A Naked Night at the Theater

 I thought of this story the other day and I thought that it was a unique concept. Everybody has heard of the idea of plays where sometimes the actors and actresses get naked, and I thought it was a novel idea where the actors and actresses stay dressed but the audience are the ones to get naked! This involves a couple of theater reviewers who are shy and uptight about getting naked who have to attend the performance in the mandatory naked state and how they managed to deal with it. This story involves naked in public and mutual male and female nudity and embarrassment. Enjoy!

A Naked Night at the Theater
Steve and Jill always considered themselves to be a really sophisticated couple, even if people regarded them as nerds who were a little bit uptight sometimes. Both of them were patrons of the arts and the theater and they always wanted to see the latest plays and any other stuff like that because as theater critics they actually made a career of writing reviews of various plays that they had seen, so when they got their invitation for the next big hit it was only natural that everyone expected them to attend, they were pretty much obligated. But they never really minded because one of the perks of their job as theater critics was they got to attend all of the premieres of great big events like that often for free. It was the best of both worlds.
    "Here are your tickets," Mr. Lombardo their boss said as he gave them the tickets.
    "So is this one of those really formal events, like a black tie affair?" Steve asked as he picked up the tickets. "Because my tuxedo and everything was going to the tailor and then getting washed and everything like that so I don't know if I have the right attire for it."
    "But that's what I always hate about these shows, I love going to these plays but it's always such a hassle to try and think of what I'm going to wear," Jill said. "I feel like I have to buy a new outfit every time that I go out on a night on the town like that. I do want to be looking my best when everybody is going to be seeing me like that."
    "I think women spend too much time thinking about what they're going to wear all the time," Steve said. "I like the fact that at least guys can dress more casually most of the time and nobody's going to give them hell for it. Cool and casual, that's always been my attitude and my preference."
    Mr. Lombardo laughed.
    "But what's so funny?" Jill said as she looked at Steve who sat there shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head back.
    Mr. Lombardo shook his head. "I am actually surprised, haven't you heard about the new play in town? I would have thought that you would have heard about this already. Actually maybe you haven't as this play is super secretive and everything like that but we have heard lots of talk and everything, so we have some idea of what is going on even though they tried to keep everything under wraps about, let's say not keeping things under wrap." Mr. Lombardo laughed again as though he were making some type of joke reference that neither of them understood.
    Steve looked at the tickets. "Vulnerability, a play that will give you an experience that will expose some of your deepest secrets and inhibitions."
    "Wait this isn't one of those plays where the actors get naked is it," Jill said sort of blushing. "I mean I have nothing against nudity or anything like that, I realize it can be done very tastefully within the context of a performance, like that Greek play that we saw."
    "Yeah all guys naked," Steve said shaking his head as Jill looked at him with a condemning stare. "Not like there's anything wrong with that, I'm just saying a little bit of female nudity for balance would have been nice."
    Jill rolled her eyes and shook her head.
    "I don't think that you guys are quite getting this, there is sort of a specific dress code for the play, in fact it's kind of an undress code," Mr. Lombardo said.
    "What are you talking about?" Steve said as he looked at the tickets again and that's when it struck him as he read one of the caveats that he hadn't noticed when he first looked at the tickets a moment ago. "All people in the theater must be completely naked in order to attend. Wait what?!"
    "Wait, did you just say that we have to get naked in order to attend the performance?" Jill said as she and Steve looked at each other before looking back at Mr. Lombardo. "This is a joke right?"
    Mr. Lombardo shook his head. "Nope, that's the entire gimmick of the play, the idea is that the audience is exposed and vulnerable and that makes them part of the participants in the play."
    "I've heard of audience participation in a performance before but I have never heard of anything like this!" Jill said looking like she was about to faint from shock.
    Steve shook his head. "Yeah I have never heard of anything like this before either."
    Mr. Lombardo nodded. "Well it's not a joke, it's 100% true, and I fully expect you to attend in order to review the play for our readers and everything like that. You're the best theater critics that we have on staff so there's no negotiating, you definitely have to attend this play."
