Katherine K. Willis

MA, Individualized Study, NYU Gallatin
Certified Instructor: The Lucid Body Technique
BFA (Magna Cum Laude), Musical Theatre, Missouri State University

Katherine is an educator in movement and physical acting. Katherine is a Certified Lucid Body Instructor who has trained under Fay Simpson (Lucid Body Founder, Head of Movement, NYU Tisch Graduate Acting). A senior instructor at the Lucid Body Institute, she teaches the Institute’s classes for actors as well as trains new teachers in the Lucid Body Teacher Certification program. She has served on the faculty of The New School College of Performing Arts, Brooklyn College MFA Drama Program, Yale School of Drama, Marymount Manhattan College, Stella Adler Studio, and the Actor’s Center. 

During her graduate studies, Katherine developed original techniques to support the post-performance process for actors called "Releasing the Character," drawing from her research in neuroscience, mindset science, functional anatomy, and somatics. Katherine is an acting and career coach and offers these techniques, as well as Lucid Body principles, to her private clients.

Katherine has collaborated with Ashley Kleinman Martinez, LCAT, RDT, on Lucid Body techniques for drama therapists and expressive therapies. They have presented their work with the North American Drama Therapy Association, the Expressive Therapies Summit, and the NYU Drama Therapy program.

Katherine has served as Movement Director for Men On Boats, as well as the student-devised production of Unsupervised and Unruly at the New School.  As a member of the Lucid Body Impact Theatre Company, Katherine acted, directed, and devised original physical theatre productions. Favorites include Leaving Theatre, a collaboration with military veterans, and Scotty, an adaptation of the Raymond Carver short story “A Small Good Thing,” which performed at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in partnership with the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in Movement Theatre and Dance. 

Katherine’s favorite regional acting credits include: the one-woman play Bad Dates (actor, and co-producer), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (McGinn/Cazale Theatre), South Pacific (Arts Center for Coastal Carolina), A Little Night Music, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Orlando Shakespeare Theatre), Harvey, and The Imaginary Invalid (Tent Theatre).