Kristin Rose Kelly

Kristin Rose Kelly

Kristin Rose Kelly is a director and playwright who focuses on socially relevant theater and specializes in creating documentary theatre. Her work in documentary theatre has been influenced by working with Matthew Francis, protégé of Anna Deavere Smith, Ping Chong & Company, and Dance Exchange. Her docu-musical, A Chip on Her Shoulder, about women in Engineering has been featured at colleges and...
Kristin Rose Kelly is a director and playwright who focuses on socially relevant theater and specializes in creating documentary theatre. Her work in documentary theatre has been influenced by working with Matthew Francis, protégé of Anna Deavere Smith, Ping Chong & Company, and Dance Exchange. Her docu-musical, A Chip on Her Shoulder, about women in Engineering has been featured at colleges and universities all over the Northeast including, Virginia Tech, Virginia Western Community College, NYU, City College of New York, Columbia University, Queens College, and Brooklyn College. She was a 2018/2019 Artist in Residence at University Settlement with her theatre collective, Creative Traffic Flow where they created an original dance theatre piece with community members, Duets of Difference. She also co-directed Extraordinary Interruptions: a dance theatre piece about mass media events performed at Virginia Tech, Roanoke Ballet Theatre, and The Cube at the Institute for Creativity Arts and Technology. Her and collaborator, Thomas Murray, have presented their creative process at NYU Forum on Ethnodrama and DirectorsLabChicago.
Kristin has served as assistant director for Sarah Cameron Sunde, Talking Band, Honest Accomplice Theatre, Dana Edell and SPARK movement as well as with Salt Marsh Suite: an original video/sound installation and performance of a Carolina estuary created by Carol Burch-Brown and Ann Kilkelly. She was the Director of Theatre for Change for Queering Education Research Institute has previously trained with the Irondale Ensemble Project, SITI Company, Ping Chong and Company, and Dance Exchange.

Kristin is a proud Artistic Associate with Waltzing Mechanics and Ring of Keys member. Kristin received a Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies and continues to apply feminist theoretical frameworks to her artistic practices. Member of the SDCF Observership Class and 2015 recipient of the SETC Ballew Directing Award, she is an alumna of Pangea World Theatre and Art2Action’s National Institute of Directing and Ensemble Creation. She received her MFA in Directing and Public Dialogue from Virginia Tech and BFA in Musical from Syracuse University.

Plays

  • A Chip On Her Shoulder: a documentary play about women in Engineering by Kristin Rose Kelly
    Cast: 
    4–8
    ·
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: engineering, computer engineering + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: engineering, computer engineering, stem, women in tech, women in science, docudrama, documentary theater, interview-based
    A Chip On Her Shoulder
    investigates the experience of women and gender non-conforming engineers and stimulates the conversation of what it means to be a visible and/or invisible identity in the field. It engages directly with engineers through participatory interviews used to create the script and form a collective story of the struggles and accomplishments of underrepresented groups in the field. The...
    A Chip On Her Shoulder
    investigates the experience of women and gender non-conforming engineers and stimulates the conversation of what it means to be a visible and/or invisible identity in the field. It engages directly with engineers through participatory interviews used to create the script and form a collective story of the struggles and accomplishments of underrepresented groups in the field. The play presents both technological and personal issues and accomplishments in the field, tackles discrimination and bias through subversive musical comedy, and celebrates inclusive ideas for the future of Engineering.
  • Momologues: a queer maternal documentary play by Kristin Rose Kelly
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic
    ·
    Keyword: Family. Gay. Straight. LGBTQ, features LGBTQ characters + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic
    Keyword: Family. Gay. Straight. LGBTQ, features LGBTQ characters, camp, magical queeralism, documentary theater, birth mother
    written and performed by Amy Ackerman, Zora Iman Crews, Jordan Ho, and Kristin Rose Kelly

    Momologues is a documentary performance piece centered around mothering. Specifically investigating what it means to be a parent of a queer child when you yourself are not queer. What are the ways moms foster confidence and fortitude in an identity that varies from their own? Playwrights Amy Ackerman, Zora...
    written and performed by Amy Ackerman, Zora Iman Crews, Jordan Ho, and Kristin Rose Kelly

    Momologues is a documentary performance piece centered around mothering. Specifically investigating what it means to be a parent of a queer child when you yourself are not queer. What are the ways moms foster confidence and fortitude in an identity that varies from their own? Playwrights Amy Ackerman, Zora Iman Crews, Jordan Ho, and Kristin Rose Kelly are tapping into that by interviewing their own mothers and performing them verbatim. See what happens when 4 unique moms: Laurie Ackerman, Rev. Cheryll D. Crews, Kathleen Ho, and Rosemary Previti-Kelly take centerstage and their daughters (the actors) decide how to continue their legacy in a queer future.
  • Voices From The Roanoke River by Jeesun Choi, DawN Crandell, and Kristin Rose Kelly by Kristin Rose Kelly
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: documentary, documentary theater + 4 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: documentary, documentary theater, interview-based, Roanoke River, environmental justice, environmental consciousness
    A documentary play about the Roanoke River and the community helping to protect it. Text drawn from interviews with Grace Harwin (Environmental Educator for Clean Valley Council), Danielle DeHart (Environmental Specialist for the City of Roanoke Stormwater Division), Bill Tanger (Chairman of Friends of the Roanoke River), Anita J. McMillan (Planning and Zoning Director for the Town of Vinton), Susan Jennings (...
    A documentary play about the Roanoke River and the community helping to protect it. Text drawn from interviews with Grace Harwin (Environmental Educator for Clean Valley Council), Danielle DeHart (Environmental Specialist for the City of Roanoke Stormwater Division), Bill Tanger (Chairman of Friends of the Roanoke River), Anita J. McMillan (Planning and Zoning Director for the Town of Vinton), Susan Jennings (Arts and Culture Coordinator for the City of Roanoke) and Diane M. Stephenson (Native American Water Walker from Surry County).