Help Liz Get Certified in Intimacy Direction

TL; DR I'm fundraising to become a certified intimacy director with IDC!

Hello friends, family, and strangers!

My name is Liz Whittaker and I’m a theatre-maker in Salt Lake City, Utah. I direct, I act, I do sound design, and for the past several years, I’ve been doing intimacy direction! Intimacy direction allows actors to create intimate moments in ways that are safe and professional without sacrificing storytelling. You can learn more about my work here.

I’ve been training for about three years, and after an extensive application process, I was offered a spot in the Intimacy Directors and Coordinators’ 2023 Certification Cohort!

(You may have seen Jessica Steinrock, the CEO of this organization on TikTok, sharing about how she choreographs spicy scenes for television!)

This training program is an incredible opportunity…it only happens once a year, and hundreds of people from around the world apply, and the cohort is fewer than 50 people. I’m ridiculously humbled and excited to be chosen.

I’ll have the opportunity to learn from Tony-nominated intimacy director Claire Warden, and the incredibly talented Cha Ramos, alongside other intimacy professionals. Learn more about the program here.

I’ll get to participate in 9 weeks of online training, and 3 different 3-day long training sessions in New York City.

But the costs of this certification program (and the travel involved) aren’t quite within my theatre maker/Door Dashing budget. So I’m asking for your help!

Here’s a breakdown of costs:

Tuition = $5,000

Flights (3 round trip flights @ ~$300 each) = $900

NYC per diem (food, transportation, etc) = $600

Missed work (15 days @ $100/day) = $1,500

TOTAL = $8,000

(I’m still working out accommodations, but if necessary, those costs can come out of the “missed work” part of the budget. I'm also just making estimates on flights--they may cost more or less than these estimates.)

If I exceed my goal, any additional funds will be used for further training opportunities.

I'm so excited to do this training and make theatre a more creative, empowered, professional, and inclusive space!