The Columbia College Chicago Office of Development and Alumni Relations has posted the video of a panel of Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumni and former faculty discussing “Intimacy for Stage and Screen.” The panel, which took place via Zoom on June 21, 2023, featured Tony Award-winning Broadway director David Cromer HDR ’17, a former student and teacher at the Columbia College Theatre Department and recipient of a 2017 Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Columbia College. Joining Cromer were Columbia College alums Sheryl Williams ’20, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Musical Theatre with a Minor in Stage Combat; Bessie Zolno ‘20, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Musical Theatre with a Minor in Stage Combat; and Orion Barnes ‘97, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting with a focus in stage combat. The panel was moderated by Columbia College alum Khanisha Foster ’02, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting. Also participating were Theatre Department faculty member Susan Padveen, Interim Allen and Lynn Turner Chair of Theatre, and Columbia College alum Sarah Schroeder ’00, the college’s Director of Alumni Engagement.
The conversation focused on the work of staging and performing intimate scenes in theatre and film, a field that is rapidly growing as more focus is given to safe and consent-based production. Here is the video:
As previously reported in this blog, the panel offered the opportunity to hear from theatre practitioners, intimacy coordinators, and intimacy choreographers who are pushing boundaries of this fast-growing field in film, TV, and live performance. Those interested in the field are also invited to explore Columbia College’s new Intimacy for Stage and Screen Certificate program, which offers an in-depth, year-long education in coordination, choreography, and advocacy for theatrical intimacy and performance. This one-year, 16-credit graduate certificate program is currently accepting students for fall and is designed to empower artists with industry best practices for the safe, ethical, inclusive, and effective staging of intimacy, nudity, and sexual violence for both stage and screen. Columbia is currently admitting the first group to the Intimacy for Stage and Screen Certificate program. Interested students can apply HERE.
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About the panelists:
David Cromer
David Cromer HDR ’17, a former student and faculty member at the Columbia College Theatre Department and recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Columbia College in 2017, is a director and actor with extensive credits on and off Broadway as well as in Chicago and American regional theatre. He won the 2018 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for directing the Broadway hit The Band’s Visit. Cromer is based in New York City.
Sheryl Williams
Sheryl Williams ’20, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Musical Theatre with a Minor in Stage Combat, is a fight choreographer/intimacy consultant based in Chicago, where she has worked with such companies as Court Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Music Theatre Works, Free Street Theatre, and Jackalope.
Bessie Zolno
Bessie Zolno ‘20, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Musical Theatre with a Minor in Stage Combat, is a mental health-informed violence and intimacy choreographer and performer based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where she helps create collaborative and consent-driven spaces.
Orion Barnes
Orion Barnes ‘97, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting with a focus in stage combat, is an instructor of stage combat and intimacy choreography at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles and a founding member of Sword Fights, Inc., a full team of sword fight stunt performers for battle reenactments and stunt work.
Khanisha Foster
The panel’s moderator was Columbia College alum Khanisha Foster ’02, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting. Foster is an actor, director, writer, and solo performer based in Los Angeles.
