Kathryn Kelly

I am a dramaturg and theatre historian and a Lecturer at QUT in the Drama area in the School of Creative Practice, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Justice (CIEJ). My research interests include dramaturgy and socially engaged, feminist and transcultural performance.

My publications include a history of Australian dramaturgy 2000-2010 in Catching Australian Theatre in the 2000s (Australian Theatre Series, Bril) as well as with the Theatre, Dance Performance Training, International Journal of Media and Performance, Australasian Drama Studies, Performing Ethos, Body, Space, Technology, Social Alternatives, Fusions and various industry journals. I was a long-time Real Time contributor and I continue to mentor young critics and dramaturgs.

My current research projects include an international collaboration around climate crisis, The SAND Project. Outcomes from The SAND Project which will premiere in the Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM) in February, 2020 and the Tokyo Tokyo Olympic Arts and Cultural Festival in June, 2021; Rovers Community Engagement which is a project to explore First Nations community engagement models for Australian performance using the 8ways model in collaboration with First Nation artists during its five-stop national tour (2021);

My dramaturgy practice is in text-based theatre, contemporary performance and socially engaged practice. I am currently company dramaturg and Chair with award-winning, all-female theatre company, Belloo Creative, who are the Company in Residence at Queensland Theatre: http://www.belloocreative.com and whose adaptation of Kris Olsen’s memoir, Boy Lost will be on at Queensland Theatre in late 2022.

I have worked for every major festival and theatre company in Queensland; nationally for Theatreworks (Melbourne); Malthouse (Melbourne); Australian Theatre Transforms (Sydney) and the Darwin Writers Centre and internationally for the Factory Theatre and Cahoots Theatre Projects in Toronto, Canada.

Formerly, I have worked as CEO of Playlab (2004-2008), Australia’s second largest theatrical publisher and as Resident Artist for World Interplay, which was the largest festival for young playwrights in the world. I have also worked for Arts Queensland and other arts organisations in my twenty-five years in the performance sector.

Professional Dramaturgical Credits:

Belloo Creative: http://www.bellloocreative.com and our recent shows include: ROVERS, at NORPA (Lismore NSW) 2018 and Brisbane Festival, on tour in 2020; SAND, a bi-lingual Japanese-Australian physical theatre work with a public outcome at Flowstate at Southbank Parklands in November 2018; HANAKO, a bi-lingual Japanese-Australian work which debuted at the Brisbane Festival in 2016 and MOTHERLAND which was part of the 2016 Queensland Theatre Season, before going on a national tour.

I have worked with every professional theatre company in Queensland and with over seventy individual playwrights and independent theatre and performance-making companies nationally. Recent selected credits include Sound of a Finished Kiss, by Katy Wild and with songs from the Go-Betweens, 2018 Brisbane Powerhouse; Alone Together With Me, Dance Massive, Abbotsford Convent, 2019; The Rat Trap by Polytoxic, 2013; La Boite Theatre Company: Sunnytown by Krystal Sweedman, 2015, Water Wars by Elaine Acworth, 2013 & Wicked Bodies by Angela Betzien, 2004 and JUTE Seven Deadly Sins by Stephen Carleton, Maryann Butler and five other playwrights nationally, 2005.

I have also worked for every major venue in Queensland, including QPAC, Metro Arts, Brisbane Powerhouse, the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts and regional venues across the state as well as Theatreworks and Malthouse in Melbourne. She has dramaturged for the National Play Festival, the Regional Theatre-makers Festival, the Australian Script Centre, StagesWA and Darwin Writers Centre and for Playworks and ANPC (now Playwrighting Australia). She was the Executive Director of Playlab from 2004-2008, publishing twenty-four new Australian plays; Resident Artist with World Interplay in 2005 and she worked in Arts Policy for Arts Queensland in 1999, 2001 and 2009. Publications include a history of Australian dramaturgy 2000-2010 in Catching Australian Theatre in the 2000s published by Brill/Rodopi.

Awards: QUT: Vice Chancellor’s Performance Award 2015: Nomination for the QUT Dean’s Award for Sustained Contribution by Sessional Staff 2012; Alrene Sykes Memorial Prize for Australian Literature, 1997. Lord Mayor’s Fellowship for the Performing Arts, 2001.