I research topics including gender and sexuality studies, theater directing, consent theory, asexuality studies, and applied theater. Here is a selection from some of the research that I have shared with the public in recent years.
Book: Directing Desire
My new book, Directing Desire explores the rise of consent-based and trauma-informed approaches to staging sexually and sensually charged scenes for theater in the contemporary U.S., known as intimacy choreography. From 2015 to 2020, intimacy choreography transformed from a grassroots movement in experimental and regional theaters into a best practice accepted in Hollywood and on Broadway. Today, intimacy choreographers have become a veritable "intimacy industry" in the cultural sphere, sparking attention from Rolling Stone to The New York Times to the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live. This book analyzes the forces that have led to intimacy choreography’s meteoric rise and asks what implications the field has for theater practice more broadly. Building a theoretical framework for intimacy directing, Directing Desire also strives to reorient the conversation in the field so that artists understand not only best practices in consent but also intersectional frameworks that expand and rework consent.
Available now from Palgrave Macmillan, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other vendors.
Articles
Theatre Topics
Barclay, Kari. "Shadow Play: Visualizing Asexuality in New Queer Plays." Theatre Topics 33, no. 2 (March 2023): 5-17. doi:10.1353/tt.2023.0008.
Theatre Journal
Barclay, Kari. "Erotic Returns: Sleeping with the Ancestors in Contemporary Plays about Sexual Violence." Theatre Journal 75, no. 1 (March 2023): 41-59. doi:10.1353/tj.2023.a899355.
Journal of Consent-Based Performance
Barclay, Kari. "Impersonal Intimacies: Notes on Sexualized Language." The Journal of Consent-Based Performance 1, no. 1 (Jan. 2022): 24-34. doi:10.46787/jcbp.v1i1.2806.
Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism
Barclay, Kari. "Willful Actors: Valuing Resistance in American Actor Training." The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 34, no. 1 (Fall 2019): 123-141. doi:10.1353/dtc.2019.0027.
Arab Stages
Barclay, Kari. “Time Interrupted in Hannah Khalil’s Scenes from 71* Years.” Arab Stages 10 (Summer 2019) https://arabstages.org/2019/07/time-interrupted-in-hannah-khalils-scenes-from-71-years/.
To hear more about my research and artistic work, listen to this great podcast from Oberlin’s theater department:
Conference Presentations
American Society for Theater Research (New Orleans, Nov. 2022)
“Queer Aromanticisms: Doom and Bloom in Moses Sumney’s Blackalachia,” Jose Muñoz working group, American Society for Theater Research, New Orleans, Nov. 2022
American Society for Theater Research (San Diego, Oct. 2021)
“Contracting Intimacy: Reflections on Contracts and Nudity Riders in Intimacy Choreography,” Performing Infrastructures working group, American Society for Theater Research, San Diego, Oct. 2021
National Women’s Studies Association (Virtual, Oct. 2021)
“Asexual Outlaws: AsexArab and the Activism of Alaa Yassin Taha,” Conference Presentation, National Women’s Studies Association, Asexuality Studies Working Group, Virtual, Oct. 2021
Association of Theater in Higher Education (Virtual, July 2020)
“Ace-ing Representation: Performing Asexuality in Can I Hold You?,” Roundtable Discussion, Association of Theater in Higher Education, Virtual, July 2020
National Women’s Studies Association (San Francisco, CA, November 2019)
“Reclaiming Desire and Politicizing Shame: Asexual Self-Representation in Digital Media,” Conference Presentation, National Women’s Studies Association, Asexuality Studies Working Group, San Francisco, Nov. 2019
Encuentro Hemisférico de Política y Performance (Mexico City, June 2019)
“#MeToo as Worker’s Rights Movement?: Sexual Labor, Pleasure, and Socialism,” Conference Presentation, Encuentro Hemisférico de Política y Performance, Minor Marxisms Working Group, Mexico City, June 2019
Public scholarship
Theatre Bay Area News and Features
As a features writer, I write public articles including “Building Trans Presence Onstage and Off at Bay Area Theatres,” “SF Opera Launches New Equity, Diversity, and Community Department,” and “Bay Area Theatres Shift the Culture with Gender-Inclusive Restrooms.”
TALES OF THE RESISTANCE: A Speaker Series with the San Francisco Mime Troupe
In summer of 2020, Kari has been organizing and facilitating a series of nine talks with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, San Francisco Public Library, and community partners exploring the contemporary political landscape. He has featured guests including Chris Arellano of Rideshare Drivers United, Rupa Maurya of the UCSF School of Medicine, James Burch of the Anti Police Terror Project, among others.