top of page

Bio

Kelly is an NYC based producer, dramaturg, director, and artistic leader. She has worked in a wide range of theatrical forms including new plays, large-scale arts festivals, Broadway-bound musicals, site-specific theater, immersive audio experiences, theatrical guided tours, and devised work. 

 

From 2021 to 2024, she was the Artistic Director of Oklahoma City Repertory Theater, where she restored the dormant company into one of top professional theaters in the region. Under her tenure, OKC Rep produced 13 shows including world and national premieres, work by international artists, collaborations with local non-profits, a collaboration with the NBA Thunder, and she created a partnership with the Under the Radar Festival that is still ongoing.  

 

From 2017 to 2021, she was at The Public Theater where she produced world premiere plays and musicals including Soft Power by David Henry Hwang & Jeanine Tesori, M’lima’s Tale by Lynn Nottage, and Conor McPherson’s Girl from the North Country. During this time she simultaneously produced the Under the Radar Festival where she worked with artists from over twenty countries and six continents. She shepherded The Public's Devised Theater Working Group and produced their work-in-progress showings as part of Under

the Radar. 

​

In 2016, she received the Mark Bly Creative Capacities Fellowship to support POP! A Pop-Up Performance Festival, which she conceived, curated, and produced featuring brand-new theater experiences by 17 emerging artists in seven spaces (including one automobile!) throughout Bushwick, Brooklyn.

​

At Yale School of Drama, she was the co-artistic director for the Yale Cabaret's 46th Season. She's worked on the artistic staff Yale Rep, Steppenwolf, Atlantic, The House Theatre of Chicago, and Collaboraction. She co-founded Guided Tour, a site-specific, live art experience providing fake tours of real spaces, and she co-founded  Chicago's Salonathon--a weekly series specializing in underground performance. She's directed at OKC Rep, Ars Nova's ANT Fest, Collaboraction, and Yale Cabaret, and she's developed work with Phillip Howze, Carly Mensch, Amelia Roper, Emily Zemba, Ike Holter, and The House Theatre of Chicago. ​

​

​Currently, she’s a Lecturer in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at the Yale School of Drama.

​

​

​​

Education:

Yale School of Drama, MFA in Dramaturgy/Dramatic Criticism, 2015

The Theatre School at DePaul University, BFA in Dramaturgy/Dramatic Criticism, 2008

Kelly Kerwin Selects-38.jpg

Awards and Honors:

  • 405 Business Purpose and Impact Award: Outstanding Nonprofit Innovation, Oklahoma City Repertory Theater, 2022

  • Kelly was chosen to be part of The Director’s Circle at The Kampnagel Arts Center during their International Performing Arts Festival Hamburg, 2022

  • Mark Bly Creative Capacities Fellowship to “support artists as they explore and expand the boundaries of dramaturgy in the Americas,” 2015

  • Pierre-André Salim Prize awarded to one graduating Yale School of Drama student whose “artistry, professionalism, collaborative energy, and commitment to the community have inspired their colleagues, and who show distinct promise of raising the standard of practice in the field,” 2015

  • Yale Cabaret named “Best Theater” by the New Haven Advocate under leadership, 2014

  • George Pierce Baker Memorial Scholarship, Yale School of Drama, 2013

  • Edes Prize for Emerging Artists, Finalist, 2010

bottom of page