Kelli Kerslake-Colaco

Kelli Kerslake-Colaco

Kelli Kerslake Colaco/Playwright's Bio
Writing Credits: Full-Length Plays: Colored, ...And The Old Girls Sway, Underbelly, Hazardous Materials, You Are My Sunshine (Semi-Finalist, Eugene O'Neill National Playwright’s Conference, 2014, Semi-Finalist Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition 2020) and The Meeting.
Screenplay/ Documentary:
Narrative and Interior Dialogue for...
Kelli Kerslake Colaco/Playwright's Bio
Writing Credits: Full-Length Plays: Colored, ...And The Old Girls Sway, Underbelly, Hazardous Materials, You Are My Sunshine (Semi-Finalist, Eugene O'Neill National Playwright’s Conference, 2014, Semi-Finalist Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition 2020) and The Meeting.
Screenplay/ Documentary:
Narrative and Interior Dialogue for Documentary film ‘Mad Hannans,’ directed and produced by
filmmaker Martin Short (Awarded Best Documentary at The Manchester Film Festival.)
Other screenwriting work includes the original webisode series, The Meek Shall Inherit.
Upcoming Equity Workshop:
‘You Are My Sunshine…’ a play with folk songs, based on a true story,’ produced by The Rep
Theatre of Delaware, Directed by Houseman Award Winner Sanford Robbins May 2020
Equity Workshop Production:
‘You Are My Sunshine…’ a play with folk songs, based on a true story, produced by Alma
Theatre Company at The Phoenix Theatre in SF, CA, 2018
Equity Staged Readings include:
Hazardous Materials: Produced by Alma Theatre Company San Francisco Playhouse Studios,
SF, CA, 2018
You Are My Sunshine: The Tides Theatre, San Francisco 2014, Ripley Grier Studios, NYC,
2013, Ripley Grier Studios, NYC, 2013
The Meeting: Ripley Grier Studios, NYC, 2010
Kelli is founding director of Alma Collective, (of Alma Theatre Company ) a seven-member
playwright’s collective in the Bay Area. Kelli is also an ongoing member of The 72nd Street
Gang, a New York City, invite-only actor/writer collective (now quarterly via Skype) that includes
award-winning, produced playwrights and Broadway actors, Jon Marans, Jeff Talbott, Kenneth
Jones Julia Gibson, Enid Graham, Robert Sella, Jeff Talbott and Stephen Kaplan, among
others.
Kelli’s five plays have benefitted from developmental readings within The 72nd Street Gang and
Alma Collective.
Further Bio:
Kelli is a founding member of The Independent Shakespeare Company originally in New York
City, now an award-winning, nationally recognized company residing in Los Angeles. She is
currently a Teaching Artist with Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, CA.
Select Acting Credits: Joan Aldrin in Moonshot ( 2010 Emmy-Nominated Best Movie Made for
Television ), Carver at London’s Arcola Theatre (directed by the late acclaimed Bill Gaskill ,
founder of the Royal Court Theatre and co-founder of The National Theatre , London ),
Malcolm/First Witch in Macbeth for London’s Independent Shakespeare Company (directed
by David Melville), R&J for Goodspeed Musicals (directed by Terrence Mann ) and Merchant
of Venice for ISF (directed by multi-Tony Award winning director Bartlett Sher ).
Training: M.F.A , The Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Delaware,
P.C.P.A ( The Pacific Coast Conservatory for The Performing Arts) in Santa Maria, CA

