David Orace Kelly (he/him) is currently the Director of the Center for Performing Arts and the Arts Department Chair at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson/Ridgeland, Mississippi.
Teaching since 2004 in private and independent education programs, he has directed more than 50 fully staged productions with youth actors. Favorite productions include, Diary of Anne Frank and Murder on the Orient Express (Saint Andrew’s Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Paradigm Theatre) and Stewart Little (Magic Playhouse).
In his career he has taught and directed productions on three continents, teaching internationally in Morocco and Bahrain. Working with middle and high school students he has developed secondary education programs with arts integration, project-based learning, and student centered curriculum. Additionally, he has significant experience as an arts administrator, he served as the Development Director for Balagan Theatre and Individual Giving Manager for Seattle Shakespeare Company. He also was the Executive Director for the Federal Way Symphony.
Prior to teaching, he had an early career as a professional juggler and circus artist performing in touring circus companies and as an independent artist on the West Coast, busking at festivals and street fairs.
In Seattle, as the Head of the Drama Department at Explorer West Middle School, he created an award winning theatre program for playwriting that earned top honors in the regional ACT Theatre Young Playwright Program, resulting in students getting their plays professionally staged readings and published in play anthologies. He was also named Teacher of the Year in 2017 for his work in this program.
David has trained with the Dell’Arte School of Physical theatre and the International Juggling Association; he studied viewpoints under Wendell Beavers, post-modern dance under Barbara Dilley, physical theatre with David Taft and Bruce Mars. He is a National Board Certified Teacher, licensed school administrator, credentialed International Baccalaureate teacher for Theatre Arts and Literature. He holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from Seattle Pacific University (teaching endorsements in k-12 Theatre Arts Education and 6 – 12 English Language Arts education), a Master of Fine Arts in Arts Leadership from Seattle University, and a BFA in Performance from Naropa University.
David Orace Kelly 