Houston theatergoers reading show programs lately may have noticed an unusual listing among the creative crew: intimacy coordinator. While the name is somewhat self-explanatory—someone who coordinates intimacy on stage—what does it really mean?

“An intimacy coordinator, or choreographer or director, is a professional movement expert who crafts moments of intimacy on stage,” says Ashley Love, who’s been an intimacy coordinator for productions at the Alley Theatre, Queensbury Theatre, Stages, and others. “Those can include romantic scenes, scenes with nudity or partial nudity, or sexual situations. But any moments with heightened emotion can be intimate.”

Love—yep, that is her real, incredibly fitting last name—is one of many intimacy coordinators working on Houston stages, helping directors and artists feel more comfortable not only with the material they’re presenting, but also the action that goes along with it. Audiences might not realize it, but dances aren’t the only thing on stage that are choreographed. Every move and sequence is measured, well thought-out, and designed to make a play or musical move from the opening act to the curtain call flawlessly.

“Think of it like fight choreography,” Love says. “We don’t just toss swords at actors and say, ‘figure it out.’”

For audiences, the results might not be readily perceived. Casual theatergoers likely only see a kiss under the mistletoe or the way one character caresses another’s arm; they won’t see the hours of rehearsal and the back-and-forth discussions and ideas that went into it. That’s because while having an intimacy coordinator involved might certainly result in a stronger show, the role is really about making sure that actors and the directing team are completely comfortable with the material.

Perhaps a play has stage directions that say, “She kisses him.” From the audience’s perspective, that moment in the show results in an actor kissing another actor. But what kind of kiss is one actor comfortable giving another actor? What kind of kiss is someone else comfortable receiving?

“Working with an intimacy coordinator completely changed the way I approached the scene,” says actor Amanda Martinez, who’s performed at both Main Street Theater and Stages, where she worked with Love. She says intimacy work is always awkward when you start it, but Love made the actors comfortable. “She gave us a lot of tools to separate ourselves as people from the ‘intimate’ moments we have on stage. Your body doesn’t know that you’re acting, which is just something I had never heard or thought of before. The work of an intimacy director relieves the actors of having to feel their way through the intimate work, which is not emotionally healthy.”

When a production is using an intimacy coordinator, rehearsals begin with a check-in, explains Houston-based actor Deborah Hope, who is trained and certified as an intimacy captain. This is another role in this careful choreography. Once the intimacy work is complete and the choreography is in place, Hope can shepherd it in an intimacy coordinator’s absence, much like a dance captain does for the show’s principal choreographer.

“Where are people today? How are they feeling? I worked a show recently where the stage direction was that one character puts an arm around the shoulders of a child in the cast,” Hope says. “So, at rehearsal one day, the kid came to tell me he’d hurt his finger. During that rehearsal, everyone was very careful to work around his injury. I think it’s so important that kids growing up in this business learn they can use their voice in that way.”

Working with boundaries is an important concept to intimacy coordinating. How do you respect those? How do you produce passion and ensure everyone feels safe? And how do you work a rehearsal process to ensure everyone gets on the same page? All of that is central to an intimacy coordinator’s role.

“We choreographed everything down to our breath,” says Martinez of her scenes. “It just makes the work a lot more technical, like a dance would be. The choreography is like: breathe together for two counts, close for two counts and hold for three counts, then shift hands on count three. It was honestly so cool, and took a lot of the pressure off.”

And it’s not just about taking the pressure off actors. Intimacy coordinators help directors, too.

“Having an intimacy coordinator kind of takes away the power dynamic,” says Alley artistic director Rob Melrose. “I know that I try to be a kind artistic director, but I am still in a place of power.”

Melrose says that power imbalance might mean an actor who’s uncomfortable with something in a scene may not feel comfortable speaking to him about it, despite his own insistence that they can. But that actor can go to the intimacy coordinator and share concerns, which can then be folded into the rehearsal process to help everyone feel safe and seen.

“We want to protect everyone in the production,” he says. “So, we have to figure out, how do we do these scenes and these actions, and make it look like this is happening and ensure everyone is comfortable.”

Love sees herself as someone who can help connect those kinds of dots. She trained in fight choreography and intimacy while in graduate school at the University of Idaho, and went on to take workshops through the National Society of Intimacy Professionals. She learned how to lead the rehearsal process and apply physical and psychological techniques to create boundaries and help actors express their comfort levels.

Hope began her training during the pandemic, taking courses virtually with Ann James, who founded Intimacy Coordinators of Color and who serves as the intimacy and sensitivity consultant for productions of Hamilton in the US and the UK, along with Broadway productions such as Parade and Sweeney Todd. Hope became interested in the work through those virtual workshops, which pushed her to get her captain’s certification. She’s currently pursuing certification as an intimacy coordinator.

“I’ve worked in situations back in the day where guys would think it was a free-for-all,” Hope says. “But young actors coming up today? That’s going to be just a story, not a reality for them. And I think that’s so important and so great.”