about

Philip Kenner (he/they) is an NYC-based poet, playwright, essayist, educator, and performer.

Philip’s debut chapbook BOYSTUFF is out now from Glass Poetry Press. His poetry has been published in Swing, 3Elements Review, Fruitslice, Kitchen Table Quarterly, Milk Press, Cordite Poetry Review, poetry.onl, Colectivo Tabú, Let My People Cum, and elsewhere.

His plays include THE MALL THE MALL THE MALL, The Situation Is Getting Worse, Psychotropic, JEWDOG, Snap Crackle Prop, The Sun Club, Everything About This is Gross, Ravenous, The Woods Decay, Hades & Gehenna, and Defense Mode. Philip's plays have been produced by RoleCall Theater, The Performance Interface Lab, Dixon Place, and Playwrights Downtown. He has had readings with Playwrights Horizons, Book Culture, Theatre Zoomed to You, The CRY HAVOC Company, and the Jermyn Street Theatre in London. Three of Philip’s short plays have been published in CRY HAVOC’s HAVOC for the Holidays series.

Philip is a founding member of readcopy.co, an online magazine that platforms emerging artists, where he also writes and edits film and literary criticism.

Philip is the co-host of The Chef’s Monologue, a podcast where Philip and his co-host, Michael Wilder Frazel, feature new writing by their favorite writers and then interview those writers about their process and thoughts on theater, film, TV, and more.

Philip is currently a staff reader at Playwrights Horizons, and he was the Program Administrator for the Sundance Institute’s 2020 Theatre Lab. Prior to that, he was the TheaterJam producer and literary intern at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

Philip wrote the book for the musical All the Junk in the Whole Wide World and the Kids Who Sort Through It - music by Laura Galindo - which was produced by Playwrights Downtown in conjunction with Musical Theater Factory. Philip is the recipient of the Bevya Rosten Memorial Award and an alumni apprentice with the CRY HAVOC Company. 

Philip performed in NOISE by Cesar Alvarez as part of a co-production by The Public Theater and Playwrights Downtown. He performed in Alvarez’s Elementary Space Time Show in a developmental production prior to its run at Vassar’s Powerhouse program. Philip also music directed and performed in Sara Kommer’s Dreamboat at Dixon Place.

Philip has taught undergraduate screenwriting at Northwestern University and playwriting at NYU Tisch, and he has led workshops and performed with Reilly Hilbert and The Frankenstein Project in jails around NYC. He has an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University and a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch.