Delaney Kelly

Delaney Kelly

Delaney Kelly is a writer and playwright from Cleveland, OH, currently based in New Haven, CT.

Previous works include the apocalyptic coming-of-age play The Size of a Fist, which premiered at the Oberlin College New Works Festival and was Runner-Up for the 2020 KCACTF National Undergraduate Playwriting Award, and the queer musical comedy Before the Flood, which received a staged reading at the...
Delaney Kelly is a writer and playwright from Cleveland, OH, currently based in New Haven, CT.

Previous works include the apocalyptic coming-of-age play The Size of a Fist, which premiered at the Oberlin College New Works Festival and was Runner-Up for the 2020 KCACTF National Undergraduate Playwriting Award, and the queer musical comedy Before the Flood, which received a staged reading at the Kraine Theater in 2022. Their fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Glass Mountain, and Blood & Bourbon, among others. BA: Oberlin College, 2020. Delaney is particularly passionate about creating fun stories centered around complex queer and neurodivergent characters.

Plays

  • One Moment Please by Delaney Kelly
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: mythology, myth of Echo and Narcissus + 2 more
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy, fable/folktale, romantic comedy
    Keyword: mythology, myth of Echo and Narcissus, artificial intelligence, technology
    Based on the myth of Narcissus and Echo, one man falls in love with his hyper-curated, people-pleasing Amazon Echo device.

    This play was a selected winner of the Red Bull Theater's 2023 Short New Play Festival.
  • hi how can i help you by Delaney Kelly
    Cast: 
    4–5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: customer service, autism + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: customer service, autism, Autistic, clown, COVID-19 pandemic, coming of age, Therapy, diagnosis
    22-year-old Emery is a college dropout working in fast food, and she thought she couldn’t disappoint her parents even more. Then she told them she wanted to be a professional clown. Oh, and she also might be Autistic. The only way to move forward is to unmask, but is there a person under all those years of compulsive people-pleasing? Is she going to like who she becomes in the end? A dark comedy in the style of...
    22-year-old Emery is a college dropout working in fast food, and she thought she couldn’t disappoint her parents even more. Then she told them she wanted to be a professional clown. Oh, and she also might be Autistic. The only way to move forward is to unmask, but is there a person under all those years of compulsive people-pleasing? Is she going to like who she becomes in the end? A dark comedy in the style of Fleabag meets Convenience Store Woman, hi how can i help you is a story about Autistic joy, about the parts of ourselves we keep hidden, and how sometimes, the best way to unmask is to don another costume entirely.
  • Before the Flood by Delaney Kelly
    Cast: 
    14–15
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: coming of age, coming out + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, horror, musical, young audiences
    Keyword: coming of age, coming out, sex education, 2010s, middle school, christianity, abstinence, boy bands
    13-year-old Annie DiLuvian is on the cusp of something that promises to change everything, she can feel it. Aided by a Greek Chorus of her closest confidants--a British boy band who are all gay for each other, thank you very much--she must navigate revelations of seismic proportions and sex education at the same time.
  • HAGS by Delaney Kelly
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: growing up, friendship + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fable/folktale, young audiences
    Keyword: growing up, friendship, coming out, summer vacation, orpheus and eurydice, girlhood, coming of age
    It’s end of summer vacation – one week before high school, one week before everything changes for good. Three best friends spend these last few days on the shores of Lake Erie, questioning what will become of their friendship once secrets kept threaten to unravel them for good. Loosely based on the story of Orpheus & Eurydice, HAGS is a story of mythologies old and new, about growing up, and the age-old...
    It’s end of summer vacation – one week before high school, one week before everything changes for good. Three best friends spend these last few days on the shores of Lake Erie, questioning what will become of their friendship once secrets kept threaten to unravel them for good. Loosely based on the story of Orpheus & Eurydice, HAGS is a story of mythologies old and new, about growing up, and the age-old anxiety of becoming unknowable to those who know us best.
  • The Size of a Fist by Delaney Kelly
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: climate change, libraries + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, science fiction, young audiences
    Keyword: climate change, libraries, family, Survival, Hope, rebirth, coming of age, Adolescence, Dystopian, literary
    In a dystopian reality ravaged by climate change, a precocious young girl and her bookish father live, isolated, in an abandoned nuclear fallout shelter. For Bee, the cold concrete shelter is all she knows, and she gets to work on an autobiography she hopes will outlast her. Thanks to their “pale blue dot” signal that alerts the government of their presence, they receive weekly shipments of imitation food that...
    In a dystopian reality ravaged by climate change, a precocious young girl and her bookish father live, isolated, in an abandoned nuclear fallout shelter. For Bee, the cold concrete shelter is all she knows, and she gets to work on an autobiography she hopes will outlast her. Thanks to their “pale blue dot” signal that alerts the government of their presence, they receive weekly shipments of imitation food that is no longer tenable on Earth. Everything changes when one day, the drone delivers a packet of seeds. Without knowing whether the apple tree will survive the harsh unpredictable weather, the duo must learn what it means to live for each other, at all costs.