I have had the great pleasure of getting to direct and choreograph The Best Christmas Pageant Ever the Musical at Town Hall Theatre. Performances run through December 17 – get your tickets now! Working on this production has been a fun, full-circle moment for me. I was once a kid on the Town Hall stage….
2nd Annual Playwright Race at Human Race Theatre Company
Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of writing for the 2nd Annual Playwright Race with the Human Race Theatre Company. This event brought together 30 local artists who performed throughout Dayton’s Art in the City Festival. We were split into five teams; each team included a playwright, director, production assistant. We drew names out…
Mean Girls Jr. Photos Now Available!
Many thanks to Jason at Snap Photo and Media, LLC for these great production photos! Some are here, and more are available in my flickr stream. All photos below are from Mean Girls Jr. at Children’s Performing Arts of Miamisburg, April 28-30, 2023. All photo credits go to Jason Epstein at Snap Photo and Media….
Mean Girls Jr. Coming Soon!
I’m delighted to share that my next directing project will be Mean Girls Jr. with Children’s Performing Arts of Miamisburg. Auditions are this Friday and Saturday for student actors ages 13-18. Like many folks who were teenagers in the early aughts, the movie version was a BIG deal to young Kelsey. I’d tell you how…
Back in the Classroom!
I’m so thrilled to share that this week I finally got to return to in-person teaching for the first time since the pandemic began. I am leading sessions of Acting Level 1 and Acting Level 2 at Town Hall Theatre. It’s a wonderful full-circle moment for many reasons. I participated in a few Town Hall…
To One of the Greats
Today my hometown lost a great lady; so I’d like to tell you more about my choir teacher Beth Jamison – or, as her students lovingly referred to her, Miss J. I remember the first time I ever sang at a funeral. It was Sarah MacLaughlin’s “I Will Remember You”. It was with a group…
New Podcast: What’s the Big Idea?
When I started working for Destination Imagination, I never dreamed that “Podcast Producer” would become part of my job description. And yet, for the past few months, I’ve been so pleased to create DI’s new podcast – What’s the Big Idea? – which will premiere on July 22. In each episode of What’s the Big…
DI Presents: Improvisation Concepts Online
I’m excited to share one of the projects I’ve been working on at my job with Destination Imagination. While I’ve been doing our introductory webinars for awhile, on March 24th I’ll be leading a new one! Drawing from my history as a theatre teaching artist, the new webinar focuses on how to use improvisation techniques…
QSL Remarks: Thoughts on Creativity
Last week I had the great pleasure of getting to speak to the members of the Quincy Service League. This organization was always supportive of the programs I worked for in Illinois, so I was glad to join them for a virtual meeting as their guest speaker. They let me choose the topic I wanted…
#tbt The Light in the Piazza – What I Learned
I’ve so enjoyed writing little wrap up posts about what I learned from a production, I decided to to a few throwback posts. I’ll be writing about a few shows that had a big impact on me, but never received a “What I Learned” feature. For the first one, it seems fitting to write about…
Destination Imagination
When I was a teenager, one of my favorite school activities was Destination Imagination. If you’re not familiar, it’s a program based in creative problem solving and STEAM-based learning (though I did it way back before “STEAM” was what it was called…). My friends and I would receive a Challenge and create the entire solution…
The Last Five Years: What I Learned
Hard to believe it’s been a whole month since the run of The Last Five Years at Canton Festival Theatre. I was so thrilled for the chance to get to work in a very cool venue with a great cast and creative team. Photos are available on my flickr stream. Like most musical theatre nerds,…
Kelsey Celek 