It all started when my son was born. Seriously, it did.
I left the corporate world to be a stay-at-home dad for his first year. About four months and a hundred movies in, my wife encouraged me to try and make some cash on the side. I was a little lost. Then I found out she had signed me up to teach “Shakespeare for Kids” classes at our local rec center. Little did I know then, that her bold move would change the course of my life forever.
I’m an engineer by degree and a drama nerd at heart (yes, that’s an odd combo—I like to think of myself as equal parts Shakespeare and James Bond). I kicked off that first class with a tweaked version of Hamlet, called Hamlet in a Can. Six weeks, one and a half hours a week… and the kids loved it. At the final class, a few of them ran up to me and asked, “What play are we doing next?”
Caught off guard, I blurted out, “Midsummer!”—then went home and wrote it that weekend.
That was over two decades ago. Since then, I’ve written 43 one-act adaptations of Shakespeare, Greek tragedies, and classic literature—designed specifically for young performers. My plays have been performed all over the world, from a castle in Scotland to the streets of Verona. They’ve helped build school libraries in Kenya and reached over 140,000 performers and readers.
But this wasn’t a straight path.
In between those first few plays and full-time authorship, I spent 20 years in engineering, product development, and innovation. I’ve worked on naval ships. I was at Sony. I was Director of Innovation for a company called Slime (tire sealant, not Nickelodeon). I hold over a dozen patents and have always been driven by curiosity and creativity—whether in tech or storytelling.
In 2015, I left the 9-to-5 world for good to focus full-time on writing, teaching, and speaking. My personal mission? To get every kid in the world to like Shakespeare.
Along the way, I’ve continued writing books and launching new creative projects. I self-published my first book in 2008, and my goal is to release at least three new titles a year. I’ve even brought other writers into the fold to help carry the vision forward.
My latest project is something a little different: The Night She Said Hatchet is my debut novel—a murder mystery/thriller told through the fractured memory of an Alzheimer’s patient who suddenly, cryptically, remembers the word “hatchet.” It was a therapeutic project, written while caring for my own mother as she battled Alzheimer’s, and it will be released this August.
Outside of writing, I’m a husband, dad, and avid traveler. My wife and I once spent six months touring the U.S. in a trailer with our two dogs and a cat. These days we still love to travel—just with more frequent stops and just as many leash tangles.
I’m especially proud of my son, who is on the autism spectrum and a die-hard Dr. Seuss fan. He’s written and published five books in his own whimsical style, and now runs a small book business with our support. (he goes by Doc Keagan – check his stuff here!) I’m also a proud dad to two young daughters whose creativity, resilience, and energy fuel everything I do.
At heart, I’m an author, teacher, and maker of things—on a mission to bring classic stories to life, connect kids with great literature, and explore the full range of human emotion through storytelling.
Thanks for stopping by. Get out there read, perform, break some legs!
– Brendan
Learn more about B.P. Kelso at https://bpkelso.com and find more books at https://amzn.to/48UrjV5
