Kat Yates (she/ her) is an award-winning queer Naarm/Melbourne-based director, dramaturg and intimacy coordinator with an enthusiasm for dangerous ideas and safe theatre practices. She has worked across plays, cabaret and musical theatre and is attracted to queer and women-centric stories. She has a strong practice in guiding rehearsal rooms with emotionally intelligent leadership and is interested in making theatre that develops the artist and the audience. 
 

Her directing credits include Altar ( Midsumma, 2024)
RAV / Melbourne Fringe Market-Ready winner Niusia (Motely Bauhaus, Melbourne Fringe 2023 and La Mama Explorations, 2023) Cult (Melbourne Fringe 2023, Midsumma, 2023), Green Room nominated Memoir of a Tired Carer (Melbourne Fringe, 2022) Still Buried (VCA Masters Showcase 2022), Legends or the god killers Dirty Pennies Theatre Project (Zoom Development 2020), Holloway: a New Musical (MUST, 2018).  She also was the Intimacy Coordinator on In Transit (Lightbox Productions, 2023) and Holding the Man (Taylor Made Productions, 2022 and 2023) and Assisted Directed Animal Farm (The Bloomshed, 2021). Her previous dramaturg credits include the musical development Girls are Hot by Flesh Coloured Panties (2020) and Spring Awakening (Chapel off Chapel, 2019).
 

Kat holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts from Monash University, a Certificate IV in Business from Swinburne University and recently graduated with a Masters of Directing for Performance from the VCA, University of Melbourne in 2022. She completed a directorial secondment with Sam Strong on MTC/Queensland Theatre’s Emerald City in 2020 and another with Sarah Giles on MTC's A Very Jewish Christmas Carol in 2023. Kat is a recipient of the Geelong Arts Centre Creative Engine Artist Residency 2023 and will undertake a residency with The Round in Whitehorse City Council and another with the Clocktower Center in 2024.