Alicia Rodis had her first kiss on stage when she was 15. She faked her first orgasm on stage too, when she was 18 the same year she first appeared nude in a production.

I never looked like an ingenue, she said. I developed early, so if there was a prostitute or a slutty best friend in a play who had that reputation, thats probably who I was playing.

As an aspiring actress, Rodis was happy to take the roles she was offered, including those that required engaging in and acting out intimate scenes with strangers. But the power dynamics between a young actress and director, paired with the potential for miscommunication between actors portraying scenes of sexual intimacy, meant she was vulnerable to misconduct.

I had some experiences that were really wonderful, and I had some experiences that were downright dangerous, she said. Even if not physically dangerous, then mentally and emotionally harmful.

Rodis eventually became a fight and stunt director based in New York, helping stage and film productions choreograph violent scenes in a way that ensured actors remained safe and unharmed.

Union standards require productions to hire fight directors to choreograph scenes of sexual violence, but Rodis wondered why similar protocols and procedures didnt exist for staged moments of romantic sexual intimacy which can be clumsily executed at best and invite inappropriate behavior at worst.

I was working on a show and I was there for a slap and a kiss, Rodis recalled. We choreographed the slap and it was fine, then we got to the kiss and the actors were just terrified.

The actors asked Rodis to step in, and they went over one anothers respective boundaries and determined how physical moments should move the story forward. After that, it looked beautiful, she said.