Plays

  • Colored, based on a true story by Kelli Kerslake-Colaco
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: racial diversity, contemporary social issues + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, immersive
    Keyword: racial diversity, contemporary social issues, African American and Latinx women, asian, changing perspectives, Latinx actors
    When Manzanita Continuation High School goes in to Lock Down from an imminent threat the morning, African American actor Joe Palmer is scheduled to perform the ‘historical’ play Son Of The Land for Ms. Erin's English class, a racially charged force majeure ignites. Darkly humored, poetic, and provocative, ‘Colored’ is an amalgamation of seven perspectives on the explosive breakdown of an ordinary day. A...
    When Manzanita Continuation High School goes in to Lock Down from an imminent threat the morning, African American actor Joe Palmer is scheduled to perform the ‘historical’ play Son Of The Land for Ms. Erin's English class, a racially charged force majeure ignites. Darkly humored, poetic, and provocative, ‘Colored’ is an amalgamation of seven perspectives on the explosive breakdown of an ordinary day. A conversation. An argument. A fragment of hope in the seed of imagination. (Based on true events.)
  • You Are My Sunshine... a play with folk songs, based on a true story by Kelli Kerslake-Colaco
    Cast: 
    7–8
    ·
    Genre: biography, dark comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: true story, family + 1 more
    Genre: biography, dark comedy, drama, immersive, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: true story, family, folk song narrative
    You Are My Sunshine: a multi-decade character study of a man of mythic American proportions whose passions and demons lead to tragedy. The fact-inspired ensemble drama focuses on the search for truth behind a dark family legend concerning an ancestor and the women and children in his life. The action of the play ranges 1927-1956 (and includes a Woody Guthrie style folk song narration by omnipresent, son...
    You Are My Sunshine: a multi-decade character study of a man of mythic American proportions whose passions and demons lead to tragedy. The fact-inspired ensemble drama focuses on the search for truth behind a dark family legend concerning an ancestor and the women and children in his life. The action of the play ranges 1927-1956 (and includes a Woody Guthrie style folk song narration by omnipresent, son character in acapella/ self accompanied acoustic guitar.)
  • ...And The Old Girls Sway by Kelli Kerslake-Colaco
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: biography, comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: reunion, friendship + 2 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: reunion, friendship, four women, life choices
    Based on true-life events, ...And The Old Girls Sway is a darkly humored reunion play that focuses on the peaks and valleys of the lifelong friendship between four dynamic women. After years of conflict set aflame by unpredicted life choices, the four come together for a weekend in Marfa TX.'Sway,' confronts the questions and perils of what true friendship is. 'We can sit together yonder, no...
    Based on true-life events, ...And The Old Girls Sway is a darkly humored reunion play that focuses on the peaks and valleys of the lifelong friendship between four dynamic women. After years of conflict set aflame by unpredicted life choices, the four come together for a weekend in Marfa TX.'Sway,' confronts the questions and perils of what true friendship is. 'We can sit together yonder, no longer jealous of our youth. And the old girls sway.'
  • Underbelly by Kelli Kerslake-Colaco
    Cast: 
    4–6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, mystery/thriller
    Based on true events, 'Underbelly' examines what happens to an already stressed-out marriage when the question arises as to whether husband and father Chris Langley was surreptitiously drugged during a post-work nightcap causing him to lose his mind, and most of his clothing, OR was it simply a case of him getting up to his old binge drinking habits? The tension is ratcheted up considerably by his...
    Based on true events, 'Underbelly' examines what happens to an already stressed-out marriage when the question arises as to whether husband and father Chris Langley was surreptitiously drugged during a post-work nightcap causing him to lose his mind, and most of his clothing, OR was it simply a case of him getting up to his old binge drinking habits? The tension is ratcheted up considerably by his wife Beth's pre-existing case of dissatisfaction with motherhood in the suburbs. The question of Chris's innocence becomes the catalyst for this teetering marriage to swim or sink within the mystery of seemingly answerless questions.
  • Hazardous Materials by Kelli Kerslake-Colaco
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: biography, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: racial profiling
    Genre: biography, dark comedy, immersive
    Keyword: racial profiling
    Two unlikely Middle Eastern strangers, Peter, a successful English businessman from London, and Philip, a Palestinian office manager with bipolar disorder — who has spontaneously quit his job and is hell-bent on working with Dr. Dre — find themselves seated together on an Airbus from Toronto to New York City. When life gets turbulent and ratcheted by prejudice and paranoia, our truest selves come to call.