Kendell Pinkney

Kendell is a Brooklyn based playwright, producer, and rabbi.

He makes work that mines the intersections of identity, narrative, collective memory, and sacred myth. His writing is rooted in a commitment to foreground themes of uncertainty, mystery, and doubt as a means of exploring how these tenuous realities orient us to our humanity.

His creative work has been presented or developed with organizations and venues such as The TEAM, Theater J, Feinstein’s 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, The National Opera Center of America, Musical Theatre Factory, Two River Theater, and Goodspeed Opera House.

A frequent keynote speaker he has presented at numerous conferences across the US and Canada, and was among the first rabbis honored to offer a multi-faith invocation for the 110th First Lady’s Luncheon, honoring Dr. Jill Biden. He continues to consult with a variety of media outlets, as well as arts and civic institutions on Jewish and Jew of Color representation. He is the recipient of a 2023 IDEA Residency at Opera America, and is under commission to write a new play as part Theater J’s “Expanding the Canon” initiative.

Kendell serves as the Rabbinic Educator for Reboot, and is the founding Executive Artistic Director of The Workshop (theworkshopny.com / @theworkshopartist), a New York based arts and culture fellowship that supports and foregrounds the work of professional artists of BIPOC-Jewish heritage. NYU-Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing, MFA.