Kate Colgrave Pope

Programme Director for Actor Training, Rose Bruford College Wigan

Summary

Kate joined the Rose Bruford Wigan team in September 2023. She was born and bred in South East London, where early theatrical experiences took place in the midst of the vibrant and progressive Community Theatre world of Greenwich and Lewisham. Kate trained as an actor at the Drama Centre London and worked with companies such as GYPT, Talawa and Clean Break.

She is now an honorary Mancunian, having lived in Greater Manchester for 14 years. Manchester is where Kate has been making theatre for the past decade with professional and community groups alike. Companies and Buildings include, Take Back Theatre, HOME, The Royal Exchange Theatre, Bolton Octogen, Contact, and Z-Arts.

Kate’s actor training gives her a unique insight and advantage in having a meaningful and comprehensive understanding of the rigours of training at degree level. It allows her to support students’ endeavours physically, mentally and academically.

Kate has recently developed new ways of integrating the fundamentals of actor training within our ever-changing world. She believes the training experience should always be brave, creative and above all inclusive.

She continues to work as a freelance theatre director, dramaturge and drama facilitator and has an extensive knowledge and deep understanding of the continuously changing profession that our students will enter.

As a teacher and theatre director, Kate fundamentally believes in co-intentional learning and development. Creating a space where challenge, debate and questioning from both sides are at the centre of any dialogue and artistic collaboration.

Supporting students to connect to and take ownership of their creative voice and instincts and nurturing that into something significant, skilful and meaningful is central to any actor’s development and success.

Teaching Area

Specialising in acting practitioners; Uta Hagen, Lee Strasberg and Stanford Meisner
Devising and New Writing and dramaturgy

Qualifications

MFA Theatre Directing (Distinction) – Birkbeck University
BA (HONS) Acting the Drama Centre London

Professional Practice

Recent Directing Credits

Take Back Our Bodies – 53Two (2022)

Maryland – The Edge Theatre – Take Back Theatre (2021)

A Mid Summers Nights Dream – Hope Mill Theatre – HER Productions (2021)

Suffragette City – The Royal Exchange Theatre & BBC Radio Manchester with Poet Jo Bell (2018)

Community Theatre Engagement & Collaborations

4 US 2 RULE – CYA@HOME Theatre Manchester

Working in Collaboration with Community Arts Northwest and HOME Theatre. We brough together a group of young people from vulnerable backgrounds and/or who were recently new to living in the uk. The projects aim was to create a sense of togetherness, confidence and both individual and group ownership of a piece of devised theatre was both relevant and important to the young participants.

Can You Hear Us from up Here? – The Royal Exchange and One Manchester Housing Association

In collaboration with One Manchester, I worked with Vulnerable adults who lived alone in tower blocks in Gorton and Hulme. Over one year I delivered workshops to facilitate devised piece of theatre about the challenges of living in social housing towers and their united response to Grenfell and the unheard voices of their communities.

World Stages with The Royal Exchange Theatre & The British Council

Working with writer Lizzie Nunnery and Ukrainian Director Tamara Trunova we organised, developed and supported the delivery of a new piece of theatre, celebrating Ukraine’s rich history and culture, “The People are Singing”. It explored what it means to be from a modern Ukraine. We collaborated with AUBC Manchester, conducting interviews and storytelling workshops. And we were placed in Kyiv for research and development to explore the political landscape of Ukraine.

Contact Theatre CYAC meets The Booth Centre

Bringing together a group of homeless and previously homeless people with a group of young theatre creators to challenge the preconceptions we have about homelessness through a range of theatre story telling techniques and workshops.

NARCO and Fink on Theatre – Young Offenders Outreach Program

Organising, structuring and working with young male offenders in Manchester to create a forum for development and expression of their ideas in relation to the themes of the play “Crying in the Chapel’. This included isolation, violence, poverty, incarceration and the relevance it had to them as young men caught up in the prison system.

Partners of Prisoners (POPS) – In Their Own Words

I was commissioned to create a piece of verbatim theatre that explored the challenges of families who have loved ones in prison. The group was made up of family members with their personal stories, honest statistics and raw accounts of their experiences. They performed this piece of theatre in front of a large audience of police officers, prison wardens and charities to help bridge the gap between their experiences and that of the authorities.

Associate/Assistant Director

24 Hours of Peace – Royal Exchange Theatre Neil Bartlett (2020)

100 Trans Voice – The Royal Exchange – Producer – Trans Creative with Kate O’Donnell (2019)

The People are Singing – Royal Exchange Theatre (Director Tamara Trunova (2017)

To Kill a Mocking Bird – Bolton Octagon – Director Elizabeth Newman (2016)

Night Watch Royal Exchange Theatre – Director Rebecca Gatward (2016)

Wit – Royal Exchange Theatre – Director Raz Shaw (2015)

Into The Woods – The Royal Exchange Theatre – Director Matthew Xia (2015)

The Crucible – The Royal Exchange Theatre Director Caroline Steinbeis (2015)

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