Collin Andrulonis

So you listed a little bit about this trauma-informed teaching.

Tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah, I just did a training over the summer through Heartland Intimacy and Design, which I highly recommend.

I was started, I believe, by Dr. Kate Bissell at OU.

We hire her here at UCO to do all of our intimacy choreography, which is, you know, a pretty new field because back in my day,

back

in my day when there was like a makeout scene in a show you just made out you know that was you just sucked it up and that was what the actors did and you know in college it was fun I guess but not super safe I suppose because then real feelings creep in sometimes and hands go where they shouldn't go or the kiss lingers too long and someone's uncomfortable and so now the whole field has moved into like intimacy being super choreographed and very specific and you turn your head at this angle and you hold it for three beats and then you pull away and your lips stay closed the whole time and there's this much pressure.

So it's a very emerging field and I've learned so much from working with her on our shows here.

All that to say, a piece of their training that they offer is trauma-informed teaching and directing, which is essentially kind of rethinking the model of asking people to... put themselves in like a really traumatic situation to elicit emotions which is now kind of a rejected practice and taking into consideration the whole learner and the whole performer in the way we coach and the way we teach because everyone's story is so nuanced and we have to be I think in a perfect world we have to be very careful to take care of those people.

So it's an excellent training.

It's a 10-hour training that I say anyone should do.

And they offer other trainings on their website as well.

So Heartland Intimacy and Design, I think, is an excellent resource here in the state.

So

how do you go about creating crossing that or bridging that situation, because you don't want to go into a show and say, okay, who has trauma that we need to deal with? I mean, because, I mean, it's not counseling or anything, but again, one of the key things for any director in theater is safety.

You want to make sure everybody feels safe and comfortable.

So how do you go about bridging that or crossing into that area with your actors?

I think there's a lot of things.

I think the first is like destigmatizing conversations around it.

Yes, I agree.

Like we're not therapists, nor should we act like them.

But I think we have to have honest conversations.

Uh, and I think they, they be Dr. Bissell says to use the word work a lot instead of saying like, does a, does a hand on the shoulder, uh, is that okay for you? Instead of saying that saying things like, does that work for you? because it is about the work.

We're here to work.

And if you say, is that okay for you, then people feel pressure to be like, yeah, it's okay, even if it's maybe not.