“Theatre exercises our capacity to listen, to acknowledge worlds of experience different
from our own, to simultaneously hold multiple and conflicting viewpoints as plausible
and real . . . Empathy, after all, is an imaginative act.” — Marta Lu Clifford (Chinook
& Cree); Theresa May, author of Salmon Is Everything and Earth Matters on Stage.
Dr. Shawna Mefferd Kelty received her B.A. in Dramatic Arts from the University of
Nebraska-Omaha, her M.A. and 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
(she teaches yoga).
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. She 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 has roller skates in her desk drawer (no
helmet).
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 and serves
as the chair for the General Education committee. She LOVES the Cardinal Core. She
also will probably recommend about fifty podcasts you should listen to when you get
a chance because she LOVES to learn new things.
On the national and regional stage, Dr. Kelty is the president-elect for 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. Dr. Kelty 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 on the North Country Food Co-op’s board because she deeply
believes in the7 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.
“We Have Lift-Off: The Pedagogy of Radical Empathy for First-Year Student Success,”
Theatre/Practice 7, (2018). Article.
Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches and Poetry. Crespy, David, editor and Shawna Mefferd Kelty, associate editor. Columbia: University
of Missouri Press, Fall 2017. Book.
“Theatre & Mind,” Theatre History Studies 33 (2014): 258-260. Book Review.
“New Directions in Renaissance Drama and Performance Studies,” Theatre History Studies
32 (2012): 191-194. Book Review.
Fashion by Anna Cora Mowatt, SUNY Plattsburgh, Adaptation with THE305 Students, 2016.
The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, SUNY Plattsburgh, Adaptation, 2013.
I Hear They Drink Champagne, co-authored with Erin Phillips, PlaySlam, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Omaha,
NE, 2013.
“Performing the Victor/Representing the Enemy Across the 49th Parallel: Contested
Territories, Histories, and Identities of the War of 1812,” American Theatre and Drama
Society Focus Group, ATHE, Aug 2018, Boston, MA.
“Spinning Truth(s,) Myths, Gossip, and Facts in the Theatre History Classroom,” Pedagogy
Symposium, MATC, March 2018, Milwaukee, WI.
“We Have Lift-Off: Discovering the Intellectual and Creative Universe through the
Theatre First Year Seminar,” Pedagogy Symposium, MATC, March 2017, Houston, TX.
“Disrupting the Classroom: Subversive Pedagogy in the Undergraduate and Graduate Classroom,”
Co-presentation with Dr. Emily Daniels, Conference on Teaching Excellence, October
2016, Plattsburgh, NY.
“Creating Gender Parity through Women’s Works in the Classroom,” Pedagogy Symposium,
MATC, March 2016, Minneapolis, MN.
“Dream Big: Artistic Literacy for the 21st Century,” Roundtable discussion, Theatre
as a Liberal Art focus group, ATHE, July 2014, Scottsdale, AZ.
“Developing Ensemble and Engaged-Learners through Liberatory Pedagogy,” Pedagogy Symposium,
MATC, March 2014, Cleveland, OH.
