When lights strobe across a line of completely naked people right before intermission in a production of "Hair," no one is shocked. Theaters announce such shocking displays in their season brochure, warn patrons as they buy their tickets, put posters in the lobby: "This show contains full frontal nudity and herbal cigarette smoke."

But even the most seasoned theatergoer might wince to see all those assembled, exposed body parts lined up like some kind of anatomy display. Nudity like that doesn't lend itself to intellectual profundity; more likely the audience is surprised, a little titillated, and completely distracted: "Wait, I know that guy, three from the right. Ooh, she looks cold. Is that a tattoo?"

Madison community theaters have been experimenting with the power and pull of nudity onstage, from flashes to full-frontal scenes, for years. This season, Strollers Theatre will produce "The Little Dog Laughed" with male nudity, University Theatre closes its season with the oft-revived "Hair," and Mercury Players will put up not one, but three shows that include visible genitalia.

The first revealing show is Mercury Players' "The Full Monty," David Yazbek's 2000 musical about a group of down-on-their-luck steel workers who concoct a strip routine as a way to make money and redeem their self-confidence. "Monty" opens on Thursday, Sept. 4, and runs weekends through Sept. 27.

Last year, Mercury Players' biggest moneymaker was "Reefer Madness," a frothy musical that featured campy horror, silly sex, scanty costumes and occasional toplessness. Even when it's just sensationalist and shocking, in this city, nudity sells.

"Nudity onstage catches the eye," said Tara Ayres, artistic director of Stage Q. "We have a long history of nudity onstage. People like going to see it."

Telling the story and pushing the envelope

Risque moments in contemporary theater go well beyond simple onstage nudity. There's cyber sex in "Closer" and a striptease in "Gypsy." The lead character must bare it all in "Equus" and "Wit," plays that Madison Rep produced in 1979 and 2000, respectively.

"There are several distinctly different ways that it's handled," said Casey Grimm, artistic director of Mercury Players Theatre. Mercury Players has produced so many plays with nudity that Grimm said the question, "Are you comfortable being nude/semi-nude?" is usually a standard question on audition forms.

"There's sensationalist nudity, or nudity for the sake of nudity that sells tickets," Grimm said, "and there's nudity that can define a character in a way that almost nothing else can."

In 2003 Grimm directed Tracy Letts' play "Killer Joe," in which three characters, two women and one man, appear nude in various scenes. In certain times in that play, nudity represented innocence, purity, individual catharsis and a threat.

"Nudity was very much a character thing," Grimm said. "Nudity can be used to advance a plot, to change, to bring a plot to a resolution."

When Kelly Maxwell appeared naked in the first scene of "Compleat Female Stage Beauty" at the Bartell Theatre last spring, she tried to harness the confidence of her character -- Nell Gwynn, King Charles' famous courtesan.

"In the play she represented such sassiness and strength," Maxwell said. "A young Cockney woman working her way up socially. In real life, she was quite a talented actress. I tried to show her strength and defiance. She was out of place in the court environment, but she's saying 'Look, I'm not afraid to be here.'"

One look at the naked bodies entwined on Mercury's 2006 poster for "Circle" and audiences knew this was no "Annie." A modern re-telling of Arthur Schnitzler's scandalous and sexy "La Ronde" (1897), "Circle" features 10 scenes, each culminating in a sexual act.

"'Circle' was about sex, about sexual relationships," said director Rachel Jenkins-Bledsoe. In any dramatic process, actors must feel safe to take risks in the rehearsal room, but a play about such a charged topic made it essential the actors felt respected and supported.

"I promised my cast I would never ask them to do anything that I myself wouldn't do. I thought, 'I'm asking them to bare the most vulnerable pieces of who they are. I had to prove to them that I was willing to do that as well.'"

That included Jenkins-Bledsoe and her stage manager, Sadie Yi, lying on the floor of a very cold warehouse after only two rehearsals and posing for Colm McCarthy's aerial camera for a photo shoot. Cast members posed entirely nude; most of them had only met at two short script read-throughs.

"We were all totally nervous, but we were all in it together," said "Circle" cast member Lauren Peterson. "It was kind of like playing chicken, because nobody wanted to be the person who was going to say, 'No, I'm uncomfortable with it.' We're all looking at each other like, 'Yeah, that's fine, that's fine.'"

