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

KATE BUSSELLE

NEWS

Kate Serving as Violence and Intimacy Designer for Spring Awakening at Players by the Sea

The winner of eight Tony Awards (including Best Musical), Spring Awakening explores the journey through adolescence with poignancy and passion. It examines morality and sexual politics while unapologetically plumbing the depths of the hormonal teenage psyche in a way that feels both fresh and all too familiar. This landmark musical is an electrifying fusion of sex, rock & roll, and 1890s Germany.

Kate Published on Howlround

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

Kate Launches Heartland Intimacy Design & Training

Kate has launched the newest intimacy training company, Heartland Intimacy Design & Training. Heartland's mission is to provide intensive theatrical intimacy training that is academic, accessible, and affordable.

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. Recently, Kate designed the intimacy for the world premiere production of Gertrude and Claudius by Mark St. Germain at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater.

Kate recently completed her Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Missouri. 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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