By Vicky Mejia
As we prepare to bring Covenant – an “undeniably spooky” (TheaterMania) new production to The Goodman, we spoke to Intimacy consultant Jyreika Guest on her role, how she discovered her interest in this career field and what her favorite aspects of working on this “striking Southern gothic work” (New York Times) are.
GT: Who/or what inspired you to pursue intimacy work in your career path?
JG: When I was acting a lead role in 2019 for a storefront theater in Chicago (formally known as Red Tape Theatre), I was introduced to intimacy direction. The play was called In the Blood by Susan-Lori Parks about a homeless and illiterate single mother of five children who seeks help from various figures for support, but is instead exploited and abused. The intimacy director for this show was Gaby Labatka. Throughout the rehearsal process, the other ensemble members and I were equipped with effective skills and exercises to build this world safely, allowing us to perform bravely and support each other and ourselves mindfully while telling that story. From that process, I was inspired by this work and wanted to learn more. To this day, I’m so appreciative of that experience because, as an intimacy professional, I work with so many different artists with diverse lived experiences, and I work actor-first. So I recognize how it feels to have someone in my corner throughout a process that will ask for emotionally exhausting and potentially triggering storytelling. I also know that with all that external support, I have tools to restore myself and remember that this story, this character, this embodiment isn’t mine to take home. I can honor this story by leaving it on the stage.
Jyreika Guest
GT: What is your process like? How do you translate a playwright’s words and language onto the stage?
JG: My work as an intimacy director is first and foremost to help cultivate consent-forward performance spaces and to collaborate with artists in creating simulated intimacy through physical storytelling. Through that lens, I work with actors on how to best de-role from these portrayals to reconnect with their “humanness,” or how I like to put it, “the person bowing at curtain call.” As I read the script, I read it the first time simply as a reader would, to enjoy a story. This way, I’m open to the natural story and its tone before starting the work of intimacy. The second time I read through is for mapping using the stage directions, inferred moments of intimacy or relationship dynamics, context, etc., anything that helps me prepare for conversations with the director, other design teams. and the actors. For me, the process of intimacy design is very collaborative. No two productions are the same, so we establish the agreed-upon methods for playbuilding per the room.
Photo: Hugo Hentoff
GT: How does an intimacy coordinator ensure that the themes presented in plays like Covenant are presented accurately?
JG: I think as an intimacy director, I come in knowing that I’m only one piece of this collaborative puzzle, so even as I present a draft of ideas of moments, the world of the play is built by everyone involved. Working with Malkia, Tor, and most importantly, the cast, they’ve been digging into the heartbeat of the play, so when I’m a part of the process, we can speak to threading in the physical relationships with the intentionality of the characters. We also have the great gift of the playwright to greatly inform the tone and the pace of the story that he envisioned when writing Covenant. I question and dissect with the artists on how they move together and how each relationship impacts the other, both in subtle and grand ways. This is a period play, so the way these dynamics are shown in body language is very different from the contemporary way we move together and around each other. My work as the intimacy director helps construct the nuance of that part of the puzzle.
GT: You’ve been a guest at our Play on Words Poetry collaboration with the Poetry Foundation where you presented your poem “Kinfolk” for Fat Ham. How does your written and artistic work inspire you/fuel you in your role as an intimacy director?
JG: As an artist who studies living beings, places, and things, and imagines a story for all, I think it strengthens the play for my work as intimacy director. With poetry, there’s so much imagery and metaphor that is translated the same way onstage, especially when you’re discussing the dynamics of human relationships; it’s a thrill to build that same poetry in body language. I’d like to call myself a physical actor first, so the story is from the text, but I’m always curious about where the character lives in the body.
GT: What does Covenant mean to you? Have you worked with the horror/thriller genre before?
JG: This taps into a very close spot in my journey as a Black, Femme, Queer-identifying artist that also grew up in the South and was very active in the church, and being taught just how condemning it was to live in those truths. I think this piece is a part of a greater conversation about the intersectionalities of those truths, so I believe the impact of spirituality, societal constructs, and the weight of fear makes for a very scary experience for the characters in this play. I have worked in the horror/thriller genre both as an actor and an intimacy director/coordinator. I love it. It’s exciting. It teaches me to tell the story as written, vs. playing the horror. When it’s written well, the horror is already there. Come see Covenant!
GT: The Oscar-nominated 2025 film Sinners, holds similar themes as this play—what is a conversation you hope to hear surrounding Covenant?
JG: The modern-day parallel conversation surrounding fear, faith, and freedom, and how all these concepts can be interchangeable, given the circumstances of this play. How one or more of these concepts can either support or harm the other, and how, even that (in some or if argued well enough, in all cases), none of these concepts can be isolated because each one is birthed and/or informed by the other. It’s a very “theatre-nerdy” dramaturgical rabbit hole math problem I’ve thought about for a while now, since first reading this play last year.
GT: Have you ever worked with a challenging piece? How did you move through that?
JG: I have had challenging pieces that I’ve worked on as an intimacy director. I think one of the first things I work to do is be curious about the root of the challenge. Was it the environment, the nature of the play, the preparation, the deadline, the communication channels, etc? I think it helps me to calm my own anxiety around what’s causing the issue and if there’s something I can do to remedy it. Accepting the help of others in the room because I might not have the same information that others have, so simply put, “let’s have the necessary conversations.” Also, at this point in my career, I try to embrace that not every collaboration will be an easy or cohesive one. That can ground me in reminding myself why I’m in the room and work to meet that why each day.
GT: What are your favorite aspects about this play (i.e. time period, music, concept etc.) that make you excited to be a part of this project?
JG: The sprinkled nuggets of information in the play are one of my favorite things in this play. As they get unveiled, it’s exciting to have that gasp of awe as you watch the characters simply live in its truth. I think York does such a great job of taking the hand of the audience and leading them to watch the play, then slipping out the stage door so we find ourselves in the play as the tree that Avery and Johnny sit next to and watch the drama ensue. Covenant amplifies the reason to see live theatre.
Vicky Mejia is the Digital Marketing Associate at Goodman Theatre