Later, during the actual performances, the early exposure to each other for the photo shoot made being nude onstage somewhat less fraught. It was the first time Peterson had performed naked.

"I don't think any of us ever looked back from there," Peterson said of the experience. "Having that out of the way, it's like, what else is there? Bring it on. I can handle it; I was naked onstage in front of my parents."

Many actors in "Circle" said being nude onstage was less about fear and vulnerability and more about confidence and power.

"I never felt uncomfortable with my body, I never felt fat, I never felt unattractive," Peterson said. "It was just such a warm experience. It's the most empowering thing I've ever done onstage."

Leave it on: why get naked?

Asking actors to be nude isn't easy. It can tap into insecurities about body type, alienate an audience that isn't ready to go with it, and impact the actors' personal lives, such as when boyfriends or girlfriends become jealous watching a simulated erotic experience.

If it's difficult, why not cut it out? Why is nudity necessary, anyway?

"With 'Hair,' we talked about it, and the cast was not 100 percent required to do the nudity," said David Lawver, who directed the musical in 2006 for Strollers Theatre. "There were a couple of characters (tribe leaders Berger and Claude) where we said it's really necessary. But a couple people said upfront, nope, and in 'Hair' that was fine."

Lawver said all in all, about half the cast ended up being naked in the single nude scene. The nudity is not negotiable in the next show he's directing, "The Little Dog Laughed," whose author requires two men to be nude and has sued over this stipulation before.

"To me, it's the context," Lawver said. "Is it integral to the script?"

At Mercury, Grimm argued that sometimes not having nudity can be distracting.

"In general, I get annoyed when they show after sex and people are clothed," Grimm said. "It's unrealistic and it pulls me out of the moment. It's like nudity is more shameful than violence."

John Sable's adaptation of "The Ethical Slut" at Broom Street Theater last summer was titled "Multiple O" and showed a series of vignettes about non-monogamous relationships. The premise was that the audience was in someone's living room at a seminar about polyamory, or multiple-partner lifestyles.

"I had been open and adamant: I have a goal of where we want to be when we open," said Sable, who also directed the nine-person cast and oversaw edits during the rehearsal process. "But I'm never going to put an actor onstage doing something they don't want to do."

In "Multiple O," one of the play's goals was to titillate. Sable said that in the 90-minute play, he estimated 15 minutes showed actual nudity with several simulated sex acts. The play was widely advertised as being for mature (18 and older) audiences only.

"I wanted to suspend their disbelief," Sable said of his audience. "I wanted them saying, 'I'm pretty sure you can't actually do what I just saw onstage. I think it was fake. I don't know if I feel violated or turned on; I'm not sure. They weren't really doing that, were they?'"

Grimm's focus with Mercury Players' upcoming season is to present a positive view of sexuality, free from violence, guilt or shame. Upcoming plays include male flashing in "The Full Monty," potential female nudity in "Exchange at Cafe Mimosa" and "as much nudity as possible" in Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9" (being produced in conjunction with Stage Q).

"To all of us it's very important to avoid exploitation. Besides, we're in the theater business, not the pornography business," Grimm said. "I think there needs to be the weight of something important and dynamic happening.

"We need to see a character change, a decision being made, someone baring their soul. It has to be more powerful than just pure physical sexuality. There needs to be something soulful for it to not be pornographic."

More naked than naked

Most actors who have been nude onstage don't take it for granted that they'd do it again. For Maxwell of "Compleat Female Stage Beauty,'' it would have to be the right script.

"I don't want to be the one people call like, oh, she'll get naked," Maxwell said, "but I would if it was appropriate and I felt inspired. I don't think it's something to be ashamed of at all."

Sean Langenecker, a frequent performer with Mercury Players and Stage Q, said he has been naked onstage more often than anyone he knows.

"It's sort of funny," Langenecker said. "I haven't actively sought out shows where there is nudity, but somehow, they've all found me."

In "Circle," he played an "undresser," a character with no lines who moved each of the ten scenes along. He and Doug Holtz, the other undresser, progressively undressed themselves until the final scene when they appeared nude.

"For some reason when you're just barely covering yourself up, that feels a lot more naked than being naked," Langenecker said, "because people are drawn to things you're trying to hide."

