The Playwright and the Play

Kelsey Mesa is a playwright whose first produced play, La Salpêtrière, won a Helen for outstanding production at this year’s Helen Hayes Awards ceremony. A member of Capitol Hill’s resident theater company Taffety Punk, Kelsey is also manager of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Theater Education, as well as Resident Director of the Kennedy Center Directing Intensive. Her directing credits include Crimes of the Heart at Catholic University; Fefu and Her Friends at the University of Maryland, College Park; The Pavilion, The Magi, and Wish List at the Hub Theatre; and Othello, Antigonick, She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange, The Trojan Women, Charm, and dREAMtRIPPIN' at Taffety Punk Theatre Company.  She will talk about developing ideas for plays, the difference between writing and directing, and what winning the Helen has meant to her. Join us for a holiday treat!