nudity in theatre

[nate12387]

In my religion and theatre Class at a Protestant school, we were discussing the play Wit. One thing that came up was if it was appropriate to have the nudity that the author wants to happen at the end of the play. There isn’t anything done inappropriately during the nude part. It’s just as part of the scene she wants the character nude. What do you guys think? After reading the play I almost agree to keep the nude part because of what is going on? However, I would like to know what you all think? Please try and read the play before commenting.

Thanks,

Nathan

 

[puzzleannie]

the greatest dramatists in history managed to suggest all the eroticism they needed for their story w/o onstage nudity. I think the playwright needs to study the work of the great ones and improve his skills.

 

[nate12387]

the greatest dramatists in history managed to suggest all the eroticism they needed for their story w/o onstage nudity. I think the playwright needs to study the work of the great ones and improve his skills.

Question: Have you read Wit?

 

[nate12387]

the greatest dramatists in history managed to suggest all the eroticism they needed for their story w/o onstage nudity. I think the playwright needs to study the work of the great ones and improve his skills.

Another thing, the nude scene isn’t meant to be erotic. This makes me think that you have never read Wit. Which means that you don’t know the context of what I am trying to ask.

 

[OLHope]

I dabbled in theater when I got my Comm. degree, the Director of theater at that time, at my University, never allowed for nudity in a production, I had to be in a bathing suit once, and I did not like that, I learned after that, that I would much rather be behind the scenes because it was just plain uncomfortable. However, the play Wit, I believe, is about Cancer, and I have not read or seen the show or movie, if there is nudity for that, it would not be as it is typically used in the popular fashion, which by way of definition, I mean sexual exploitation and gratification. It is to showcase people as they plainly are in the strife of a complication.

This went to argue the same way when Pope Julius (I think?) chastised Michelangelo for the nudity in the Sistine Chapel. He cursed back at the pope, “well that is what God made us to look like in the flesh.” I’ll be honest, I never could tell the women from the men in his work, they all seem to have this equal muscular build and built as though they were superhuman. Amazing.

I think that nudity under everyday circumstance is ok, there are lines you just do not cross, every theater company has their own mission, and the better ones keep a clear and concise reasoning as for the purpose for the usage of nudity. It is obvious when it runs off-course. Having somewhat mixed feelings about this as I have seen two productions where I did not know there was nudity and I saw them with two different men, same name, ha, but I have to say I was really embarrassed because one of them was a date and it was opening night to Philip Glass’s In the Penal Colony, I should have read it, first (Or gotten a clue from the title, for goodness sake)! I felt so shameful, my date just laughed and I looked down at my lap completely zoned in disbelief.

Actually nudity like this should be encouraged only because we may have to nurse or bathe a parent or elderly person in our lifetime in a predicament of whether we like to or not, and if you are sheltered from so much, you will feel awkward in having to deal with such a situation. I had to once, and I didn’t know what I was doing, never took anatomy phys., you can’t be too sheepish about the body, ailments occur, and you can be as self reliant as possible, but sometimes you stumble as well, who will help aid you?

 

[matt1985]

I reject the nude doesn’t mean sexual notion. I don’t think humans have the ability to not see a nude in a sexual way in the times in which we are living. That’s just my view. I don’t think there’s much of a reason for it on stag.

 

[LilyM]

I reject the nude doesn’t mean sexual notion. I don’t think humans have the ability to not see a nude in a sexual way in the times in which we are living. That’s just my view. I don’t think there’s much of a reason for it on stag.

So you’d get aroused by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling? His statue of David? The statue of Perseus in Florence? The Venus de Milo?

I can assure you, I’ve seen all of them except the Venus de Milo - not a twinge. Millions upon millions of people have seen them - nothing.

How about real life - say, a naked 90-year-old man, or a naked baby? Do you get aroused by those? Or when you’re in the doctor’s office and strip off for a prostate exam or whatever?

While I’d agree that nudity on stage is not always harmful - I’d have to ask what earthly good it does either to the actor or for the audience. And what it achieves that can’t be achieved without the nudity. And I honestly can’t think of anything. See a Christian life is not just about avoiding that which is harmful, but preferring that which is good.

As to being desensitised to nudity - I have three generations of doctors in my family, a good dozen all told. Not a one of them is squeamish about the body in a medical context or any other. Not one of them would say that seeing naked people in a play would be of any benefit to them in that regard either.

 

[Cat]

I don’t think nudity in theater is appropriate in a school setting, including college theater. People are paying to send their kids to the school, through taxes and/or through tuition, and there are too many people who are offended. These people have a right to demand accountability for their money. There are plenty of plays that can be selected without choosing “nude scene” plays.