Nudity can be simultaneously exciting and very uncomfortable for audiences, Grimm said.

"Audiences want to go see shows with nudity, but when it comes they want to get past it because it's unnerving," he said.

Morey Burnard agreed. An actor, director and technician who trained at Edgewood College, Burnard challenged himself with an exceptionally long nude scene in Mercury Players' "Bug" by Tracy Letts in spring 2007.

Performing in the 96-seat Evjue Theatre, a three-sided black box on the first floor of the Bartell Theatre, it was easy to tell when the audience was uncomfortable.

"You certainly heard the snickers and the gasps, which made it harder to block them out," Burnard said. "I had to focus on moving and behaving like I was naked in a room with a girl."

Because nudity is so distracting, the actor has more power to entertain and get a point across, Burnard said. The appeal for some in the audience is the shock, or spectacle, and the novelty.

"People always want to see something they can't on a day-to-day basis," Burnard said.

For most of these local actors, separating their onstage character's nudity and their own is still a challenge. Some actors have had disagreements with significant others over onstage nudity.

"My husband is really uncomfortable with knowing his wife could be naked for so many people, for strangers, for the public," said Jenkins-Bledsoe, who was recently cast in "Exchange at Cafe Mimosa." "It's hard for him. He knows it's important for me to express myself artistically and creatively."

Rehearsals haven't started, but Jenkins-Bledsoe has already agreed to work with the director on what she'll wear onstage.

Pete Rydberg, director of "The Full Monty," said he has had to police his actors' comments to each other since many of them are friends offstage.

"You want to keep them in character, and you also want to make sure the people who are brave enough to take off their clothes are really getting the respect that they deserve," Rydberg said. "I mean, I couldn't do it! But these guys signed on for it. They knew what they were getting into."

Langenecker, currently performing as a male stripper in "The Full Monty," often walks around backstage in the nude. He says maybe it's insensitive, but he's so used to it. He finds some actors' backstage modesty very funny.

"In the dressing room they're like, 'Can you knock? I'm changing!'" Langenecker chuckled, "and I was like, 'You're going to be naked onstage! Get over it!'"

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Under the bathrobe: Revealing the naked gender gap

When it comes to going topless, bottomless or taking it all off onstage (known in some countries as "going the full monty"), who has it easier, ladies or gents? Local theater folk are split on the subject.

"The men freaked out about it more than the women did," said Rachel Jenkins-Bledsoe, director of "Circle" in 2006. "If you ask me, to do that in front of loved ones and strangers I would say it was way harder as a man."

Director David Lawver had a contrasting experience in "Hair," produced by Strollers Theatre in 2006. About half of the cast chose to appear nude, and that included nearly all of the men.

"A lot of the women chose to go topless but not bottomless," Lawver said. "It was an interesting gender difference. I think for men of a certain age, those of us who grew up going to P.E. (physical education) and taking showers together, it's not as big a deal. But that isn't as common an experience for women, or for anyone nowadays."

One argument is that since female bodies are more often revealed in R-rated movies, on cable TV and online, women might feel more pressure to conform to an accepted "naked" visual or standard body image.

"We have been exposed to women's bodies and contours in fine arts and film and every media," said Mercury Players co-founder Pete Rydberg. "But I think in some ways it might be more intimidating for men. Men are comfortable running around in just shorts, but there's the one thing you just don't show in public at all."

"I think in general men handle (nudity) a little easier than women," said Mercury Players Artistic Director Casey Grimm. "That's been my experience, but I can't make a blanket generalization."

About two weeks before the opening of "Killer Joe" in 2003, Mark Hisler, Grimm's co-director and the titular character, announced from backstage, "I'm doing it naked this time, get ready!"

"We all laughed," Grimm said, "and it completely broke the ice. The next night, both women did their nude scenes. He knew that by making that first leap, he could make it easier for the women to do it."

Whatever their gender, exposing one's private bits to a crowd isn't something most people do every day. It's also not something most of us have the guts to do, no matter how big the stage and how bright the lights. Rydberg said he is very proud of how brave the "Full Monty" strippers have been.

"I am so impressed by it in part because I can't ever do it," Rydberg said. "I think it's got to be hard for anyone to take their clothes off."

--Lindsay Christians