Kelly Shook is a Carbonell Award Nominated and Silver Palm Award Winning director/choreographer based in New York City. Recent credits include the critically acclaimed I Love a Piano and Swing! at The Wick Theatre. She spent two academic years teaching at Miami’s renowned New World School of the Arts. She directed the Central Illinois premier of Les Miserables at the Little Theatre on the Square. Other TLTOTS director/choreographer credits include 42nd Street, Big River, Anything Goes, The Will Rogers Follies, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Pirates of Penzance, and Home For the Holidays: USO, which she also wrote exclusively for TLTOTS. Previous credits include Joseph…Dreamcoat, Anything Goes, and Swing! at The Mac-Haydn Theatre, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Fordham University, Guys and Dolls and She Loves Me at The Theatre Barn, and Working at Wagner College. She has worked extensively as a choreographer, listing The Music Man at Papermill Theatre, …Charlie Brown at Manhattan College, Carousel, and Crazy For You at MHT, and Oliver! at Ivoryton Playhouse, among her credits. She spent 15 years as the resident choreographer of the StrawHats audition conference in NYC.
As a performer, Kelly has toured the US as “Kathy Selden” in Singin’ in the Rain, and toured Japan as the Swing for Irving Berlin’s I Love a Piano. She played “Anytime Annie” in the Moscow, Russia company of 42nd Street. Other Regional favorites include “Adelaide” in Guys and Dolls, “Babe” in Pajama Game, “Judy” in White Christmas, and “Narrator” in Respect: A Musical Journey of Women. She holds a BA degree with highest honors in Theatre and Speech from Wagner College.
Hi! I’m Kelly. Formality over– phew! I am proud to hail from Hudson, NY, where my youth was spent studying theatre, music, and dance, thanks to the support of my world-class parents, Jerry and Abby. Along with my sister Karla, I grew up performing professionally at 7 years old, and by age 16 was a full-time apprentice at The Mac-Haydn Theatre, where the fast pace of summer-stock was ingrained into my work ethic. Attention to detail and quick learning skills, led me to many jobs as dance captain and swing. These opportunities lead to choreography jobs, which I have parlayed into a career as a director.
I believe in approaching each piece as an actor first, always referring back to the text whether working on an intimate scene or lavish production number. To me, choreography is a beautiful expression of plot development, as integral to a musical as introduction of characters or conflicts. Blending dance with text and song, is what I truly love about being a director-choreographer.
I reside in NYC with my husband Dave and our greatest production to date, our beautiful son Hudson. My passport is always ready to be stamped! Thanks for reading! Enjoy my site!
-Kelly