This video is documentation of an exercise with 3rd year graduate actors at the UC Irvine Actor-Training program, speaking a monologue while contacting with a silent partner. At a moment of heightened activity, the silent partner is removed, and the resulting delivery of the monologue is focused and intensely communicated. The athleticism and sensitivity of the contact created a culture of expressivity. Tenderness as well as rage and challenge emerged in the contact session and remained present in the solo monologue. So, the complexities of emotion that were embodied metaphorically and rhythmically in the extreme lifts and rolls and balances of the partnering could be seen as an emotional “rehearsal” for the solo performance. But once the partner was removed, the speaker had to reach out to us, and address each deeply felt idea to the audience in the room. No longer in a contact with the literal “other,” we, the audience, now become the necessary focus.