Kelly Russell is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. For ten years, he taught theatre arts and speech communication in various high schools throughout Texas. In that time, four of his one-act plays advanced to the UIL state meet: The King Stag (1996, second place), The Love of the Nightingale (2000, second place), Paganini (2001, state champion), and La Bete (2002, second place). In addition to his work as a director and acting teacher, Kelly also coached seven state champions and two national finalists in various oral interpretation events. Kelly is a frequent workshop presenter at both the Texas Educational Theatre Association and Texas Speech Communication Association conventions. He currently serves on the Standards and Practices Committee of the TETA Adjudicator's Association and as Program Director for the 2005 TETA Convention.