Deborah Bostock-Kelley

Tampa, Florida native and University of Tampa graduate, Deborah Bostock-Kelley is a multi-time, award-winning playwright, and a director, producer, actor – pretty much in that order. Her work has appeared across stages in Tampa Bay, competing in every year of the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival, and was honored with the inaugural Tampa Bay Theatre Festival Denise Deneen Award recognizing her work in the theatre community. Her one-acts have also been performed at Carrollwood Players One Act Weekend, 4×6 Festival, and Tarpon Arts. In 2018, she created The ThinkFast Experiment for Powerstories Theatre's SheVolution Festival where she and seven women playwrights were given a randomly drawn location, theme, quote, and situation, and had eight hours to collaborate and write, rehearse and perform an original script. Her original production Breast Advice debuted to rave reviews, workshopped in December 2019. In collaboration with another playwright, her last play about a school shooting A Necessary Conversation won “Critic’s Choice” in Powerstories’ virtual Voices of Truth Festival in March 2021, Regional Broadway World’s 2018 “Best Actor” and “Best Actress” Awards, and was nominated for Creative Loafing Best Script of the Decade, and 2021 Best Original Production.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
FB:  anecessaryconversation
FB: breastadvice
FB: lifeamplifiedshowcase
FB: thewriteonecs

MORE ABOUT ME
My most gratifying moment came with my first social commentary play 11:11 as part of A Necessary Conversation that debuted to rave reviews in January 2018. Recipient of the 2017 Theatre Tampa Bay Jeff Norton Dream Grant, I reached out to the Straz Center with the concept for this show and the venue graciously helped make my vision a reality in the TECO Theatre. Everytown- Moms Demand Action, Tampa Chapter was the community partner and the recipient of ticket sales of the evening show, following an incredible community talk-back. The moment that changed my life, besides making an entire audience cry about the events of the gun violence show, was a comment from a teen girl who said, after seeing my show, instead of ignoring her, she'd talk to the weird girl in the hall. I made an impact on a teenager enough to change her way of thinking. Another moment was when my play Breast Advice of original true story monologues about breasts collected through Facebook submission was called "The Vagina Monologues for boobs." I am working on getting it back in the theatre festivals once the pandemic is over.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I've submitted my new and revised school shooting play to several festivals. I'm working on a short play about three women's different situations and their rights being obstructed to have an abortion.

KEYWORDS
social commentary, school shootings, comedy, drama, activism, alley, monologues, female-centric, powerful, emotional