Mary Overlie & “Hug School”
Teen students rehearse for Stardust, Philly PACK, 2025.
“Artists are invited to read and be educated by the lexicon of daily experience…working directly with these materials, artists learn performance’s essential language.” —Mary Overlie, Six Viewpoints.
My first experience with decoding and deciphering body dynamics came from NYU Professor Mary Overlie’s 2003-2004 Viewpoints workshop at Texas A&M University where I was a Performance Studies undergrad. She introduced me to the idea of an intellectual exchange and discussion between the performer and the witness or viewer. I use her concepts and theories in my classroom with young artists, especially when I’m assigning or blocking touch, and I’ve noticed the most student engagement occurs during our “touch dynamics” lessons. Today’s young artists are inspired and challenged by physical connection assignments.
Touch dynamics means deciphering the messaging between two or more actors engaged in physically touching each other. This could be a handshake, a hug, a fist bump, a stroke of the cheek, or any time actors touch each other on stage.
Artists use what they see in real life to inform authentic performance dynamics. Sometimes, however, it takes time to craft this authenticity. The audience is essential during the process of crafting authentic communication because they witness, watch and decipher the meaning of the moment. In my classroom, the students witnessing the work are expected to offer up what they see/what the work means to them. This classroom partnership is directly sited in Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints theory.
Mary Overlie, a post-modern theatre practitioner and educator, says truly authentic performance work requires two participants: the creator and the observer. The creators are making the physical and emotional choices for how to communicate a particular moment, while the observers are witnessing and decoding the story/emotion/moment.
Mary Overlie challenges performers to “read the lexicon of daily experience.” In other words, actors have the responsibility of noticing how humans interact and touch each other in real life, then they can bring the insights into their performance work by replicating what they’ve observed. The audience’s role is to hold the actors accountable for replicating an authentic dynamic. The audience asks, “Is it working?”
One of the most interesting uses of Overlie’s ideas is lovingly nick-named “Hug School” in my classroom. This curriculum is an exploration of authentically communicating two or more characters’ emotions through the use of touch, specifically hugs. When successful, actors hugging each other should not seem like effort. Rather, hugging should appear as natural as breathing. However, what teachers have seen in the post-pandemic theatre classroom is that touch between actors needs choreography and time to develop a necessary level of trust.
I’ve been a theatre teacher for twenty-six years, so I remember touch in the classroom before the pandemic. Back then, students of all ages were more receptive to experimenting with touch dynamics. For example, I could ask two actors to communicate a greeting between brothers who haven’t seen each other in ten years, and I would witness an exuberant embrace with charged energy at full speed towards each other. Chests crashed together, chins wrapped eagerly around each other’s shoulders, and necks would cradle together. Or, I might have asked for a hand-hold between characters who were just starting to realize they were in love. Pre-pandemic students could comfortably communicate curiosity as their fingers discovered how to lock together.
Students were much more prepared to engage in touch experimenting before 2020. But post-2020, more patience and creativity are essential in the process. Students are much more reserved with touching, and educators and parents know this is because social distancing became such an essential part of life for several years of young people’s social development. We continue to see the repercussions of this enacted distancing; it was important for children and teens to stay six feet apart. They were not encouraged to touch one another. But now, five years later, it’s challenging to help them push past what was once vital but is no longer serving performance training.
I offer opportunities for my students to explore touch in a safe and supportive container. First, there are hand sanitizing stations all over the classroom. This is a valuable first step because no matter where students came from—the bus, the subway, school, the dog park—they can feel prepped and ready to hold hands, touch elbows or shoulders, and even hug because their hands are clean. It’s a gesture of kindness towards their fellow scene partners. Hand-sanitizing seems like a no-brainer, but it’s worth mentioning because I’ve seen this practice make a huge difference in these assignments. Recently, I asked a group of nine actors to hold hands and make a paper-doll chain shape. There was hesitation until I quickly presented the hand sanitizer and gave everyone a squirt. This simple act signified permission to safely hold hands.
Next, we train our students to communicate with each other about consent. It’s become the norm in my classroom for students to ask each other if it’s ok to touch. I hear constant questioning like “is it ok if I touch your shoulder?” Eye contact has a lot to do with comfort. When asking another actor for their consent to engage in touch dynamics, it’s important to look each other in the eye and first connect through sight. Eye contact establishes trust. It’s vulnerable to look into someone’s eyes, and barriers are broken down with eye contact. Looking into someone’s eyes and connecting via sight is a first step in physical touching.
Another important element, as previously mentioned, is time. Usually, the comfort between actors who are engaging in touch requires several rehearsals. Students don’t often complete the task in the first go-around. Most of the time, a hug will appear awkward and strange until, suddenly, it looks natural and comfortable. This authenticity can take two or three rehearsals. But, once students feel confident and successful in authentically portraying hugs, hand-holds, handshakes, etc, doors are opened for discovery. The repetition goes a long way in breaking apart discomfort.
The dynamics of two actors engaging in touch is a wellspring of experimental curriculum. Two students on stage under the stage lights are portraying a storytelling moment, while the rest of the class/ensemble is watching from the audience. The students engaging in the touch on stage are discovering ways to authentically communicate the moment, and the students in the audience are able to catalog what choices are working, and what they might do differently if given the opportunity in the future to engage in the quest. As the teacher, I like to facilitate discussion about the dynamics of the connection with questions like, “what are you seeing? And what is working?” These prompts challenge the students in the audience to offer insight from their viewpoint as the witness, and the prompts add value to the audience’s participation.
For post-pandemic young people, “hug school” offers opportunities to push past discomfort and into discovery. These student practitioners are ultimately becoming master communicators in the art of physical expression, and I believe this will serve them in any field they choose to pursue later in life. There is a great need for emotional intelligence in the future of our species, and those who can harness and understand the physical dynamics behind emotional connection will lead the way into a more compassionate tomorrow.
