Our StorY…
Theatrical Intimacy Education was established in 2017 at the 2017 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada that year. It was founded as an official company in 2019 by Laura Rikard and Chelsea Pace.
Rikard and Pace first met at the 2014 ATHE Conference, 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 has been researching and developing tools for consent-based practice in the acting classroom and for better managing power dynamics in theatre arts since becoming an instructor for college students in 2008. This year, Rikard began graduate school at the University of Virginia, where she served as a graduate instructor. It was there that 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 she was often asked to work on scenes for plays that centered on moments of physical intimacy, and found her research helped 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-setting practice as a graduate instructor for skateboarders in her movement class, so 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 complemented 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 that would help people find and learn about the work 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 to be 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 the first Assistant and Associate Faculty members. The team has grown into a respected group of artists, educators, and researchers who continue to develop new workshops and publish about how to progress the performing arts industry, both in training and practice.
From 2018 to the beginning of the global pandemic in March 2020, TIE taught weekend workshops, educational workshops, and held educational residencies across the country. As the United States shut down, TIE launched a series of online 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. 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 organization in theatrical intimacy.
In 2021, Theatrical Intimacy Education launched its 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, TIE founded The Journal of Consent-Based Performance (JCBP) as a complementary resource for all. Edited by team member Amanda Rose Villarreal, Ph.D., the JCBP publishes articles by artists, researchers, and practitioners from around the world on advancing practices in the performing arts industry.
In 2024, TIE branched out to launch its corporate training consent-based solutions. Adapting their research for a broader audience was a seamless transition, and Shively and Rikard have grown the brand to include alternatives to classic sexual harassment training that not only equip organizations and teams to better handle conflict but also educate on professional boundaries and consent, along with the nuances of workplace power dynamics. These engaging, dynamic programs are creating a 21st-century model that works across generations and improves culture and communication.
The company is now owned and operated by Rikard and Shively. They 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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Rikard, Laura. Interview. Conducted by Amiya English. 1 Sep 2023.
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"3.3 Talking Intimacy Coordination With Laura Rikard & Chelsea Pace of Theatrical Intimacy Education" VisAbleBlackwoman, Jeanine T. Abraham, 7 Apr 2022, https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jeanine-t-abraham/episodes/3-3-Talking-Intimacy-Coordination-With-Laura-Rikard--Chelsea-Pace-of-Theatrical-Intimacy-Education-e1gr462
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Footnote: *Chelsea Pace and Laura Rikard invited Kate Busselle to join the original research collective for a trial period. Kate’s resignation from the collective was requested before the legal establishment of the company. None of her intellectual property is part of the TIE Pedagogy.