Kenneth Prestininzi

Kenneth Prestininzi is Artistic Director of the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre and an associate artist with Sleeping Weazel. His plays have been seen in Brighton, Boston, Chicago, Edinburgh, Kalamazoo, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, Prague, Providence, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Beholder, produced by Trap Door Theatre (Chicago), received a Joseph Jefferson Award for best new play 2008-2009. Frank Theatre Company (Brooklyn) is currently developing his play, Love in the Seventh Kingdom of Wrath. His other opera and play titles include Amerikafka, Ariadne, As American As, Breath Birth Bride Elizabeth, The Burger Girl Jingle, Chaste, The Hole, Mine, The Monkey from Zanzibar, Patty Cake, The Response, and Ria and Bobby, USA. He has received theatre awards from ACTF, California Arts Council, Christina Crawford, Djerassi Program, Gerbode Foundation, Goethe Institute, LEF, Millay Arts Colony, National Endowment of the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation and the San Francisco Cultural Equity Office. He has taught at ACT of San Francisco, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Brown University, Charles University (Prague), Cornell University, International Literary Arts (Mexico), Intersection for the Arts, Northwestern University, University of Iowa and West Coast Playwrights. Wearing multiple performance and theatre hats, Ken has directed new plays by Andy Bragen, Jennifer Haley, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Charlotte Meehan, Greg Moss and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and revival productions of plays by Sarah Ruhl and Paula Vogel, done dramaturgy for modern dance companies, been a resident artist at Perishable Theatre, and treasurer of Performance Studies international. He was the Associate and Acting Chair of Playwriting at the Yale School of Drama 2008-2013. In his younger years, Ken studied with Maria Irene Fornes.

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