Age: 26 • Home & Creative Space: Cleveland Heights • Education: BA in theater/film and media studies from Bucknell University
By Bob Abelman
Flying in the face of the fantasy perpetuated by the musical “42nd Street” is the reality that sexual misconduct has long been part of the entertainment industry. One of the most infamous examples was on the set of the 1972 movie “Last Tango in Paris,” where a nude, simulated sex act was reportedly unscripted and occurred without consent from then-19-year-old actress Maria Schneider.
It wasn’t until the #MeToo movement that concerns about discomfort and mistreatment in scenes of intimacy have been voiced and listened to on a larger scale, resulting in more ethical practices and a greater sensitivity regarding how sex and sexual violence are staged.
This also gave rise to a new role on the creative team of a theatrical production, titled intimacy choreographer, of which Casey Venema is a local practitioner. She has recently worked productions at Blank Canvas Theatre (“Spring Awakening”), Cain Park (“School of Rock”), Karamu House (“Hoodoo Love”), Chagrin Valley Little Theatre (“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”), Playwrights Local (“This is Not Ramona’s Fault”) and Seat of the Pants (“Our Country’s Good”), among others.
Her training began as an actor in college, while portraying a sex worker in a 2017 production of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” The director brought in Laura Rikard, a respected stage movement specialist and theater intimacy educator who has worked in film, television and national tours of theatrical productions. Venema applied what she learned on stage and in workshops to her senior thesis project – a production of Lauren Gunderson’s “Émilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight,” in which the title character and her sometime lover, Voltaire, play out in their passionate romantic battles by, among other things, taking other lovers.
After college, she landed a 2018/2019 artistic directing internship at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland Heights, a playhouse offering regional premieres of important new and often risque off-Broadway plays. Venema stepped in as intimacy choreographer and is currently on staff.
She defines her job as a two-pronged activity that involves advocacy and craft. First and foremost, she ensures actors are respected throughout the process of staging intimacy, that theaters uphold standards of consent and that there is a high level of comfort in moments that require personal vulnerability between actors in theatrical performances.
“So much of the job,” she says, “is identifying each actor’s boundaries and translating them to the creative team.”
“Safe portrayal of physical intimacy requires communication and trust. Casey embodies both of these with aplomb,” says actor Abraham McNeil Adams, who worked with Venema in a recent Dobama production of “This.” “And her process is never pedantic or overbearing. Her manner is warm and thoughtful.”
Craig Joseph, artistic director of Canton’s Seat of the Pants, says “Casey is always clear and articulate in the rehearsal room. She lets actors know exactly what’s coming at them and creates a safe space in which they can explore the intimacy of a script and the story they want to tell.”
The other aspect of the job is learning the director, designer and fight choreographer’s creative vision for the show and helping to translate that vision into intimate movement for the actors.
She also coordinates pre-performance intimacy calls, so actors can review and mark their timing, maintain the established level of comfort and, says Venema, “make sure that mouth wash is part of the equation.”
Bringing in an intimacy choreographer is gaining acceptance and momentum in the industry, but Venema – who is also an actor, director, dramaturg and model represented by the Docherty Talent Agency – is well prepared for a variable and unpredictable job market. She is also the co-founder and co-executive director of Nightbloom Theatre Co., a Cleveland-based ensemble dedicated to producing both new and canonical plays that bolster the voices of marginalized persons and provide artistic opportunities to emerging artists. The company was the recipient of a 2019 Awesome Foundation grant, intended to support projects and programs that “bring maximum awesomeness to Cleveland,” according to its mission statement.
Venema seems to be bringing that to everything she – with consent – touches.
“Having an intimacy choreographer on any production is important, but it becomes imperative when you produce the type of work that Dobama does. Her work on our production of ‘This’ by Melissa James Gibson was a perfect example of handling a challenging moment of intimacy. In that play, there is a scene that involves a woman who is grieving the death of her husband, who in her grief sleeps with her best friend’s husband. Onstage, the story is told through a series of kissing and holding in a hallway that leads into the doorway of an apartment. Casey did an admirable job of choreographing this extended moment in a way that kept the actors safe, effectively told the story and that looked both convincing and elegant onstage. (It’s) no easy feat.”
Nathan Motta, artistic director, Dobama Theatre
What’s next
• “The Other Place,” by Sharr White at Dobama Theatre, 2340 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, from March 10 through April 2, 2023. Directed by Nathan Motta, with Casey Venema as intimacy choreographer. Call 216-932-3396 or visit dobama.org/tickets-index.
• “What We Look Like” by B.J. Tindal at Dobama Theatre from April 21 through May 14, 2023. Directed by Darius Stubbs, with Casey Venema as intimacy choreographer. Call 216-932-3396 or go to dobama.org/tickets-index.
