Phillip Gregory Burke is a Black American of Haitian, Creole and Gullah-Geechee descent New York City artivist, actor, playwright and producer. Born in Syracuse, NY, he was raised in Auburn, NY, where his family has lived since December 24, 1858. The Auburn Education Foundation, inducted him into the Auburn Alumni Hall of Distinction, in May 2023, for his “life’s work as an accomplished actor and playwright.”
He attended Syracuse University, receiving a BFA in Drama from The College of Visual and Performing Arts, Department of Drama & BS in Sociology from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Community Service: Civic Engagement for rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Post undergrad, he worked at Binghamton...
Phillip Gregory Burke is a Black American of Haitian, Creole and Gullah-Geechee descent New York City artivist, actor, playwright and producer. Born in Syracuse, NY, he was raised in Auburn, NY, where his family has lived since December 24, 1858. The Auburn Education Foundation, inducted him into the Auburn Alumni Hall of Distinction, in May 2023, for his “life’s work as an accomplished actor and playwright.”
He attended Syracuse University, receiving a BFA in Drama from The College of Visual and Performing Arts, Department of Drama & BS in Sociology from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Community Service: Civic Engagement for rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Post undergrad, he worked at Binghamton University’s Upward Bound Program before moving overseas to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, where he attended The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, receiving his MA in Classical and Contemporary Text: Acting. He holds the distinction of being the first Black person awarded this degree. He also trained at Shakespeare’s Globe Education and The Alexander Gibson School of Opera.
Select theaters worked at as an actor: Arches Theater Company, On the Verge Festival, Shakespeare in the City (Scottish Highlands Tour), The Tron, London Hampstead Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Fest, Carolinian Shakespeare, The Fire This Time Festival, 48 Hours in Harlem, National Black Theatre, The Drama League, Passage Theatre Company. He earned his Equity card by acting in the hip-hop musical, in King Kong (Summer Stages), where he sang opera, his AFTRA card by appearing in multiple episodes of “One Life to Live” and his SAG card in the Coen Brother’s Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Oscar Isaac.
He has acted in commercials with NFL/CBS Sports’ Thursday Night Football’s “A Girl Named Raven,” directed by 36-time Emmy winner Pete Radovich. Crest & Oral B Pro (also print ads), Citi Bike, Tyson Foods, Nike/Air Jordan, multiple commercial and voiceover work with Now This/Visible. His print ad with Veteran’s Home Commitment Campaign & Walmart, has been displayed in Walmarts across America, for the past 5 years.
As a playwright, his writing chronicles the sociology of the African Diaspora and illuminates the intricate intersections of Blackness and queerness from antiquity to present. As a proud descendant, he is curating cycles and standalone plays all connected to a singular universe, centering their incredible narratives.
In August 2024, his play A Mercy At Midnight Castle, won the 49th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, placing number 1 out of 850 worldwide submissions. It will be published and licensed by Concord Theatricals in 2025.
Burke is in the process of writing a three-play cycle called The First Testaments. The first play, He’s The First, is the inaugural winner of the Improbable Fiction New Works Series Award at The Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival, is a top 13 finalist out of 850 worldwide submissions for The 48th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, a 2023 Semi-finalist for The Obsidian Theater Festival and the ten-minute version was filmed for All Arts & PBS. Further development of the play was supported as a National Black Theatre Keep SOUL Alive Reading Series 2023 Mico-Development Playwright. He produced a developmental reading of The First Commander In Chief, the second Testament play with music, in June 2023 and an excerpt was presented at SolFest: A Latiné Theatre Festival, in August 2023.
The sagas, The Suncatchers of Sahel: An Ancestral Tale Told to Today’s Griot, Part I: The Crumble Under the Crescent, a 2022 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow Finalist & 2022 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting Fellowship Semi-finalist and The Suncatchers of Sahel: An Ancestral Tale Told To Today’s Griot, Part II: The Two Twilights, was initially developed during his residency with The Civilians R&D Group and is a 2023 Semi-finalist for both The Princess Grace Award in Playwriting Fellowship & The Bay Area Playwrights Festival.
The Simaraboo Two, the genesis of an epic ten cycle play chronicling military, spiritual and sociological warfare, had a Fresh Draft Series Reading with The Latinx Playwrights Circle. The second play, A Holy Her, was recorded with The Parsnip Ship and was a Semi-finalist for the Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship Award. Developmental proposals of the 3rd play, Paradise Estate, was a 2022 Finalist for The Fire This Time New Works Lab Cycle 5 and the 7th was an Art House INKubator Playwrights Program 2023-2024 Finalist.
In 2024, he won the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Grant (NALAC), with his group DIEZ. Additional memberships: The Dramatists Guild, Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, The New York SAG-AFTRA Film Society and The Latinx Playwrights Circle. Residencies: 2024 Candela Inaugural Musical Theater Writing Fellow, Bandung 2024-2025 Residency, Theater 4 The People 2024 Artist in Residence, 2023 Inaugural Summer Jam Playwriting Fellow, Brother To Brother Writer's Workshop, Exquisite Corpse Company’s Writer’s Lab, RESPITE: Generative Creative Writing Workshop with NY Writer’s Coalition & Pen +Brush, The Civilians R&D Group, No Gate Theatre Lab, Roundabout Theatre Company Space Jam Resident Playwright, The Playwrights Realm Script Share.
As an educator, he has taught developmental English both at Kingsborough and Hostos Community Colleges. He is a visiting artist at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and a freelance writer. Every local, city, state and federal election, he works in preserving election integrity as a poll worker, specializing in assisting elderly and disabled voters in Black and brown communities.
His entire body of work and life is dedicated to the memory of the legendary Grand Dame Sally Ann Jones, a brilliant orator from Georgia, who made his entire existence possible.
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