Kelly is a theater director, producer, and nonprofit arts leader based in the Berkshires. She is passionate about bringing professional theater into direct relationship with communities, and working with organizations focused on centering artists, strengthening access, and sustaining live performance.
Trained at Shakespeare & Company under Tina Packer, she works in ensemble-based processes, with a focus on the relationship between actor and audience and making theater with artists of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities across classical, contemporary, and new work.
She has directed at theaters including Shakespeare & Company, Gloucester Stage, WAM Theatre, Great Barrington Public, Catskill Mountain Shakespeare, and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and has assistant directed at the Guthrie, Asolo Repertory Theatre, and Orlando Shakes. She directed the developmental production of Livian Yeh’s Memorial, which received an honorable mention on the Kilroys list, and her work has been recognized with nominations for two BroadwayWorld Awards for Best Director and a Berkshire Critics Award for Best Production for Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare & Company. She has held fellowships with Asolo Rep and Arena Stage and completed observerships with the Huntington Theatre Company and Bedlam NYC.
Kelly served for four years as a Program Director at Community Access to the Arts (CATA) in Great Barrington, where she led programs for artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and brain injuries. She continues to serve on CATA’s theater faculty and direct CATA’s Annual Performance, a fully accessible multidisciplinary arts event featuring more than 40 performing artists with disabilities.
A company artist with Shakespeare & Company since 2008, she has directed on the mainstage and in the Dell at the Mount, and served for six years as a teaching artist in the Fall Festival of Shakespeare and Shakespeare & Young Company. She currently serves as the Artist Trustee on the Company’s Board.
Kelly holds an MFA in Directing and a Certificate in Arts Administration from Boston University and a BA in Political Theory from Wellesley College. She was named one of the Berkshires’ 40 Under 40 in 2025.