Our Story…

Theatrical Intimacy Education was established in 2017 by Chelsea Pace and Laura Rikard at the 2017 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference that was held in Las Vegas, Nevada that year. It was founded as an official company in 2019.

Rikard and Pace first met at the 2014 ATHE Conference, when it was held in Scottsdale, Arizona. They were introduced by colleague Dr. Jason Scott, a professor at Arizona State University. He had first met Rikard, a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University, and Pace, a graduate student at Arizona State University, and thought that the two would have a mutual interest in creating better practices for the theatre process.

Rikard had been researching and developing tools for consent-based practice in the acting classroom, and for better managing the power dynamic in theatre arts since becoming an instructor for college students in 2008. During this year, Rikard started graduate school at the University of Virginia, where she was a graduate instructor. It was there where she began developing the tool of de-roling in her Introduction to Acting classes.

When Rikard became a Professor of Theatre, she furthered her research in consent-based practices, the connection between stage movement and acting technique, and disparity in power dynamics in the acting classroom. As a movement teacher and coach, she noticed that she was often being requested to work on scenes for plays that centered around moments of physical intimacy, and found her research was helping support better practices when staging these moments.

Pace was developing a choreographic language for staging moments of physical intimacy, similar to that of fight and dance. This was the focus of her graduate work at Arizona State University. She was also looking for a way to embody how to communicate physical boundaries. She developed her boundary practice as a graduate instructor for skateboarders in her movement class so that they could negotiate their injuries. Boundary practice allows actors to show, guide, and tell their physical boundaries to their partners for specificity and clarity before working together.

Rikard and Pace found that their methods complimented each other, and were often invited to speak on panels at various theatre conferences about their work. In 2017, Professor Kim Shively encouraged Rikard to start a company where people could locate and learn about the work that they were doing. Rikard approached Pace about the idea, and TIE was born. The mission of the company has always been "to train everyone in the room at being better at being in the room".

In 2018, Shively joined TIE, bringing her research as an acting teacher and director on creating consent-based collaboration, and working with minors. By 2019 the company expanded the team of artists, educators, and researchers bringing on board the first Assistant and Associate Faculty members. The team has grown into a respected group artist educators and researchers that continue to develop new workshops, and publish about how to progress the performing arts industry, both in training and practice. 

From 2018 to the the beginning of the global pandemic in March 2020, TIE taught weekend workshops, educational workshops, and held educational residencies all over the country. As the United States shutdown, TIE launched a series of on-line workshops to serve the needs of the theatrical and entertainment industries, and theatre training programs. TIE team members were among the first to choreograph intimacy for virtual performances.

In 2020, Theatrical Intimacy Education launched additional workshops to meet the growing needs of the theatrical and entertainment industries. Affiliate faculty, Kaja Dunn, introduced her Race and Choreography series, building on her already well-established research and teaching. Team member ad Guiding Faculty, Greg Geffrard, launched the Best Practices for BIPOC artists workshop. Guiding Faculty members Raja Benz and Joy Brooke Fairfield taught the first workshops on intimacy and trans artists. The team expanded to include Guiding Faculty members Emily Rollie, Joey Massa, Leo Mock, Lusie Cuskey, and Mya Brown.

In 2021, Kaja Dunn, Chelsea Pace, and Laura Rikard were awarded the Kennedy Center Medallion for Excellence “For your commitment to revolutionizing rehearsal rooms and classroom spaces by implementing systems that center the most vulnerable, and for bringing never-ending clarity and practicality to the art and process of intimacy direction,” and for the impact on Theatre Education and on the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. This important distinction further established Theatrical Intimacy Education as the nation’s premier educational and research-based theatrical intimacy organization.

In 2021, Theatrical Intimacy Education launched their inaugural Educator Advocate Program. Led by Rikard and Shively, educators and leaders from institutions and organizations around the world, traveled to the week-long training. With over 200 applicants, there have been 3 graduating classes of TIE’s Educator Advocate Program, allowing the guiding best practices to extend globally.

In 2022, The Journal of Consent Based Performance (JCBP) was founded by TIE as a complimentary resource to all. Edited by team member Amanda Rose Villarreal, Ph.D. the JCBP publishes articles written by artists, researchers and practitioners from around the world on how to progress the practices in the performing arts industry.

In 2024, TIE branched out to launch it’s corporate training consent-based solutions. Adapting their research to a broader audience was a seamless transition, and Shively and Rikard have grown the brand to include alternatives to classic sexual-harrassment training, which not only equip organizations and teams to better handle conflict, but also educate on professional boundaries and consent, along with the nuances of work-place power dynamics. These engaging, dynamic programs are creating a 21-st century model which works across generations and improves culture and communication.

In 2024 Rikard became the sole owner of the company and launched the TIE Diploma program. The company continues to strive to train everyone in better practices for establishing consent based-spaces in the performance industry and beyond.

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