Imagine a poser lights a long stemmed candle then places it in Andrew’s hand. The poser moves Andrew’s other hand directly over the flame, far enough away that we have rehearsed and know it is safe but close enough that the audience is worried. They leave it there and pose me.

I love all your ideas. I wish I could see this play! The idea of not being able to see the wax drip is really smart and adds a lot of tension to the performance.

I miss my college days when performances like this were more easy to find. I would t know how to find one post COVID even though I’m on the younger side (I suspect we may be the same age)