Stunt and intimacy coordinators add sparks to Alliance’s ‘Fires, Ohio’

And seemingly at the opposite end of the stagecraft spectrum is stunt coordinator Jake Guinn.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Alliance Theatre

Credit: Photo courtesy of Alliance Theatre

You wouldn’t think the man who teaches actors how to throw a punch and stumble convincingly onstage would have much in common with the woman helping actors navigate onstage heavy petting and kisses.

But Guinn and Hackman say their work is more similar than you might imagine. “A lot of folks who do intimacy coordination,” Hackman said, “come from the fight world.”

Inspired by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s 1897 “Uncle Vanya,” “Fires, Ohio” is a family drama that blends tension, intimacy, grief, longing, comedy and pain, said the play’s director Marissa Wolf, artistic director at Oregon’s Portland Center Stage.

Credit: (Courtesy of Alliance Theatre)

Credit: (Courtesy of Alliance Theatre)

“Fires, Ohio,” said Wolf, “is a gorgeous family drama buoyed with humor that is centered around the climate and environmental catastrophe and what it is to be a family in the middle of a small town in Ohio, a small college town, with a stranger who comes to dinner.”

That visitor sets the drama into delirious motion and, as Wolf said, “lives are changed and nothing is the same.” As wildfires move closer and closer to their Ohio town, emotional sparks also fly.

But while Chekov’s play was interior and ruminative, “Fires, Ohio’s” playwright Beth Hyland (who won the 22nd annual Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Award and the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting) focuses on more explosive, externalized action, said Wolf.

And that’s where Hackman and Guinn come in. Both guide the play’s actors in sex scenes and moments of tension with the goal of avoiding negative impact on their mental or physical health.

Credit: (Courtesy of Alliance Theatre)

Credit: (Courtesy of Alliance Theatre)

“What you’re doing is you’re training somebody to be comfortable in, an uncomfortable scenario, right?” said Guinn, of how stunt coordinators work. In fact, Guinn’s own fiancée Ash Anderson is an intimacy coordinator. “We have a lot of interesting conversations about the nature of choreography,” he said.

Growing up in Louisiana with a stunt coordinator father and a modern dancer mother, Guinn, co-founder of East Point-based Havoc Movement production company, has spent a lifetime thinking about how to make meaning out of movement.

Hackman, for her part, believes the challenge of coordinating the subtle and not-so-subtle movements in a sex scene is much like choreographing a fight. “Because you’re trying to create choreography that tells a very specific story, while everybody on stage is safe and confident with the choreography they’re doing,” she said. “And at the same time, it needs to be repeatable, you know, eight times a week.”

Credit: (Courtesy of Alliance Theatre)

Credit: (Courtesy of Alliance Theatre)

Hackman has been an intimacy coordinator for eight years and taught the first intimacy classes in the University of Georgia system. She has coached theater and film students at both Georgia State University and at Oglethorpe University where she is currently teaching an Intro to Intimacy for Stage and Screen class on the delicate choreography of boundaries, consent, hands on knees, hands on thighs, who kisses first and the many possibilities of an onstage makeout session.

Many have attributed the emergence of intimacy coordinators, who now number over 100 nationally, to the #MeToo movement and revelations of sexual predation in Hollywood.

And in 2024, intimacy coordinators solidified their centrality in the entertainment world by joining the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) union.

The concern for the physical and mental safety of actors that Hackman exercises as an intimacy coordinator is close to what Guinn does when coaching actors on the mechanics of aggression without harm.

As Guinn describes it, what a stunt coordinator does is work alongside the director and actors to achieve an element of truth and authenticity. “You’re talking real specific with the director about what their vision is for the moment, and really working with the actors to, you know, satisfy their character arcs that they’re going through. So you find yourself facilitating a lot of different creative visions in a single moment.”

He finds it incredibly satisfying. “I’m really in love with the process of, helping someone make those moments feel good,” he said.

Guinn admitted that “Fires, Ohio” is a little lighter on the fight choreography (there is a shove and some other low key physical tension) than it is on the sex. So while his work may not be as visible in “Fires, Ohio” as it is in the fight-heavy production of “Initiative” on which he’s currently working at Aurora Theatre, it’s an important part of the play for creating tension.

Wolf, Hackman and Guinn all emphasize how much the small details of intimacy and friction add up to an unforgettable whole.

“I read a fair amount of scripts for the Alliance, and this script is one of those that just jumps off the page,” Guinn said — not just for the action he and Hackman coach, but for the very relatable human relationships captured in Ryland’s play and her subtle balance of humor, tension, affection and friction.

“It has really deep, important, philosophical questions within it,” Hackman said, “but it also lets us really laugh at the human experience and the complications of our relationships.”

THEATER PREVIEW

“Fires, Ohio”

Wednesday through March 22. For audiences 16 and up. Starting at $25. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-733-4600, alliancetheatre.org.