Decades of dedication
TheatreWorks founder, almost 50 years on, keeps creative quest
Robert Kelley is not prone to overstatement.
One might be able to anticipate that from the TheatreWorks artistic director’s appearance — faded work shirt, TheatreWorks baseball cap, gray ponytail — or from the fact that nobody calls him Robert. He’s Kelley, or just Kell.
Even so, his self-assessment is disarming. Kelley grew up the eldest of six in Palo Alto, attended Stanford University and now lives in Menlo Park with a longtime partner; he’s “the ultimate parochial soul,” he jokes. Though his family wasn’t very artistic, “there’s almost no art form that I didn’t try,” he says during an interview at
TheatreWorks’ Redwood City offices.
In his youth, Kelley essayed painting, sculpture, acting, writing, set design, piano, music and lyric composition, all without finding his niche. “I was in a rhythm and blues band for six years,” he says, but when asked if he still plays, he nods toward a rehearsal room: “Just out in the back, when nobody’s listening.”
In the end, he says, “it turned out that not being particularly good at any single thing, but having experienced a whole lot of artistic forms, was a good background for a director.”
Of course, Kelley, 70, isn’t just any director. He founded in 1970 what’s now the thirdlargest theater company in the Bay Area, and of founding artistic directors still at the helm of major regional theaters, he’s one of the — if not
— longest serving in the country. In August, he was honored by the city of Palo Alto for his years of artistic service to the community.
“For 40 years, Robert has been fighting the good fight: building a theater where artists of every kind can develop their voices,” Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Tony Taccone says in an email. “Such a task takes tenacity and vision. He’s got both.”
Still, Kelley’s modus operandi is to downplay. Of TheatreWorks’ first New Works Festival, in 2002, where the musical “Memphis” was developed before eventually heading to Broadway and winning four Tony Awards, he says, “that turned out to be a good idea.”
He allows himself effusion, however, when talking about the spirit that’s animated TheatreWorks from its first show, “Popcorn,” all the way to “Daddy Long Legs,” a twoperson epistolary musical that begins previews Wednesday, Nov. 30, under his direction.
If you were to compare TheatreWorks’ seasons to those of many other large and midsize companies in the Bay Area, what stands out is the relative dearth of cynicism and snark. On the whole, the company’s work tends to celebrate, rather than criticize, lampoon or lament.
Kelley describes that choice as deliberate. “As a company and as a person, we and I are drawn to pieces that have something to do with potential, not just weakness, in people,” he says.
That’s not to say every TheatreWorks production has a cheery ending. “I can’t say that absolutely every show has been devoid of nasty people or the dark side of humanity,” Kelley adds. Still, “it’s the potential that I want to talk about.”
“How can we bridge the gaps between us? How can we see the potential in everyone? That’s been there from the very first show, and it hasn’t changed.”
It’s readily apparent in “Daddy Long Legs,” which, based on the 1912 novel by Jean Webster, follows an orphan girl named Jerusha (Hilary Maiberger) whose schooling is funded by Jervis Pendelton (Derek Carley), an anonymous benefactor, to whom she writes letters detailing her adventures and musings.
Kelley’s humanism manifests not just in an inclusive philosophy in TheatreWorks’ seasons and casting, but also in its commitment to new works, which is essential to maintaining relevance in a valley that has completely transformed from the sleepy neighborhoods and orchards Kelley remembers from his youth to an “international community.”
In its 46-year history, the company has mounted 66 world premieres and 146 regional premieres; many of those, such as “Daddy Long Legs,” which TheatreWorks premiered in 2010, have gone on to longer life.
A driver of that innovation is the company’s annual New Works Festival, which this summer featured the nationally recognized Rajiv Joseph alongside Bay Area rising stars Dipika Guha, Min Kahng and the Kilbanes; the festival hosted just short of 100 artists for three weeks.
When you’re in what Kelley calls “the heat” of that festival, “you learn about the artists and what’s making them create. All of those things seem secondary to the play and the experience, but they aren’t.” The festival is equally about “forming relationships where who knows what it’s going to be down the line,” he says.
And for audiences, when they see a play go from development to full production at TheatreWorks or elsewhere, “it’s almost like you were there in the maternity ward.”