Leadership

Kelly Kerwin (she/hers) began her tenure as OKC Rep's Artistic Director in July 2021, after over four years at The Public Theater, where she was the Producer for the Under the Radar Festival and The Public’s Devised Theater Working Group, as well as a producer for new plays and musicals including the world premieres of Girl from The North Country; Soft Power; We're Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time; The Line; M’lima’s Tale; Tony Kushner's revised A Bright Room Called Day, among others. With Under the Radar, she worked with artists from over twenty countries including Whitney White; Manual Cinema; Tania El Khoury; Inua Ellams; New Saloon; Lola Arias; Rude Mechs; 600 Highwaymen; Ifeoma Fafunwa; Dickie Beau; and Choir! Choir! Choir! with David Byrne.

Kelly has been on the artistic staff at Yale Repertory Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, The House Theatre of Chicago, Chicago’s Collaboraction, and she was the Co-Artistic Director for the Yale Cabaret's 46th Season. She also helped establish Chicago's Salonathon, a weekly series specializing in underground performance. As a dramaturg, she has worked on world premieres with playwrights Ike Holter, Phillip Howze, Carly Mensch, Amelia Roper, and Emily Zemba.

She is a lecturer in Dramaturgy/Dramatic Criticism at Yale School of Drama, where she earned her M.F.A. She was an adjunct professor at Connecticut Culture, and she's been a guest artist/guest lecturer at Yale College; The New School; U.T. Austin; University of Oklahoma; The Theatre School at DePaul--the later of which Kelly earned her B.F.A.  Upon graduating Yale, Kelly received The Pierre-André Salim Prize - awarded to the graduating student who shows distinct promise of raising the standard of practice in the field.