Kelly Howe, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Theatre

Dr. Kelly Howe (she/her) teaches courses in theatre history/theory & theatre for social change. Her interests include Theatre of the Oppressed, political theatre, translation, solidarity organizing, Latin American performance, critical pedagogy, etc. Howe received the Edwin T. & Vivijeanne F. Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2022.

Howe co-edited (with Julian Boal & José Soeiro) The Routledge Companion to Theatre of the Oppressed (finalist, ATHE Excellence in Editing Award) and (with Julian Boal & Scot McElvany) Theatre of the Oppressed in Actions. She has also written for Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Theatre Survey, Text and Performance Quarterly, Comparative Drama, the anthology Theatre and Human Flourishing, and Digital Theatre + (for which she curated/scripted the series Key Concepts in Theatre for Social Change). Howe collaborated with Fabiana Comparato on the (Portuguese to English) translation of Theatre of the Oppressed and its Times by Julian Boal, and she translated (Spanish to English) two Argentinian documentaries about political theatre: Tras Las Huellas de Augusto (In Augusto’s Footsteps) by Cora Fairstein, Paula Cohen, & Débora Markel and Escenas de un País (Scenes of a Nation) by Cora Fairstein & Sabino Molina.

Howe directed the Spanish-language world premiere (2024) and the second season (2025) of Martín Zimmerman’s On the Exhale/Al Exhalar in Montevideo, Uruguay, produced by Descentrada Escena at Teatro El Galpón, Sala Lazaroff, & Centro Cultural Terminal Goes; she also co-translated (with Sabrina Speranza) On the Exhale/Al Exhalar into Spanish for that production. She is the translator and director for Loyola’s English-language world premiere of Jimena Márquez’s El Barrio de los Solos/The Neighborhood of the Loners (2025).She also directed Loyola’s productions of Once and (with Emm Socey) Orange Julius. Some plays she has directed elsewhere include The Making of a Modern Folk Hero, The Realm, Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Way to Heaven, The Threepenny Opera, Elephant’s Graveyard, etc.

Howe served twice as President of Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO) and remains on its board. She has co-organized five PTO conferences and (with Willa Taylor & Jasmin Cardenas) a political theatre/popular education collective. Some other contexts of her Theatre of the Oppressed work include Third Act, Indiana University, Technical University of Dortmund, Chicago Workers’ Collaborative & Temporary Workers of Lake County, etc. She has also studied at Jana Sanskriti Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed in West Bengal. Howe coordinates Loyola’s Theatre & Social Justice Working Group and the Loyola Theatre Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and mentors Loyola dramaturgs in discussion facilitation. She has served as a Loyola Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Liaison and a VP for Conference & VP for Membership for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. She previously taught theatre at North Central College (where she also coordinated Gender & Women’s Studies and LGBTQIA ally education) and at UT-Austin.

Education

Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice (Theory/History/Criticism), University of Texas at Austin

M.A. in Performance as Public Practice (Theory/History/Criticism), University of Texas at Austin

B.A. in Theatre and English, Muhlenberg College 

Specialty Area

Theatre Theory, History, and Criticism