Kate Kohler Amory

Professor of Theater
Affiliated Departments
Contemporary Theater
Musical Theater

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Kate Kohler Amory joined the Conservatory in 2017 and is a professor of theater.  

Amory is a theater maker: actor, director, choreographer, dancer, and writer. Over her 30-year career in New York and beyond, she has appeared in numerous plays including The Life of Spiders, Einstein’s Dreams (Holderness/The Culture Project), Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing (Holderness/Lincoln Center’s Clark Theater), Refracting Miss Julie (One Arm Red Brooklyn), The Yellow Wallpaper (The Living Theater), and PERSONA (Women’s Center Stage Festival @ The Culture Project). In New England, she appeared in As You Like It, Love’s Labor’s Lost (Shakespeare & Company), Sylvia (Salem Summer Theatre), Possible Worlds (Perishable Theater), and Much Ado About Nothing (New England Shakespeare Festival). She has written and performed solo shows including Punk Rock Mother F---ker (UMass Amherst) and CounterThrust (Boulder International Fringe Festival).

Amory was a founding member of Holderness Theater Company, where she served as actress, teacher, and choreographer. She is also a founding member of Convergences Theater Collective and is the founding artistic director of the Ridiculous Project, where she performed/adapted The Birds (The Factory Theater) and Romeo and Juliet: A Space Oddity (Salem Arts Festival). Amory was formerly an associate professor at Salem State University and has been a teacher at Shakespeare & Company and in numerous universities, including Brandeis University and the University of Wisconsin. She directed The Wolves, Macbeth, Comedy of Errors, d.arc water, Big Love, and Ghosts of Troy at Salem State University and codirected Hamlet in a Nutshell at Brandeis University.

She holds an M.F.A. in contemporary theater performance from Naropa University, a master’s degree from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art/King’s College London, and a BAhons (B.F.A. equivalent) from Goldsmiths College at University of London. She is also certified in somatic movement (DE-SMTT), Trish Arnold Pure Movement Technique, and yoga instruction (CYT).  

Professional Awards and Recognitions

  • Summer Performance Award to the Ridiculous Project for Midsummer Night's Dream (Salem Public Art Commissions, 2021)
  • Merit Award for directing and cowriting d.arc water (Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 2014)
  • Merit Award for directing Big Love (Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 2013)
  • Merit Award for ensemble work and original creation for Ghosts of Troy (Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 2013)

Recent Engagements

  • Excerpts from Pandemic Plays 20|20: Storytelling Studio (Ridiculous Project, 2020)—Writer and Director
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Boston Conservatory, 2019)—Director
  • Macbeth (Salem State University Theatre, 2017)—Director
In Their Own Words

I work to create a brave space where the actor can begin to take risks—physically, emotionally, energetically—and by leaping into the unknown, gain confidence, a creative voice, and physical expressivity.