One of my favourite conversations from the Stageworthy podcast, was my conversation with Intimacy Director, Siobhan Richardson and live action role playing game designer, Nicole Winchester. I wanted to speak to the two of them about emotional bleed in the theatre. Emotional bleed happens with actors portray emotions on stage that bleed into their real lives. This is most common when actors play romantic scenes on stage, and those feelings bleed into their life offstage. This isn’t something that we talk about in the theatre world, at least in any way that’s truly meaningful. Its like the dirty secret of the theatre. We don’t like to admit that it exists.
Bleed happens because our nervous systems, our bodies, don’t know that we are acting. We act “being in love” and the body believes it. As Siobhan says in the conversation: “you’re having real experiences in an imaginary situation.” Of course that’s confusing.
Because its uncomfortable. Actors who are in relationships outside of the play don’t want to acknowledge that they are feeling what they are feeling. And their partner probably feels like something is going on, but the actor is often reluctant to talk about it. And for the actor not in a relationship, it can be confusing and difficult, even more so if the person they are acting with is also in a relationship.
And then there’s the cutesy name we have for when two actors who play romantically involved characters become romantically involved: the “showmance.” And a showmance rarely survives the show. Or worse, it implodes during the run.
That’s why I wanted to talk to both Siobhan and Nicole. Siobhan, because intimacy directors are well aware of how emotions bleed into real life; and Nicole because the Live Action Role Play (LARP) world has been talking about emotional bleed and how to deal with it for years.
In the conversation, we talk about bleed, and also come up with a few suggestions on how to deal with it. Because as Nicole says near the end, bleed isn’t bad in itself, its how you deal with it that makes it an issue. Some of the suggestions are:
- Creating a bubble of the imaginary world, with an in and an out for the world.
- Developing a vocabulary to talk about bleed, allowing for a more open conversation about the experience.
- Finding ways to leave emotional energy behind when changing activities. Like entering a “play space” mentally when transitioning from a non-performance space to a performance space.
There are so many suggestions in the conversation, that there are too many to list here. You’ll find the episode below.
I think we would have a healthier theatre world, if we could more easily talk about bleed. Why it happens, and what it means, rather than pretending it doesn’t exist. It would be better for our relationships, our theatre workplaces, if we could just talk about bleed in a healthy way. What do you think?