    "You mean completely and utterly –" Steve said
    "Naked?" Jill finished as she swallowed deeply as the two of them looked at each other and could see that they were both blushing.
    Mr. Lombardo laughed. "I never painted you guys as the uptight types, I mean I thought that most people into theater weren't exactly the inhibited or uptight type of people."
    "But I don't think that we're uptight, I'm just saying that we are generally people who when we go to a performance, well we kind of prefer to keep our clothing on," Jill said. "Does it make us uptight that we don't want to get naked in public?"
    Mr. Lombardo laughed again. "Oh it's not like you're going to see anybody, I don't think anyone that you're going to know at least, just each other, and I'm sure that you are used to seeing each other naked. Besides you will be sitting in the audience in your seats, so probably hardly anyone's going to even notice you are there. Besides everybody's going to be naked, so it's not like you're going to stand out or anything like that, not like you're going to be the center of attention or anything."
    "Of course we are," Steve said as he looked at Jill kind of feeling awkward over the fact that they had been dating for several weeks now and they hadn't even gotten undressed in front of each other yet.
    Mr. Lombardo nodded. "Well it's settled then, you will both go to the performance and that is that. I expect your review as soon as you get back and I look forward to hopefully a stunning review of this innovative new play with its interesting new gimmick."
    As Steve and Jill left Mr. Lombardo's office they sort of looked at each other nervously.
    "But are we really going to do this?" Jill said sort of looking at her feet and trying not to blush too much.
    "I don't think that we have a choice, Mr. Lombardo was pretty clear that we have to write this review," Steve said. "But hey maybe we are making too much of this, I mean it's probably just going to be a small performance, we probably will sit down in our seats and nobody will take any notice of us and then we can put it all behind ourselves, no big deal right? I mean we are sophisticated progressive people and it's just a little bit of nudity, nothing wrong or shameful about that."
    "Maybe you are right, maybe we are a little bit uptight. I mean I think most people who are into this type of experimental theater are a little less inhibited. I mean is it a weird thing that we are taking things slow and that we are little bit shy about seeing each other naked or being seen naked?"
    "No, maybe were just a little bit old-fashioned like that, but there's nothing wrong with that."
    "But do you really think that you can work up the courage to be naked by the time of the performance?"
    "Sure, can you?"
    "Of course!"
    The two of them laughed nervously both clearly uncomfortable about the prospects of what they were going to have to do that weekend.
    "So I will pick you up at around 7 PM then right?" Steve eventually said.
    "Yeah, of course, that sounds great."
    "Hey look at the bright side, now you don't have to worry about buying a new outfit just to attend the performance, so you will save some money on that."
    "Great," Jill said sort of gritting her teeth and trying not to show how uncomfortable she was.
    The two of them shook hands instead of kissing and sort of went their separate ways with the agreement that they would make sure that they would get there bright and early Saturday evening.
    For a moment Steve thought that maybe Jill was being really uptight, but then he realized that he was just as nervous, if not more so, and he was wondering what he was going to wear to the performance. Obviously they had to wear something to go to the performance and they would get their clothing back at the end of the night, and he thought that maybe he was panicking prematurely, as it was true that probably few people would see them or take notice.

    Steve picked up Jill in his car nice and early that evening and when he did he was surprised to find that Jill was actually dressed to the nines.
    "Hey you look really great in that outfit," Steve said.
    "Yeah you look pretty great yourself," Jill said both kind of having a hard time making eye contact with each other because they were both nervous. "I probably shouldn't have chosen something so complicated since I am going to have to get undressed when we get there I guess."
    "Yeah I figured that I didn't want to over dress either seeing as we are both going to be attending the performance in our birthday suits."
    The two of them once again laughed nervously but they could tell that there was a lot of tension between the two of them. They were both thinking the same thing, not only were they going to see each other naked for the first time, which had the potential to change the relationship, but there was the potential that others were going to see how uncomfortable they were being naked in public together like that.
    At least they were together they were both thinking to themselves, so that made it slightly less embarrassing, but they hadn't even arrived yet and they were still comfortably dressed.
