Kate Busselle

Kate Busselle

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...
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 served as the festival intimacy consultant for the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and will be returning to her role in person this summer in Omaha, Nebraska. She has also published articles in major publications such as Theatre Topics and The Fight Master.

Kate is currently the Assistant Professor of Movement and Stage Combat at the University of Oklahoma. She 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).

Plays

  • Triflers Need Not Apply
    Triflers Need Not Apply is a haunting, true crime, historical fiction play based on the life of Belle Sorenson Gunness, one of America’s first female serial killers. This darkly funny play brings a murderess lost to history back to center stage to tell her story—once and for all.
  • Petrified!
    Amy Whipple always wanted to be a park ranger at Petrified Wood National Forest. On her first night on the job, she discovers that she has been cursed! With the help of historical adventurer Annie Montague Alexander, Amy seeks to break the curse of the Petrified Wood Forest before she becomes petrified wood herself!

    Based on the real explorer Annie Montague Alexander and the real Conscience...
    Amy Whipple always wanted to be a park ranger at Petrified Wood National Forest. On her first night on the job, she discovers that she has been cursed! With the help of historical adventurer Annie Montague Alexander, Amy seeks to break the curse of the Petrified Wood Forest before she becomes petrified wood herself!

    Based on the real explorer Annie Montague Alexander and the real Conscience Letters from Petrified Wood National Forest!

Recommended by Kate Busselle

  • the beautiful things are gonna kill you
    12 May. 2023
    This play is incredibly raw and vulnerable. Your heart pangs at the pain that O experiences throughout the play. This play showcases the challenges of interracial queer relationships and the detrimental wounds that white women can inflict on black women.
  • Peking Apples
    12 May. 2023
    This play sucks you in immediately and you are devastated when it is over; Peking Apples leaves you wanting more. Breakneck dialogue zipping through a wide array of hot-button issues that no one really talks about—interracial adoption, what it means to be Asian or Asian-American, interracial infighting, whose parenting was right/White enough, the model minority myth, and more. This play showcases three fierce roles for Chinese-American women who are trying to unravel identity politics together. An incredible play!
  • Affecting Expression
    12 May. 2023
    Another delightful play about American actress Charlotte Cushman…this time, later in her career and when things fall apart with her and Matilda Hays. The play is beautifully constructed and has wonderful moments of magic towards the end of the play that demands the use of the stage. A great option for universities and colleges to produce!
  • The Ordeal of Water
    12 May. 2023
    This play is a wonderful, magic realism adventure between two women who are trapped and cannot escape the cargo hold of a container ship. The dialogue is quick-paced and full of fight. The women discuss all manners of feminist issues, from workplace discrimination, harassment, what it means to be a feminist, and, oh yeah, encounter witches while they are trapped! An amazing play.
  • Romeo & Her Sister
    12 May. 2023
    This play is an absolute treat!An excellent women-centric historical piece that will absolutely be produced by colleges an universities. A delightful play.