Also in a school setting, students are in a subordinate position to the teachers/professors, and this means that they may submit to the nude scene, either as an actor or a techie, out of a feeling of coercion (translation–they don’t want to lose a good grade, a position in the college theater company, a graduate assistant spot, the respect of their professors, etc.)

However, in professional theater, I think there are certain shows where the nudity is effective and appropriate. The audience should always be informed in advance, IMO, so that they have the option of not attending the play if nudity is offensive to them for any reason.

I think it’s a personal thing and has a lot to do with how a person was raised. It’s not easy to shake off eighteen or twenty-one years of family and cultural influence. There are people who ARE not comfortable with nudity even in a morally-neutral setting like a hospital. Hospitals go to a lot of trouble to make accomodations for people who are modest, and no one is made to feel bad because they are embarrassed to strip down in front of medical professionals. I don’t think people should be taken to task because a naked person, even in a great work of art or in a hospital bed, makes them feel uncomfortable.

 

[LilyM]

I don’t think nudity in theater is appropriate in a school setting, including college theater. People are paying to send their kids to the school, through taxes and/or through tuition, and there are too many people who are offended. These people have a right to demand accountability for their money. There are plenty of plays that can be selected without choosing “nude scene” plays.

Also in a school setting, students are in a subordinate position to the teachers/professors, and this means that they may submit to the nude scene, either as an actor or a techie, out of a feeling of coercion (translation–they don’t want to lose a good grade, a position in the college theater company, a graduate assistant spot, the respect of their professors, etc.)

However, in professional theater, I think there are certain shows where the nudity is effective and appropriate. The audience should always be informed in advance, IMO, so that they have the option of not attending the play if nudity is offensive to them for any reason.

I think it’s a personal thing and has a lot to do with how a person was raised. It’s not easy to shake off eighteen or twenty-one years of family and cultural influence. There are people who ARE not comfortable with nudity even in a morally-neutral setting like a hospital. Hospitals go to a lot of trouble to make accomodations for people who are modest, and no one is made to feel bad because they are embarrassed to strip down in front of medical professionals. I don’t think people should be taken to task because a naked person, even in a great work of art or in a hospital bed, makes them feel uncomfortable.

“Uncomfortable” is one thing - and that’s fine, I’m naturally very modest myself. The poster went further and said ‘all nudity is sexual’. Not just that all nudity becomes a sexual issue for HIM, but that it is so for everyone. THAT I take issue with, he can’t and shouldn’t speak for all people.

I’m not modest because I consider nudity to always be sexual, or because I think a doctor or whoever will get turned on by my nekkidness, or that I will get turned on by BEING nekkid. I’m modest because I choose to reserve my nudity, as much as possible, for my future husband (and possibly kids), myself and my God.

 

[puzzleannie]

Another thing, the nude scene isn’t meant to be erotic. This makes me think that you have never read Wit. Which means that you don’t know the context of what I am trying to ask.

no and I can’t get any help from what you posted

your title addresses nudity in general, although you mention a specific play, you gave no details to help with a specific answer

you ask us to read an entire play without giving author, link or any other info

 

[edwest2]

I’ve had more than a few conversations with artists and other creative people. It’s clear to me that nudity for art is just an excuse. It’s always presented from some high sounding artistic angle when the goal is something more crude and obviously sexual.

Peace,
Ed

 

[Cat]

My daughter was in the play Edith Stein while she was in college.

Spoiler
At the end of the play, the nuns are executed in Auschwitz. Now everyone knows that victims were marched naked into the gas chambers in the concentration camps. But apparently the playwright (who attended the play at my daughter’s college) didn’t feel that it was necessary to make actresses do the death scene in the nude. They wore a slip-like garment, sheer, but not revealing of any of the sexual parts of the body. It was very effective, as it resembled a death-shroud. The poses of the actresses in their death agonies, too, were very effective in bringing to mind the twisted piles of Jewish bodies that most of us have seen in photos of the concentration camps.

 

[nate12387]

I’ve had more than a few conversations with artists and other creative people. It’s clear to me that nudity for art is just an excuse. It’s always presented from some high sounding artistic angle when the goal is something more crude and obviously sexual.

Peace,
Ed

I would disagree with you. Michelangelo was an artist and made many thing that are nude. I really don’t think he was going for something “crude and obviously sexual” In the same way, a play like Wit, where nudity appears at the end, is not meant in any way to be seen as sexual.