With a vision of keeping children as the central focus of her working life, Kelli found her way to UUCC through what can only be called serendipity. Before coming to UUCC, Kelli worked for more than 25 years as a regional theater professional as an actor, singer and director. Her special interest in passing the arts along to the next generation led her to leadership roles as a theater educator throughout Maryland including an artist residence at the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Education Director at Baltimore’s Pumpkin Theatre and Resident Director of Baltimore’s Shakespeare Summer Camp. Her work eventually led her to expand her vision of what was possible for children’s theater programming and to create children’s theater companies and curriculum for homeschool children throughout the MD/DC/VA area with a special emphasis on Shakespeare. Her more than 50 productions featuring young actors have been seen at Artscape, Centerstage and Off-Broadway at Provincetown Playhouse.
Kelli continues her work at UUCC with great enthusiasm for expanding on her passion for enriching the lives of children. She believes in creating fun, focused, nurturing environments in which children can “become.”
Kelli grew up in Columbia MD before moving to Baltimore where she lived for 20 years. She now resides in Hampstead, MD with her chef husband, John and their much beloved cat, King Lear.