Profile
I am an artist and academic specialising in performance making & scenography. My practice focuses on performance making through a design-led methodology, specialising in costume & multi-platformed performances.
Prior to starting at Central as Reader in Scenography and Head of Department for Producing I was Course Leader on the BA Performance: Design & Practice at Central Saint Martins. I have been a Lecturer on the BA & MA Theatre Arts at Middlesex University and Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins & London College of Fashion.
I am co-artistic director of Ceschi + Lane a performance collective between myself and Director/ Movement Specialist Valentina Ceschi. We are interested in multi-platformed performances which exist in both the physical and the virtual spaces we inhabit. Our work looks at abstracting the body though manipulation and costume as prothesis, with the aim to create scenographic moments which exist on, to and through the performers body.
My practice has been shown extensively in the UK including Barbican, Roundhouse, Sadlers Wells, Southbank Centre, V&A, Roundhouse and International at Ravenna Festival (Italy), Musique Cordiale (France), Cork Festival (Ireland), Arts Printing House (Lithuania) ACTs Festival (Bilbao), and Scenofest, World Stage Design (Taipei)
Exhibitions include: ‘Costume at the Turn of the Century’ (2015) & ‘Innovative Costume of the 21st Century: The Next Generation’ (2019) both at the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow and as part of ‘Staging Places’ at the V&A (2019).
In 2018 I received a Jerwood Performing Arts Micro Bursary to develop a 360 VR film project and have collaborated with the BBC VR hub as Visual Consultant on an interactive VR game ‘Make Noise’ which was selected for the Venice Biennale in 2018.
With Ceschi + Lane my work was selected as part of the UK Exhibit for Prague Quadrennial and the Make:Believe Exhibition at the V&A in 2015. We were awarded a Seedbed Fund from 101 Outdoor arts in 2019 and our project Confinement was nominated for an OFFIE for best Design in an IDEAS category. We have been funded for my work from Arts Council England, Lithuanian Council for Culture and Norwegian Arts Council.
Areas of Expertise
- Scenography
- Costume
- Design for Performance
- Visual Dramaturgy
- Site-Specific Performance
- Performance Making
- Multi-platformed performances
Key Publications
2021 Lane, Kate and Ceschi, Valentina Greenham: Costume, memory and activism in outdoor performance. Studies in Costume & Performance, 6 (2). Pp. 233-252 https://doi.org/10.1386/scp_00049_3
2019 Lane, Kate Trinity: Visual dramaturgy, the body as scenographer and author Studies in Costume & Performance, 4(2), pp.207-228 https://doi.org/10.1386/scp_00005_1
External Practice
2022 – date (Joint lead artist/ researcher). Confinement, produced by Ceschi + Lane. Practice-led performance project examining the historic traditions of post-natal confinement in the context of the global pandemic lockdowns, questioning how the costumed body can give materiality to memory, form connections with community and become a critical commentary in the context of current events and wider contemporary & historical cultural traditions. Site-specific performance at Walthamstow Wetlands; London, a series of community workshops and short film. Featured in Critical Costume Exhibition, Conference paper at IFTR 2023 & ‘Performing the Fantastic in Contemporary Culture’ University of Warick 2023, Nominated for OFFIES award 2023 for Best Design in IDEAS category.
2019 – 2022 (Joint lead artist/ researcher) Greenham, produced by Ceschi + Lane, Practice-led site-specific performance project on Greenham Common examining the choreographic role of costume in relation to the ecology of a landscape, and its embedded physical and cultural memories, asking how costume can give materiality to memory and become a critical commentary in the context of a contested landscape and how site-specific performances develop dramaturgical responses? Site-Specific performance on Greenham Common, 4 x dance films featured in Commoning Thread Film Festival & 360VR selected for Aesthetica Film Festival.
2015 – 2017 (Joint lead artist/ researcher) Trinity, a live theatrical performance which examined the aesthetics and ideas of sacredness in Western visual culture. It explored the objectification of the female form and its formation as an icon, drawing on examples from the Venus of Willendorf to the Virgin Mary. The performance unpacked visual representations of gender in art and questioned the ethics and politics involved in the representation, mutation and transformation of the female form in our collective visual consciousness. Created through Barbican OpenLab Residency. Premiered at Arts Printing House, Vilnius. Further performances include Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Ovalhouse off-site performance at Asylum; London, ACT Festival; Bilbao & World Stage Design, Scenofest; Taipei. Included in ‘Innovative Costume of the 21st Century: The Next Generation’ A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.
2013-2015 (Joint lead artist/ researcher) Utopia, a live theatrical performance and series of short films which examined perceptions of utopia and world-building. Created through a Barbican OpenLab residency. Live performances include at MK Gallery Milton Keyes. Selected designer for work on Utopia for UK exhibition at The Prague Quadriennial of Performance Design and Space 2015. Included at Make:Believe at the V&A, London and selected designer UK representative for “Costume at the Turn of the Century 1990-2015” at the A.A. Bakhrushin Central State Theatre Museum, Moscow.
I also regularly collaborate as a scenographer in live performance, selected recent work includes:
2023 (Scenographer) Digital Cucumber, Director Valentina Ceschi & Composer Liv Runesdatter, premiered at Tou Scene, Stravanger; Norway.
2022 (Scenographer) What Do You See? Director Kane Husbands with The Pappy Show as part of London International Mime Festival
2022 (Scenographer) Is This a Dance? Choreographers Lola Maury and Eva Recacha. UK tour including The Egg; Bath & The Place; London.
2021 (Scenographer) Antratsyt – Perseverance Day. Transmedia production with Director Pavlo Yurov & Film Director Vicki Thornton. Premiered at Dovzhenko Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine
2019 (Scenographer) Mary Queen of Scots, Opera Directed by Robin Norton-Hale. UK tour with Opera-Up-Close
2018 (Scenographer) Re-Defining Juliet. Produced by RSC & the Barbican. Director Storme Toolis & Robin-Norton Hale. Performed at The Other Place, RSC Stratford and The Pit Barbican.
Register of Interest
Nothing to declare.
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