    "Tickets," the man at the front of the theater said as they gave their tickets and he pointed to the back. "The changing room is back there, please get fully undressed before you enter the theater. You will be able to get your clothing back at the end of the performance."
    "So I guess I will meet you in the theater then," Steve said as he went into the changing room.
    "Yeah I guess so," Jill said as she went into the changing room right across from him.
    The two of them both took a real long time getting undressed and when they finally came out of the changing rooms together they were both holding their outfits in front of them as though they were still making one last feeble attempt to hide themselves from the world.
    "I guess that we should go hang up our clothing then," Jill said as they both sort of awkwardly walked next to each other holding up their clothing in front of each other. Both of them started glancing at each other naked trying to be as subtle as possible about it as they put their clothing on the clothing rack and slowly made their way into the theater.
    "I think our seats are in the front row," Steve said as he looked at his ticket.
    Jill shook her head. "I was kind of hoping that maybe we would be a little bit more towards the back where maybe less people would see us."
    "Look I think maybe we are overthinking this, like Mr. Lombardo said it's not like we are going to see anybody that we know," Steve said as Jill nodded.
    "Hey it is Stephen and Jill everybody," said Rachel, one of their fellow theater critics as she stood there with her hands on her hips completely confident in her nudity. Standing with her were about four other women that they noticed from the office, none of whom seemed to be especially uncomfortable about the fact that everything was out on display.
    "Rachel hi!" Steve said really loud as he covered up his now erect penis feeling incredibly self-conscious about that fact.
    "Well I can see at least one of you is happy to see me," Rachel said laughing loudly. "Don't feel embarrassed about it, this is my first time being naked at the theater too and I have to say it feels pretty good. Doesn't it just feel amazing to be completely uninhibited and just enjoy the feeling of being naked?"
    Steve and Jill looked at each other blushing intensely and feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Jill felt really self-conscious but she was glad to see that all of the other people that they ran into naked were women, so she figured that Steve was feeling probably more uncomfortable. At least she was being seen naked by other women, so it wasn't as big of a deal, but this was probably Steve's first time being naked in front of a bunch of naked women like that, including in public. Although she had to admit she felt a little bit jealous to see that he got an erection over Rachel.
    "Well we had better take our seats, the show is about to begin," Jill finally said as she grabbed Steve's hand and the two of them quickly found their seats in the front row. As they sat down next to each other they tried to put their hands in their laps as a way of trying to conceal as much as possible, with Jill folding one of her arms over her rather large breasts.
    "But it would figure that we would have to be in the front where we don't have any seats in front of us to, you know, hide us," Steve said.
    "Yeah I was kind of hoping that we would have a back seat as well," Jill said. "But hey what can we do, we should just be glad that we get front row tickets to the show, and I am sure that it will not be as embarrassing as we thought. I mean if we're all naked I am sure that all of the actors and actresses on stage will probably be likewise naked, don't you think?"
    "Hey you know I never thought of that, I figure if the play is called Vulnerability that the actors and actresses on stage will probably get really vulnerable and everything as well, and you are right that everybody will be focusing on the actors and actresses on stage, not all of the naked people in the audience. Besides I'm sure that their bodies are in better shape than ours."
    "Oh good the lights are going down, at least now we'll be in the dark and nobody will see us once the show is beginning," Jill said as all the sudden the performers came out on stage and it seemed like they were all elaborately dressed, practically from head to toe, with every inch of them covered up.
    "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the play Vulnerability," a man on the stage dressed elaborately said. "You probably came to this play thinking that we were going to make ourselves vulnerable for you, but the purpose of the play is not for us to be vulnerable, it's for you all to be vulnerable. A show of hands, how many of you have ever attended the theater naked before?"
    No hands in the audience went up.
    The man laughed. "Well then you are going to get a real treat tonight because tonight is not about us, tonight is about you, the audience. You will see none of us naked at the show tonight, we have dressed this way specifically as making a statement. You are going to feel more naked and exposed simply because of the fact that we are dressed and you are not. So let's prepare for the evening."
