Kate has been a teacher of Improvisational Movement, Basic Technique of Acting and Playwright/Director Unit at The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University since 2015.
Kate teaches from her heart and feels every actor, playwright and director has a unique voice that asks to be freed in truth. She believes in tapping into the divine and accessing the sacred within the actor. Kate believes the actor serves as a healer in the culture; the actors themselves, willing to expose their own wounds so that the culture might begin to transform and shift just as the actors before them.
Her work with Movement consists of a deep exploration of the Prana Centers of the human body and their correlation with the psycho-physical realities of the Method Actor. Kate has created exercises that seek to release physical and mental tension in order to create space for the actors’ most vulnerable truths to be expressed mind, body and spirit.
Kate teaches Stanislavski’s system and the modern Method; with special attention to the Need work of the brilliant Kim Stanley. Kate works with the actor’s instrument primarily on relaxation, concentration, imagination and sense memory; gradually building the complexities of character work, revealing the actors purest truths and sacred expression of these truths.
Kate specializes in Animal Work, Prana Work, Shadow Work and Ancestry Work; all keys to tapping into the unconscious and freeing the actor’s instrument by exploring the curious, divine and intangible nature of the self. Below are examples of various students photographed in their exquisite work in Kate’s class.
(Pictured above: Brett Goldberg, Leo Solomon, Zak Ma, Lucy Lewis, Joris de Graf, Kizzmett Pringle, Caitlin McCutcheon, Amy Woschnik and J. Gulotta, Jamie Gore Pawlick, Kat Agudo, Thomas Little, Sydney Amigo, Anna Bikales, Akilah-Aziza Gordon).
Insights from Students on Kate’s Work as Teacher & Coach
“Kate is a magical and effervescent leader and teacher. Within the safe space she creates, she has the ability to see into your soul, your innermost dormant seeds, and help nurture and blossom your true Artistry. She is one of the most brilliant and gorgeously vulnerable Actors I have ever seen on stage. Ever. Sharing her Light through teaching is a gift to anyone who has the honor of receiving.” – Actor, Kim Rios Lin
“Coming from the opera world, it was invaluable to get this kind of focused acting training that also took into account the vocal demands I was facing. Kate was supportive, collaborative and warm, which really allowed me to open up and dig deeper as a singer and an actor. She really centered me, I can’t recommend her highly enough!” – Soprano, Caroline Miller
Kate Taney Billingsley 