Educator. Scholar. Violence and Intimacy Designer. Director. Actor.

KATE BUSSELLE

NEWS

Kate Serves as First Conference Intimacy Consultant for the Great Plains Theatre Conference

Kate is ecstatic to be serving as the Conference Intimacy Consultant for the Great Plains Theatre Conference! Not only will she be directly working with four of the productions, but she will also be working with the GPTC team on implementing policy and best practices to move GPTC forward. Learn more about the conference here.

Kate Guest on "Traumaturgy" Podcast

Kate appeared on the podcast "Traumaturgy" to discuss theatrical intimacy, training during the pandemic, and certification in intimacy work. Check it out here!

Kate Guest on "5 Minutes to Places" Podcast

Kate appeared on the new podcast 5 Minutes to Places to talk about all things intimacy! Check out the conversation here.

Kate Published on Howlround

Kate published her article, "Invisible Labor in Theatre Academia; or, How Bulbasaur Saved my Summer," on Howlround Theatre Commons. Check it out!

Heartland Intimacy Design & Training Celebrates 1 Year!

Heartland Intimacy Design & Training is now 1 year old! Heartland's mission is to provide intensive theatrical intimacy training that is academic, accessible, and affordable. It is the first (and currently only) fully online intimacy training program.

ABOUT DR. KATE BUSSELLE

Teacher. Scholar. Artist.

Kate is the founder of Heartland Intimacy Design & Training, an intimacy training company which offers academic, accessible, and affordable intimacy training entirely online. She has taught several workshops on staging intimacy, as well as designing intimacy for several productions. Her specific area of expertise is staging sexual trauma and assault and how to assist actors in leaving these moments behind in the theatre. Kate designed the intimacy for the world premiere production of Gertrude and Claudius by Mark St. Germain at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater and is currently serving as the Conference Intimacy Consultant for the Great Plains Theatre Conference.

Kate completed her Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Missouri in 2019. Kate has two research agendas: theatrical violence and theatrical intimacy. Her dissertation, "Killing 'Woman': Gender and Violence in Selected Works by Sheila Callaghan and Marisa Wegrzyn," examined how performances of violence committed by the characters within Callaghan's and Wegrzyn's works challenge heteronormative notions of gender.

Kate is an Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) with certifications in unarmed combat, rapier & dagger, quarterstaff, single sword, broadsword, broadsword and shield, knife, and theatrical firearms safety. She is also a member of the Association of Movement Theatre Educators (ATME), Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).

Kate is also a director, primarily directing new student-written work, play reading festivals, and regional semi-professional theatre. She is an Equity Membership Candidate (EMC) with the Actors Equity Association (AEA).

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