Meet Kenneth Keng

We were lucky to catch up with Kenneth Keng recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kenneth, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.

I’ll never forget the day I was getting fitted for jazz dance shoes; I felt so stupid for being in my thirties and following my dream of being an artist in New York that I almost left the store. It was my partner Kelsey that managed to talk me down, and assure me that I belonged there.

I also remember the first day at acting conservatory, seeing all of these Americans being open and outgoing and cheerful. I felt so strongly that I wasn’t supposed to be there that I hid in a bathroom stall to have a panic attack. It was only after our faculty adviser Maggie Low’s inspiring and orientation did I start to feel like I had a place there.

While in conservatory, a couple of my professors encouraged me to get a Master of Fine Arts degree. Cue another round of imposter syndrome. What was supposed to be a quick zoom chat with an old friend and colleague in Philippine theater, the actor/director/educator Missy Maramara, turned into a three hour sobfest where she essentially browbeat me into thinking of myself as an artist accomplished enough to seek higher education.

Today, a year after getting my MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College, all six of the plays I’ve since written have either been staged, read or are currently in production in NYC theaters, and I’m at the point where I’m getting invitations to perform in both NYC and regional theaters. I still have imposter syndrome. All of my mentors, no matter how accomplished, have it too. What they’ve taught me is how to seek and build the kind of artistic community that can help one another collectively shout it down for long enough to make what we want to make together.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a NYC/Manila based playwright and performer. As a Filipino-Chinese theater artist in the United States, I’ve made work about falling in love with a culture that is devouring my own.

I’m currently a 2023/24 Artist-In-Residence with the Performance Project at University Settlement, where they developed and staged my postcolonial Filipino space opera Brought Up, which portrays the Philippine theocratic authoritarianism I lived through in the last decade out into the future.

My interactive solo piece AMA has been selected for staging at the Target Margin theater for the Exponential Festival in January 2025. AMA refers to both reddit’s Ask Me Anything format and the Hokkien word for grandmother. In it, a performer dressed as my grandmother poses increasingly fraught questions to an audience that is provided only 15 words to answer with. This is designed to have that audience feel the frustration my grandmother may have in communicating, as my grandmother speaks five languages, but none of them are English; meanwhile I barely speak Hokkien. The conversation is interrupted by the Japanese invasion of Manila in 1941 (depicted with toy tanks and soldiers the audience are asked to play with) and the American bombing/liberation of Manila (depicted with gliders flying over the audience as the performer uses an air pump to blow up an inflatable military tank). Through this, my grandmother who was a teenager at the time hurriedly marries my grandfather so as not to be chosen as a Comfort Woman for the Imperial Japanese rape camps.

My piece Here Dies Love, which features Shakespearean monologues adapted to cover the history of Philippine Martial Law, has been selected for staging at the Oye Group’s Avant Garde Festival at the JACK theater in Brooklyn on October 10-12 2024.

My play Line Up, about a troop of mothers agreeing to a year of frontline military service in exchange for citizenship in an empire where they imagine their children can be safe, has been selected for a staged reading in Chicago at the Rizal Centre on October 18th 2024.

My play Through has been selected for staging at the International Human Rights Art Festival in NYC in December 2024.

All of my work features large scale spectacle, because I am interested in large scale questions that are as difficult as they are vital to articulate- colonialism, late stage capitalism, nationalism and authoritarianism.

Living in the Philippines, it was hard but not impossible to see how much of these concepts were woven into the cultural hegemonic promise of America to the world. Living in the United States has allowed me to see what that promise looks like up close, in all its ghastly but nevertheless still alluring beauty.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Sacrifice, gratitude and persistence.

Regarding sacrifice, if you want to work in the arts, you need to realistically acknowledge what you’re giving up for it (usually, the chance to make a lot of money, but also things like partying every night or going on long vacations, because you’ll have either shows or rehearsals for shows).

Gratitude is vital because no one’s artistic career is built without the kindness and generosity of people who barely know you outside of knowing that you share the same artistic dreams.

Persistence is the one thing that I see shared by everyone who’s been successful in the arts. By now I’ve collected almost a hundred rejection emails. I’ve learned to take pride in the prestige of the institutions that have politely but firmly told me no.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

Apart from raising me and ensuring I had the best education possible, I’d say it would be always challenging me to do better. They’ve never given me unearned praise.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kennethkeng.com
• Instagram: @kennethbestopped

Image Credits

Headshot- Mia Isabella Photography
Production Pictures- Kelsey Cheng