The Journal of Consent-Based Performance

Praxis and Perspectives on Intimacy

If you have attended Theatrical Intimacy Education workshops or seminars, or have chatted with us over coffee, you may have heard us say that our long-term goal has always been to put ourselves out of business.

It seems counter-intuitive, but we mean what we say.

We don’t think the world will ever stop needing ethical, efficient, effective intimacy work and qualified, thoughtful people to do it. Nor do we think that the work is close to done in changing the culture of consent in training, in rehearsal, or on set. 

We want to put ourselves out of business by building a groundswell of artists who think critically about the practices we’ve inherited. We want to gather those artists together to interrupt harmful imbalances in our art forms and to speak out when something isn’t right. We want to see the whole community work together to spread and act upon the values we hold rather than the financial interest of a few. We want to empower everyone in the rehearsal room or on set, regardless of their training background or years of experience, to make changes for the better. 

We have a long road ahead, but thanks to you, we are on our way there.

Things are changing. Consent and factors that complicate consent are finally being recognized as central, foundational considerations in production processes and in performing arts education. People are beginning to think critically about how they approach intimacies in the rehearsal room, in the classroom, on set, in theory, in practice, and in pedagogy. As theatres and producing organizations hire more and more intimacy professionals, we need to meet the educational, resource, partnership, and access needs of this growing, learning community.

And no one organization, school of thought, or individual has all of the answers. 

We need this community’s knowledge, big ideas, and resources to be accessible in order for the field of consent-based performance to grow.

We need to work together to learn from--and to teach--one another to pause, interrogate what we’re doing, and then create more equitable and competent consent-based practices. As a collective, we need to recognize the value of the work that has come before us and the work our peers are doing now, and consciously recommit ourselves to growing, learning, and doing better now and in the future. 

In service of this aim of strengthening and growing the accessible body of knowledge of intimacy professionals, practitioners, and educators, we are proud to launch The Journal of Consent-Based Performance. 

This journal will promote community-based learning among intimacy professionals, without the gatekeeping often associated with scholarly models and the arts industry. 

The JCBP will stand firmly rooted in the study, practice, and pedagogy of consent-based performance practices, with one foot planted in theory and scholarship, and the other foot planted in public knowledge generation. 

Our hope is for the JCBP to become a resource for all, fueled by the intimacy community’s collective input and discoveries. 

In alignment with our commitment to accessibility, our writing will always be open to the public, rather than behind paywalls or for “members only”. And when we say “our writing,” we are including you. 

JCBP will solicit and publish the discoveries of artists, theorists, and educators engaging with consent-based performance. We will open the journal with works by the TIE faculty, but we will shortly invite submissions from the public community of intimacy professionals from all perspectives and approaches.

Writing is hard and for many practitioners seems inaccessible. If you want to share your ideas, but don’t know where to start or where to go, Amanda Rose Villarreal, an Assistant Faculty on the TIE team, has been hired as the editor of this journal to be a resource for you. It is our aim to lower the barrier to “scholarly writing” and bring theorists, artists, practitioners, and educators from our community of intimacy professionals and mentor those authors towards publishing public scholarship in this journal.

We look forward to collaborating with our community and to continue learning from one another and sharing our discoveries. Because we at TIE believe that the center of knowledge cannot be held by any one person, organization, or lived experience. We must all work to inform one another and improve our practice, together. Articles already in the works and calls for new submissions will be rolling out over the coming months. 

We can’t wait to go out of business with all of you.  

Welcome to The Journal of Consent-Based Performance.