Kevin Kautzman

Kevin Kautzman (“a ferocious writer for the ‘recession generation’” – Critical Rant) is an award-winning playwright and co-founder of Bad Mouth Theatre Company. He co-hosts the Art of Darkness podcast and Mouthing Off, which can be heard online and on 94.1FM in St. Paul, Minnesota. Originally from western North Dakota, he holds degrees from the University of Minnesota (BA, History & Philosophy ’03) and the University of Texas at Austin (MFA, Creative Writing, Michener Fellow ’13). His work is published by Broadway Play Publishing, Oberon, Playscripts and Smith & Kraus and has been reviewed in outlets including Broadway World, the Dallas Morning News, Everything Theatre, the Guardian, the Peg, the Pioneer Press, and Time Out London.

Most recently, his play MODERATION received readings from Spooky Action, Broad Horizons, Up and the Blank theatres, and the Valdez Theatre Conference. MODERATION premiered in Saint Paul at the Hive, from Bad Mouth Theatre Company, and premiered at the Hope in London March-April, 2025, directed by Lydia Parker. The production received an Offies Assessors’ Choice notice and Fringe Theatre Awards nominations for performance, production, direction, and new writing of a play. MODERATION is available from Broadway Play Publishing.

Moderation is a wake-up call, illustrating the personal and political consequences of an unmoderated, addictive digital landscape. Its timing is impeccable, especially as social media gurus have recently abandoned content moderation… It holds a mirror up to us all, challenges us, and never once lets us off the hook.
– Everything Theatre

Kevin first studied playwriting at the Royal Court’s young writers program and has received both the Jerome and Michener fellowships as well as numerous awards, including the UK International Student Playscript Competition (COYOTE), the Kernodle and the Southwestern Playwriting awards (DREAM OF PERFECT SLEEP) and the Kenyon and Sewanee’s Tennessee Williams playwriting scholarships. His Iphigenia adaptation IRIS with Red Eye in Minneapolis was named best playwriting by Lavender Magazine’s year in review, and has been a finalist for the Yale Drama Series (THEN WAVES), the Pen Center USA (THEN WAVES, WOLF CRY WOLF), and the Princess Grace (DREAM OF PERFECT SLEEP) awards as well as the Lila Acheson Wallace program at Juilliard (MODERATION).

His drama DREAM OF PERFECT SLEEP was nominated for an Offie and is available from Oberon and Broadway Play Publishing and his work for the stage has appeared in the UK and US through and at venues and companies including Broad Horizons, the Blank, Dixon Place, the Finborough, the Hope, History Theatre, the Living Theatre, King’s Head, Over Here, Page 73, the Playwrights’ Center, Red Eye, Spooky Action, Stage West, Theatre503, and Up.

In collaboration with director Abbie Lucas, he’s written numerous original feature screenplays and a concept for television – one of these screenplays, called GREY DUCK, was the second selection in the Hamilton Film Festival 2021. His play THE ANIMALS received a reading in St. Paul from Bad Mouth Theatre Company, he directed a production of Sean Reycraft’s ONE GOOD MARRIAGE at Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis (also with Bad Mouth) and released BASILISK – a two part AI horror thriller, with Dark Pony Radio in 2024.