Kate Budgen
Selected credits
- The Suspicions of Mr Whicher/ The Importance of Being Earnest The Watermill Theatre
- GutGuildhall School of Music & Drama
- Anything Is Possible If You Think About It Hard EnoughSouthwark Playhouse
- The Hairy ApeSouthwark Playhouse
- Strong ArmUnderbelly/Old Vic New Voices
- No Place for a Woman Theatre 503
About
Kate is a Stage Director based in London.
Recent productions include the premiere of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher at the Watermill, Anything Is Possible If You Think About It Hard Enough at Southwark Playhouse, and the winner of Best Play at the 2019 Writers’ Guild, Gut , for the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
Other credits include: The Importance of Being Earnest (Watermill Theatre), No Place for a Woman (Theatre 503), Anne Boleyn (RWCMD), Strong Arm (Underbelly/Old Vic New Voices), The Hairy Ape (Southwark Playhouse), Rigor Mortis (Papatango/Finborough).
Kate trained at Birkbeck College and on the NT Studio Directors course and has been a Connections Director for the National Theatre Connections Festival since 2011
Featured work
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
The Watermill
Adapted by Alexandra Wood
Directed by Kate Budgen
Design by Amy Jane Cook
Lighting Design by Katy Morison
Sound Design and Composition by Beth Duke
Projection Design by Rachel Sampley
‘Kate Summerscale’s Victorian potboiler is deftly condensed in a production that brings out the misogyny and class snobbery of the era’
★★★★ The Guardian
‘(with) purposeful direction from Kate Budgen, the unfathomable is brought chillingly to life’ ★★★★ Broadway World
★★★★ The Times
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Watermill
Design: Amy Jane Cook
Lighting: Sally Ferguson
Sound: Jon McLeod
Photo by Philip Tull
‘An inventive new take on an old favourite’
★★★★ Spy in the Stalls
‘Laugh-a-minute funny’
★★★★ Broadway World
The Hairy Ape
Southwark Playhouse
Design: Jean Chan
Lighting: Richard Howell
Sound: Tom Gibbons
Movement: Lucy Cullingford
Photo by Jane Hobson
JMK Directors Award: Runner Up
“In Kate Budgen’s muscular revival the beast is given full rein… though the walls of Southwark Playhouse shake, she is never in danger of losing control in a production that is as stylish as it is visceral”
★★★★ Time Out
Anything Is Possible If You Think About It Hard Enough
Southwark Playhouse
Producer: Philip Scott-Wallace
Design: Camilla Clarke
Associate designer: Ceci Calf
Lighting: Sally Ferguson
Sound: Beth Duke
Movement: Lucy Cullingford
“Kate Budgen’s dynamic, deceptively clever staging…” ***** WhatsOnStage
“Director Kate Budgen seamlessly choreographs the action, making use of every inch of the space. She keeps it pacey but at the same time is not afraid to let important beats rest and resonate before moving things along again.” **** Everything Theatre
“superb two-hander about dealing with grief” **** The Times