    As everybody started coming out on stage wearing all sorts of elaborate costumes and modeling them for everyone, Stephen and Jill couldn't help but look at each other finding the whole thing rather strange. It seemed like every single actor on stage had a whole ensemble of outfits to wear, flaunting their clothing to everybody. They looked around the audience and they could see a couple of people looking rather uncomfortable, and they had to admit that being in the front row and seeing all of those people fully dressed like that was making them feel rather self-conscious over the fact that they weren't dressed.
    Eventually the intermission came and although they both felt like they needed to use the bathroom Stephen and Jill decided that they would stay seated because they didn't want to be wandering around naked and exposed to everybody. They could see that a lot of other people, most in fact, remaining in their seats as well and they sort of tried to make awkward small talk about the play while they could, although they could both see that each of them were rather uncomfortable about the entire experience.
    "So a pretty interesting play isn't it," Jill said.
    "Yeah very interesting, they really put a lot of thought into their costumes it seems," Jill said.
    "Oh yes I agree, I wouldn't mind wearing those costumes myself."
    "But I wouldn't mind wearing anything myself right now," Steve said as the two of them laughed.
    They were relieved when intermission was over and figured that they only had another hour or so to get through before the entire ordeal was over and they could get dressed again at last.
    The elaborately dressed man came back on stage with a smile on his face. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special show in store for you in act two of our play. For this act we are going to require at least two participants from the audience as a way of highlighting the point about vulnerability. Can we get any volunteers from the audience please?"
    Stephen and Jill both looked at each other and sort of slumped down in their seats hoping that nobody would notice them.
    "How about the two of them, they're theater critics!" Rachel shouted from behind them as she pointed to Stephen and Jill is a big spotlight came down on them causing them to practically want to choke Rachel to death.
    "Well theater critics, you probably have a lot to learn about being vulnerable," the man said. "You probably came here thinking you were going to write about us and write all critical things about us, but now we are going to get you up on stage and make you part of the show so that you can write about it from experience."
    Stephen and Jill looked at each other and they knew that there was no getting out of this as the actors started pushing them onto stage as they tried covering themselves up.
    "As you can see these two are naked, wave to the audience naked people," the man said as Stephen and Jill waved sheepishly to the audience while blushing profusely and trying not to faint from the embarrassment of the situation. "And for the next hour they are going to be on the stage with us as a constant reminder of human vulnerability. Everybody who is on stage is dressed except for them, so they will serve as a focal point, contrasting their nudity with our clothed nature."
    The next hour passed by with Stephen and Jill in a state of shock. They stood there obediently on the stage moving around with all the elaborately dressed people who were dancing around them and they figured that if they didn't say much or do much that maybe time would pass more quickly.
    "But let's give our two naked audience members a round of applause," the man said at the end as everybody started cheering riotously as they looked about before quickly getting off the stage.
    "I think that this was the most embarrassing night of my life," Jill said.
    "But not half as embarrassing as mine," Steve said.
    "You guys were great out there," Rachel said as she walked on by slapping them both on their naked backs before sashaying off with her ass going back and forth.
    "That woman is a total exhibitionist," Jill said.
    "I'll say," Steve said as the two of them finally laughed for the first time since their entire ordeal began.
    The two of them went to retrieve their clothing and got dressed and came out feeling once again the comfortable embrace of being covered up.
    "So that Rachel huh," Steve said as they were driving home finally breaking the silence.
    Jill couldn't help but burst out laughing.
    "What's so funny?" Steve asked.
    Jill smirked. "Let's just say I hope that she really does like being an exhibitionist because I kind of played a mean joke on her. While I was getting dressed I kind of recognized a familiar outfit that I had seen on the rack and –"
    "But you didn't?" Steve asked as the two of them burst out laughing as Jill nodded and held up Rachel's red dress, both of them realizing that when they got home that evening they were both going to see a whole lot more of each other naked. They figured that being naked together alone was no big deal after they had been naked together in front of at least a couple of hundred theater patrons.

    Meanwhile back at the theater.
    "Come on this isn't funny, where's my clothing," Rachel said as she stood there covering herself up as the only one still not dressed in a theater full of well-dressed patrons where she stood out like a sore thumb and realized for the first time that she wasn't quite the completely uninhibited exhibitionist that she had thought she was after all.