Dr. Shawna Mefferd Kelty is a first generation college graduate and received her Ph.D.
in Theatre from the University of Missouri. She is a current associate member of the
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and a 200-RYT hatha yoga and 85-hour
PRYT prenatal yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance.
At heart, Dr. Kelty is a generalist, with a great love of all the aspects of theatre.
Her experiences and interests in theatre are broad ranging from performance, directing,
and technical production to dramatic literature, history, and theory. She has directed
and performed in several original works (two off-Broadway directing credits). She
also worked as both performer and facilitator in two Theatre of the Oppressed interactive
theatre troupes. Her theatre work also extends into technical theatre as a master
electrician, scene shop supervisor, and a technical director among other backstage
roles.
Dr. Kelty is a distance runner, yoga practitioner/teacher, and encourages her students
to find an embodied practice that strengthens and grounds them physically, mentally,
and spiritually. You’ll probably see her out running or riding her bike to campus
(wearing a helmet, of course). She also will probably recommend about fifty podcasts
you should listen to when you get a chance because she LOVES to learn new things.
Dr. Kelty’s research and creative scholarship focuses on contemporary American theatre
and dramatic literature, new play development, and theatre pedagogy. She is the associate
editor of Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches, and Poems (2017). You can find her most recent theatre pedagogy research in Theatre Topics andTheatre/Practice. She is the drama editor for The Saranac Review. Dr. Kelty also serves as the theatre representative in the Faculty Senate.
On the national and regional stage, Dr. Kelty is the president of the Mid-America
Theatre Conference and has served in a variety of positions within the Association
for Theatre in Higher Education on the governing council and within the Theatre as
a Liberal Art Focus Group. She is the coordinator of the Kennedy Center American College
Theatre Festival Region I Fringe Festival and serves as a regional play respondent
and selector.
Locally she also serves as the president of the North Country Food Co-op’s board of
directors because she deeply believes in the 7 principles of cooperatives and that how we engage with where we live and the community where we live matters.
As theatre artists, we are the storytellers of and for our community.
Her dad often tells her that she’s no spring chicken, but she begs to differ.
“Our Town, Pendragon Theatre, Saranac Lake, New York” (performance review) Thornton
Wilder Journal, vol. 4 issue 2, Oct 2023, p.271-277.
“Manifesto for Creation; or, Dismantling the Patriarchy in Creative Spaces.” M(O)ther Perspectives: Staging Motherhood in 21st Century North American Theatre &
Performance edited by Lynn Deboeck and Aoise Stratford. Routledge, 2023.
“Spinning Truth(s), Myths, Gossip, and Facts in the Theatre History Classroom.” Theatre Topics, vol. 30 no. 3, 2020, p. 195–201.
“We Have Lift-Off: The Pedagogy of Radical Empathy for First-Year Student Success.”
Theatre/Practice: The Online Journal of the Practice/Production Symposium of the Mid
America Theatre Conference, vol. 7, 2018.
“Antitheatricality and the Body Public,” Theatre History Studies, Vol. 37, 2018.
Crespy, David, editor and Shawna Mefferd Kelty, associate editor, Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches and Poetry. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, Fall 2017.
“Other Real Classrooms: Creating and Funding Co-Curricular Experiences for Theatre
Arts Students,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, virtual, July 2025
“You Have to Be Carefully Taut/Taught: An Embroidery Installation Community Art Project
and Process,” American Theatrical Costume Association, virtual, May 2025
“Script Analysis – What plays? Why? Why now?” Association for Theatre in Higher Education,
Atlanta, GA, Aug 2024
“Care in the rehearsal room and the birthing room” in Mother/Artists: A Round table
of Experiments, Advocacy, and Action," Association for Theatre in Higher Education,
Austin, TX 2023
“Transforming Curriculum: Building inclusion equity, access, and sustainability into
our pedagogical and artistic practices,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education,
Austin, TX 2023
“Successful Post-COVID Theatre Recruitment and Retention Practices,” Association for
Theatre in Higher Education Conference, Detroit, MI, Aug 2022
“Re-ignite your Intro Class: Reinventing, Revolutionizing, and Reckoning through Engaged
Learning Practices,” Theatre as a Liberal Art Focus and Middle Eastern North Africa
Focus Groups, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, virtual, Aug 2021
“The Drive for New Voices: Directing and Developing New Works in the Academy,” Directing
Program, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, virtual, Aug 2020.
“How to Ignite Your Intro to Theatre Class!” 2-year Program and Theatre as a Liberal
Art Focus Groups, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Virtual, Aug 2020
