The Department of Theatre and Drama is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Baron Kelly to the faculty beginning with the Fall semester of 2020. His appointment will be concurrent with a role in the Department of Continuing Studies’ Odyssey Project.
Dr. Kelly will teach one class a semester and have regular service responsibilities in the Department of Theatre and Drama. As part of the Odyssey team, he will work with each incoming group of adult students, will offer program alumni credit-bearing courses in Acting Techniques with Onward Odyssey, and will offer guest workshops to inspire teens to come out of their shells with Odyssey Junior.
Kelly is a four-time Fulbright Scholar and a member of the National Theatre Conference. He earned his PhD in theatre research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a diploma from London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and a master of fine arts in acting from California State University, Long Beach.
He has traveled extensively as a cultural specialist for the United States Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, teaching and lecturing on the theatre in Africa, Europe, and Asia . His teaching of acting has led him to teaching and lecturing residencies in more than a dozen countries on five continents and in 20 American states. He has been a fellow at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African American Research.
Prior to joining the Department of Theatre and Drama at UW-Madison, he was head of acting and director of graduate studies at the University of Louisville.
Currently, he serves on the boards of the Comparative Drama Conference (Editorial Board), the Stanislavsky Institute Advisory Board, and the American Society for Theatre Research (Executive Committee). Kelly has served on review panels for the NEA, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Fulbright Commission.
He has performed internationally for the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain; Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada; National Theatre of Norway; Yermelova Theatre, Moscow, Russian; Constans Theatre, Athens, Greece, Academy Theatre Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh Theatre Festival; and Bargello, Florence, Italy, among others.
Broadway credits include “Salome” and “Electra.” He has also enjoyed numerous classical and contemporary roles for over 30 of America’s leading regional theatres including the Oregon, Utah, Dallas Fort Worth, and California Shakespeare Festivals; Yale Repertory; The Guthrie; Shakespeare Theatre Washington; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Old Globe San Diego; Mark Taper Forum; South Coast Rep; Hartford Stage Company; Repertory Theatre St. Louis; Baltimore Center State; Missouri Repertory Theatre; Berkshire Theatre Festival; McCarter Theatre; and Huntington Theatre Company, among others. He has also been a participant at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute.
Film and television work include: “A Day Without a Mexican”; “Bird”; “Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers”; “As The World Turns”; “Loving”; “Frazier”; “Law and Order”; “The Innocent”; and “Majority Rule.”
Kelly’s work has been published in Theatre Journal; American Theatre; Routledge; African American National Biography; Stage Directors and Choreographers Journal; Slovo i Chas; Journal of Ukrainian Institute of Education and Science; Cambridge Scholars Publishing; Peter Lang Publishers; and the Journal of the institute of African Studies, among others.
His book, “An Actor’s Task: Engaging the Senses,” is available from Hackett Publishing Company. Kelly’s website is: www.baronkelly.com.