Courses Taught

  • Acting for Film and TV Intermediate

Biography

Kelly has been privileged to have spent 35 years in the theatre industry as an actor, director, producer, artistic director, educator and playwright. She trained at the University of Winnipeg in acting (BA Hon.), the University of Calgary in directing (MFA), and is an alumna of the Shaw Festival Director’s Project and the 2023 Stratford Festival’s Michael Langham Directors Workshop where she was the Assistant Director on Spamalot. Kelly has facilitated workshops and trained with members of SITI Co., and with company members from Shakespeare’s Globe in London, UK and the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. Kelly has directed and acted in over 75 productions. Some of her favourite projects include Albertine in Five Times (Dir. RMTC Tremblay Fest, and again for LTP), American Buffalo (Dir. LTP), THE 39 STEPS (Dir. LTP and U of Windsor), Macbeth (Adapted and Dir. U of Windsor), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Dir. LTP), A Streetcar Named Desire (Actor; RMTC/Eunice/ Blanche understudy and Dir. U of Windsor), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Adapted and Dir. U of Windsor), The Cassilis Engagement (Dir. U of Wpg), Passion (Dir. Red Hen), and Vinegar Tom (Dir. U of Wpg), Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill (Dir. U of Calgary and U Windsor), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Actor; LTP) and as an actor in Genet’s The Maids (Top 10 Wpg. Fringe). As an educator, she has directed and taught acting to hundreds of university students from Ontario to British Columbia. Kelly has also had the privilege of directing some of the country’s top actors while serving as Artistic Director for Lyndesfarne Theatre Projects (LTP), a company she co-founded with actor and partner, Ric Reid, and for which she was awarded the Niagara Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010. During her time with LTP, Kelly created a Young Company during which she directed and produced The Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill A Mockingbird, Animal Farm and Our Town with children and youth ages 10 to 27. Kelly’s work includes producing numerous productions, including Judith Thompson’s Watching Glory Die, re-written and directed by Judith Thompson, for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019. During the pandemic, Kelly wrote her first full-length play, Viaticum. Kelly continues her work as an educator, director, producer, coach, and casting assistant.