How about live theater nudity?
Someone griped about another person posting a story about ballet. I think live theater nudity is a fine topic. I have seen Hair done by a local college with the famous nude number. I have also seen a local production of the Full Monty. Backlit full frontal nudity. One drama I saw years ago in Chicago had a man walk out fully nude drying his hair as the opening scene. He was explaining the setting of the play. Two couples trapped in a underground bunker . Anyone else seen a production with on stage nudity?
I'm the one who commented on the ballet and I didn't mean to say I don't approve of on stage nudity. On the contrary, I absolutely love onstage nudity in theatre and dance. I and others compared and contrasted the nude scene in the film version of Equus with live versions. I've seen it more on stage than on film and have always enjoyed it. In another thread there were comments about a U.K. televised documentary on the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev that showed nudity. I would love to know more about it. My comment about the ballet post wasn't meant to offend. I was pointing out that the post was more about being able to see the outline of the dancer's anatomy more than about nudity onstage, and it wasn't really about film or television nudity. I should have been more articulate and more inclusive.
Someone griped about another person posting a story about ballet. I think live theater nudity is a fine topic. I have seen Hair done by a local college with the famous nude number. I have also seen a local production of the Full Monty. Backlit full frontal nudity. One drama I saw years ago in Chicago had a man walk out fully nude drying his hair as the opening scene. He was explaining the setting of the play. Two couples trapped in a underground bunker . Anyone else seen a production with on stage nudity?
I've seen Hair on stage three times and also the movie and I think the nudity on stage was way more effective than in the movie. I've seen Equus on stage twice and also the movie and the nude scenes were really well presented in all. I've seen Naked Boys Singing and Chorus Boys. I always wanted to see Take Me Out. It's interesting that I saw the series Fosse/Verdon last year and absolutely loved it. They, as a team, transformed theater dance and pushed a lot of limits on stage. They really were quite brilliant. They were able to use dance in a way to strip away the characters to reveal truth in performance the way a lot of ballet does. Take a look at Cabaret, Pippin and Chicago. There is a brilliant dance sequence to the song From This Moment On in the MGM musical film version of Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate. The dancers are extraordinary and Ann Miller's tap and Vera Ellen's jazz dances are beautiful. Now watch when the young Bob Fosse does his piece! I swear it is the exact moment when 1940's film dance was pushed away by the future of theatre dance. I want to see them naked. And in the scene in Damn Yankees locker room dance scene, when you watch Gwen Verdon dancing to Whatever Lola Wants, it actually doesn't matter that she is wearing clothes. She is so stunning in her performance we get everything about her and everything about the scene. However, I think if Tab Hunter could have been nude in that scene it would have been perfect because she is going fur Joe's soul and stripping him naked in the locker room would have been a stroke of genius. The only problem is it never could happen in film or onstage in the 1950s and would now never happen, except maybe in an off Broadway production.
I'm a retired theatre teacher and I've started my own theatre company. There are several guys in out men's nude clubs that want me to do a play with an all nude male cast. They don't seem to understand how that works in theatre. I am not against nudity on stage but it has to be justified. To have naked men onstage just to have naked men is gratuitous and serves no theatrical purpose. I do like the idea of a production with all nude men because by the first 10 minutes the audience doesn't see it. If you've ever seen the movie Prospero's Books you know what I mean. Everyone is nude and when a dressed actor (Mark Rylance) comes on stage later in the movie, it's shocking.
I've seen Take Me Out on Broadway and by a local amateur group. The Broadway production was wonderful but the local, not so much. The director failed to tell the actors who would be nude to stop shaving their bodies. Professional baseball players have body and pubic hair! I've also seen Equus several times, the most recent with Daniel Radcliff. It's one of my favorite plays and DR did a great job! He looked nice naked, too. The reception of the nudity was a total opposite of the nudity in the original Broadway tour that I saw in Cincinnati. When the actor got naked the audience was suddenly pulled out of the play and were aware of a naked man on stage, not a character being stripped to his essence. I love Polobulus' nude work.
So, does anyone have suggestions of plays the could be done with total nudity?
I totally understand your comments and the complexity of your decision. I don't know about the entire production being nude and if it has to be all male it's a problem but I could see doing Macbeth with lots of nudity. I also wonder about The Emperor Jones. To me, The Boys In The Band now feels dated but I wonder about it with nudity. Whatever it is, the nudity has to work with the story and anything that is done for gratuitous reasons is always just that. It's glaringly gratuitous to me. I'll think some more. I saw a brilliant west end theatre production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, done in an upstairs small space and it could work nude. You'll just have to change the females to males. Hermio instead of Hermia. Lol. I saw a brilliant chamber theater adaptation of Moby Dick back in the 1970's. It was a stunning achievement to bring a work of such dimension to life in a small basement black box but it was extraordinary. But I din't believe it was ever published so you'd have work with a new adaptation. That seems like a winner for me. I keep thinking of either Greek theatre or I wonder about a war themed piece. Something like A Soldier's Story or All Quiet On The Western Front, all Male, but you'd have to invent some conventions to get them all nude. Like I said, I'll keep thinking abou this.
I saw Barely Proper performed a couple of decades ago at an Eastern Naturist Gathering. I think the play was originally intended to introduce nudism to a clothed audience. A nudist camp on the east coast of the US used to perform it weekly to an audience made up of city folks spending a weekend in the country.
Not too sure how I would feel about Swan Lake performed in the buff. But since ballet and dance is all about the movement of the body - the more of the body you can see the better it is ... Pilobolus is a favourite modern dance group. Several of their dance pieces have been choreographed to incorporate the naked bodies of the dancers. Always with taste and humour. Never vulgar or provocative ... never exploiting the nudity for the sake of nudity ...
On my very first visit to the USA which was in 1989 I saw the musical Oh Calcutta! on Broadway, which had both male and female nudity in it from start to finish.I remember seeing it with a lady friend of mine and because we knew in advance that it was going to be nude we were not realy embarrassed. Two sweet old ladies seated next to us giggled their way through the show! Then almost 10 years later when I returned I saw a play Off Broadway at the famous Actor's Playhouse on Christopher street in New York, titled Making Porn, which had male nudity. I've seen Pina Bausch's Wuppertal Dance Company perform nude as well. All of these productions had their artistic and erotic moments.
Dance movements nude can be very beautiful as they focus on the beauty and agility of the human body without the fuss and frills of costumes. So also in a play where a scene or act in which nudity is natural to the script , it becomes more realistic. Wen nudity is just thrown in for the sake of titillation or is confused with the idea that sex sells, an audience sees through it and it sure becomes an unwanted distasteful element.
In my opinion a number of Greek plays could be staged with nudity in them and I guess even some Bible stories would do well with nudity , like The Creation, Noah's Ark etc. Somewhere in the life of St. Francis of Assisi there could be a nude scene when he leaves his father's house and rejects all material possessions. The possibilities are infinite.
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