Duane Kelly

DETAILS and TIMELINE

2024  Patrimony will be produced in October in Tulsa, Oklahoma, opening the 2024/25 season of American Theatre Company. Much of the play's story takes place in Tulsa.  

2024  Duane's newest play, Abacus, will be produced Sept. 19-28 in Seattle at West of Lenin theatre. Abacus tells the story of a synthetic human replicant that experiences unexpected concerns as she cares for a man who suffers the indignities of old age and cognitive decline. Sponsored in part by 4Culture.
     
2024  Writing history book about 19th century emigration and the settlement of the Utah territory. Title: Journeys to Zion.

2023  Enquiry Concerning Hereafter produced at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Edinburgh Business College. The play, dramatizing the friendship between Enlightenment philosophers Adam Smith and David Hume, was staged at Panmure House, where Smith actually lived in his later years. It is also where Smith died, an event dramatized in the play.

2023  A radio play version of Enquiry Concerning Hereafter produced by AdamSmithWorks, an international academic organization dedicated to all things Adam Smith. 

2022  Wrote radio play adaptation of Enquiry Concerning Hereafter.

2022  Visiting Cezanne produced at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest theatre festival, attracting half a million visitors. Presented on the Alba stage at Hill Street Theatre by artists from Glasgow. 23 performances. Katie Jackson director.

2022  Patrimony, a play about a boy seeking his father, produced by Red Rover Theatre Company at 18th & Union Arts Space in Seattle. Alma Davenport director.

2021  Completed Abacus, a play about aging and AI that takes place in the future.

2020  Completed Enquiry Concerning Hereafter, a play about the friendship between Enlightenment philosophers David Hume and Adam Smith. 

2020  Visiting Cezanne translated into French

2019  Visiting Cezanne produced by Burien Actors Theatre as part of its mainstage season. Feb. 15 – March 10. Mok Moser director. 

2019  Completed Patrimony, a play about fathers and sons. 

2018  Visiting Cezanne, a play about Paul Cezanne, his gardener, and artistic struggles, produced by Red Rover Theatre Company at 18th & Union Arts Space in Seattle. Andrew McGinn director. 

2017  Produced Banned Together. Excerpts from plays and musicals that have been subject to censorship in the U.S. are performed to bring attention to the problem of censorship. Presented by Dramatists Legal Defense Fund. Allison Narver director. Sept. 25, ACT Theatre, Seattle. 

2017 Das Ende translated into German 

2017  Escorting Tom, a marital drama, produced at Burien Actors Theatre (near Seattle), after winning first place in that company’s 2017 Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival. Calen Winn director. 

2017 Das Ende, a play about Richard Wagner and the Ring operas, produced by Red Rover Theatre Company at 18th & Union Arts Space in Seattle. Kelly McMahon director. 

2017 Escorting Tom was a semifinalist selection for  American Association of Community Theatre (AACT) NewPlayFest. 

2016 Das Ende had a public reading, presented by Seattle Playwrights Circle at Elliott Bay Books, Nov. 6. 

2016 Co-founded Red Rover Theatre Company, with playwright John C. Davenport 

2016 Escorting Tom had a public reading, presented by Playfest festival, Port Townsend, WA, March 13. 

2015 Escorting Tom had a public reading, presented by Seattle Playwrights Circle at Elliott Bay Books, Dec. 6. 

2015 Moderated panel of Stephen Schwartz, Bobby Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Doug Wright, Amanda Green, and Christopher Ashley (Artistic Director, La Jolla Playhouse) at Dramatists Guild national conference in La Jolla, CA. 

2015 Escorting Tom was a semifinalist selection for 2015 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. 

2014 Escorting Tom had a public reading at ACT Theatre, Seattle, Oct. 21. 

2013 Served as a moderator at the national conference of the Dramatists Guild, in Chicago, interviewing playwright David Ives about his career. 

2011 Rousseau and Hobbes had a public reading at ACT Theatre Nov. 21. 

2011 Reconceived and rewrote Rousseau and Hobbes, a play about the 1994 Rwandan genocide and primate field research first written in 1999. 

2011 Served as a moderator at Playwrights in Mind: A National Conversation, the first national conference of the Dramatists Guild; interviewed Todd London, Artistic Director of New Dramatists. 

2011 Future Imperfect was a finalist for 2011 Ashland New Plays Festival, Ashland, OR.  4 plays were chosen from 10 finalists, selected from 200 submissions. 

2010 Travelled to Rwanda and Uganda for two weeks of research as preparation for rewriting Rousseau and Hobbes. 

2010 Completed Future Imperfect, a full-length comedy about a family trying to unite after the mother’s death.  Had public readings at id Theater (NY) Sept. 20 and at ACT Theatre (Seattle) June 17. 

2010 A Dying Wish was a semifinalist for 2010 NAAA Double X Play Reading Festival, London, England.  400 scripts were submitted. 

2010 The Thing With Feathers was a finalist for 2010 Ashland New Plays Festival, Ashland, OR.  4 plays were chosen from 10 finalists, selected from 200 submissions. 

2010 The Thing With Feathers was a semifinalist selection for 2010 FutureFest new play festival, Dayton, OH.  6 plays were chosen from 12 semifinalists, selected from 390 submissions. 

2010 A Dying Wish had a reading Feb. 15 at id Theater’s Sit In! reading series in New York. 

2010-2017 Served as Regional Representative for Washington state for Dramatists Guild of America. 

2009 The Thing With Feathers had a reading Nov. 11 at Lark Play Development Center in New York. 

2009 The Thing With Feathers was one of six plays developed at Seven Devils Playwrights  Conference, June 8-21, in Idaho. 

2009 The Thing With Feathers was a semifinalist selection for 2009 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. 

2007 Completed The Thing With Feathers, a full-length play about a Vietnam War vet fighting to save his failing coffee farm in Costa Rica. 

2005 Wrote short story, Pochta. 

2003 Completed play A Dying Wish, a full-length family drama. 

2001 Rousseau and Hobbes, as a result of a juried selection process, received a staged reading at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference with Edward Albee, in Alaska. 

2001 Rousseau and Hobbes, as a result of a juried selection process, received a staged reading at Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York.  Reading was part of that theatre’s First Light Festival. 

1999 Completed Rousseau and Hobbes, a full-length play about genocide and primate research in Rwanda and Uganda. 

SERVICE 
2009-2017 Dramatists Guild regional representative for state of Washington 

PRODUCING 
2003 Produced Equity production of Betrothal, written by Lanford Wilson 

MEMBERSHIPS 
Dramatists Guild of America 
Theatre Puget Sound 

BUSINESS CAREER
1988-2009 
Founder and Chairman of Salmon Bay Events, a company that produced Northwest Flower & Garden Show and San Francisco Flower & Garden Show.  Sold shows 2009.  Founder and publisher 1979-2000 of Pacific Fishing magazine, a journal serving the commercial fishing industry. 

CIVIC ACTIVITIES 
2001-2006 
Member of Board of Trustees, San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, a non-profit organization supporting San Francisco Botanical Garden (in Golden Gate Park). 
Chaired Strategic Directions Committee. 

2001-2002 
Member of Board of Directors, American Horticultural Society (Alexandria, Virginia) 

1991-1998 
Member of Board of Directors, The Arboretum Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting Washington Park Arboretum, a 200-acre arboretum in Seattle; chaired various committees including Long-Range Planning Committee.  Served as Foundation President 1993-1995. 

EDUCATION 
University of Washington, B.A. – English Literature, 1973