Last fall, I enrolled in an introductory acting course at the local community college. I had been interested in acting for a long time but never felt I had either the talent or the skills needed. I decided to give it a whirl; it could be fun. The worse that could happen was mild disappointment that I didn't actually have the flair for the theatric that I had hope. But I already knew that!
The course turned out to be much more fun than I had imagined. And, I gained increased confidence that I actually did have some talent after all. The course was taught by Professor Joan Hannah, a youthful, graceful, attractive woman with a great deal of stage experience. Although it was an introductory course – the run-of-the-mill, standard acting course that community colleges everywhere offered – Dr. Hannah brought an excitement that always kept us attentive and inspired to test the limits of our abilities.
All the classes were good, but the last session was mind-blowing. I am still trying to process what occurred. It may not have helped my acting, but it did explode the categories that had previously held my creative imagination in check.
All of the classes focused on a particular skill or quality that actors and actresses should have. They had titles like "Delivering Dialogue" or "Holding Dramatic Moments." The exception was last session, which was simply labeled "Final Session." Given my experiences so far, I was excited but expected something similar to the previous classes. In truth, I had no idea what we were in for.
On most nights, Dr. Hannah stood before the class waiting for us to assemble. However on this night, she kept us waiting ten minutes before she made a very dramatic entrance. Suddenly from the back of the room, she announced, "Tonight's theme is the nude scene." She then walked to the front wearing a very thin, white cloth draped around her waist and tied with a rope. Her breasts were bare.
I was a bit shocked but even more intrigued. Dr. Hannah has some very attractive round breasts that drooped ever so slightly as they were obviously natural and swayed as she walked. Her nipples were large and visibly erect. My eyes were glued on her until I realized that she was followed by a completely nude man with clearly large penis.
As she walked to the front of the class, she asked if anyone thought that he had become an actor during this course. Several of us raised our hands, but she said that she had meant the question as she asked it – actors, not actresses. She chose two somewhat at random – Jeff and Norm – and asked them to come to the front of the room.
"Sometimes, actors and actresses were required to do nude scenes," she said. "I believe that this is the hardest challenge an actor or actress may face. I also believe that this challenge is much harder for men to meet than women. Quite frankly, as you can see with my friend, this is because the male genitals are more prominently displayed, and thus the male actor is much more exposed to his audience. When a man disrobes, he makes himself more vulnerable to the gaze of the audience. Not only is his body revealed, but also his sexual mind displayed. But more on this later."
She continued, "An actor must be willing to uncover the private, the personal, the conventionally hidden part of him, and he must do it in a very public way." Dr Hannah untied her rope and let her skirt fall, exposing her lower half. Her public hair was shaved and the slit that contained her sex was in clear view. She had a very attractive and sexy body.
Dr Hannah called her friend forward and asked him to stand beside her and face the class. She continued, "Actors doing nude scenes need to encourage their audience to actually, fully look at them. You must make them into voyeurs! Many in most audiences will hesitate when presented with a nude figure and thus not fully taken in the vulnerability that the scene required of its actors. It is the responsibility of the actor to compel the audience to look at him. In the case of my friend, this means looking at his manhood!"
Dr. Hannah walked to the console and pushed a button and the famous "large penis" scene from the TV series Rome appeared. Atia is assessing a gift that she wants to give to a rival. It is a slave with a very large penis. She makes the comment that a large penis is always appreciated. After it ended, she stood back and looked her friend over in a same manner. She turned to us and asked, "Did you look as I looked?" With a nod, she dismissed him and replaced her dress tying the top part over her shoulder. It now reminded me of some that women in ancient Greece might have worn.
She then turned her attention to Jeff and Norm. "Please remove your clothes." As soon as Jeff and Norm had stepped out of their pants, she ordered them to stop. They still had on their underwear but nothing else. Dr. Hannah turned to the class and asked. "How many of you would like them to stop right here, go no further, to limit the exposure they offer you? I was surprised that about half the class raised their hands. She then turned to Norm and demanded that he remove his final garment. He did.
Norm was completely naked. He had a firm, muscular body that was attractive, subtle, and seductive. While very fit, he was not overly bulky in the way that some men become when they spend too many hours at the gym. Dr. Hannah again addressed the class. "Where do your eyes go?" No one volunteered an answer. "It's a simple question. No tricks involved. No mysteries. No need for reflection. Where does your eye go?" Again silence.
"It goes to his penis." She was right. Although I wouldn't admit, I had already checked him out. His member was of average length, circumcised, somewhat thicker than normal, the head of his penis was partially covered by his foreskin. I also knew that Norm was nervous and thus his scrotum held balls were tightly to his body, which caused his penis to stick our more than hang down.
"This actor has given you a chance to see him completely. He has confronted his vulnerability and conquered it. He has done this for you, to communicate something of importance to you. Yet, you have left him down; you have not played your part. You have looked away, but not fully, willingly looked. Indeed, you have denied him his opportunity to act. You have been dishonest by looking but not seeing. You looked but pretended not to look."
Dr. Hannah then asked Norm to walk around the room and to gaze into the eyes of the people he met. She asked us to stand when Norm approached and look back into his eyes. The rest of us should look at Norm's body and to notice how it moved and changed with each encounter and also to observe the interaction of a clothed and naked person and the effect of this interaction on both of them.
I was amazed at what I saw. The encounter between a nude and clothed person was essentially aesthetic in nature and surprising asexual. The naked man seemed more open and revealing of who he was. He sought to hide nothing in both senses of the word. His character was on full display, as well as the personal dimensions of his maleness. I was reminded how the ancient Greeks thought that conducting their politics in the nude was a sign of their civility and honesty.
I would have guessed that the clothed person would have had a degree of power and control over the naked male, but I was wrong. She, in this case, seemed receptive and passive in her response. He revealed, she observed. He displayed, she viewed. He exposed, she watched. He was not naked because she was clothed; she was clothed because he was naked. He, not her, defined the context.
