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

  • Show Trial
    22 Mar. 2024
    WOW! This play is unequivocally the best absurdist satire I have ever read. The play is brilliantly constructed to the point where the reader truly does not know what is actual transcript from the trial and what is pure farce. A powerhouse vehicle for multiple women (including a women/non-binary Stalin!).
  • Exit Wounds
    22 Mar. 2024
    This play is incredibly compelling and absolutely sucks in the reader to the world of mystery and uncovering family secrets. This play will haunt you and make you think of all of the people who experience this dark side of the repercussions of gun violence.
  • Organized Chaos
    4 Jun. 2023
    As a university professor that has had many positionalities within academia, boy did I connect to this play! The conflict, dialogue, and unpacking of power dynamics and labor within an academic and university medical hospital setting is rife with opportunity and possibility, and would be extremely interesting for a college or university to tackle. As an aside, I love a good Waiting for Lefty reference. I cannot wait to see how this play evolves!
  • Big Black Sunhats
    4 Jun. 2023
    This play is so surprising in concept and execution. I can anticipate this play having a thriving life through semi-pro and community theatre spaces with featured roles for older women and scrappy, strapping (old? young? both?) men. You could practically taste the sea air, the burnt roast potatoes, and feel the sand between your toes right along with the characters. A wonderful play!
  • What a Time to Be Alive (You Say That Every Time)
    4 Jun. 2023
    WOW. This play is the embodiment of the cringe emoji (and I mean that as the highest of compliments). This satire is witty, bracing, biting, and makes the audience go, "NO NO NO did they really just say that?!" A great play that could be scaled up or down depending on production needs, this work should absolutely be considered by colleges and universities across the country to confront issues of race, identity, and what it means to get ahead in the political shark tank.