Irene Sofia Lucio Wore a Cast of Her Own Bust to the Liberation Opening

The second act of the critically acclaimed play Liberation on Broadway has regularly inspired gasps in its audience. Not because there's anything shocking. In fact, it's actually shockingly normal: a group of women sitting together, completely naked. The setting for Bess Wohl's play is a feminist meeting in the 1970s, where a group of women meet to discuss changes they can make in their own lives to advance equality.

Once the initial shock wears off (for the audience, whose phones are locked in Yondr pouches), the women go around in a circle and say what they like and dislike about their bodies. Because, as one character puts it, "self love is an act of liberation."

READ: 5 Reasons to See Liberation on Broadway

Irene Sofia Lucio is in that scene, and her character (an outspoken, funny Italian woman named Dora) says that her favorite physical feature is "my tits." So for opening night of Liberation at the James Earl Jones Theatre, Lucio decided to take a page from Dora's handbook and wear a gold cast of her own bust, created by Misha Japanwala, who specializes in designing breast plates (she created one for Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o for the 2023 Tony Awards).

As Lucio tells Playbill: "Liberation has a nude scene that invites us to think of the body as flesh. To see the body the way it is and to consider it with our own gaze."

"Misha’s work does just that. It captures the body exactly as it is and makes us consider it and celebrate it rejecting shame and judgment. And it’s wearable art!

"I get to commemorate this moment and my body in this moment in time. I will look back at this piece hanging up on my wall and say 'damn I did that.'"

Below, Lucio walks us through the process of creating her breastplate.