Kate is an artist, scenographer and academic. She is Head of Department (Producing) & Reader in Scenography at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. Previously she was Course Leader for the BA Performance: Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins and is a founding member of performance collective ceschi + lane. (formally known as Brave New Worlds.)
ceschi + lane are a collaboration between theatre/ performance practitioner Valentina Ceschi and Kate Lane. Their practice looks at the representation of feminine bodies in contemporary society, from the idolized to the forgotten. They are interested in multi-platformed performances which exist in both the physical and the virtual spaces we inhabit, live moments with performance echo’s, virtual simulacrums of the real. Their 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. Their work looks to weave time-based performances which have complex visual narratives that form the dramaturgy.
They have been supported and performed with organisations such as Barbican Creative Learning, The Point Eastleigh, Ovalhouse, (UK), Arts Printing House (Lithuania), ACTs Festival, (Bilbao) and Scenofest, World Stage Design (Taipei). Kate’s work with Brave New Worlds was selected as part of the UK Exhibit for Prague Quadrennial and the Make:Believe Exhibition at the V&A in 2015.
Kate’s scenography 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. 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 Kate received a Jerwood Performing Arts Micro Bursary to develop a 360 VR film project and has 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.
