Nehprii Amenii

Nehprii Amenii is a Brooklyn-based stage director, playwright, puppeteer, and educator. Founder and Artistic Director of Khunum Productions, she creates theatrical experiences that merge personal narrative, puppetry, and grand-scale spectacle, dismantling the wall between audiences and performers while sparking imagination and new ways of seeing.

She has collaborated with La MaMa Experimental Theatre, The Public Theater, The New Victory Theater, Cirque du Soleil, Bread and Puppet Theatre, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, among many others. For over a decade, she has staged work for the Alvin Ailey Foundation’s AileyCamp, presented at Miller Theatre and NJPAC.

Amenii’s honors include the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for Playwriting, grants from LMCC, Puffin Foundation, and the NEA, and fellowships from NYFA, New Victory Theater, and Dixon Place. Internationally, she has created storytelling exhibits in India and served as a U.S. delegate to the Women Playwrights International Conference in South Africa. As an educator and curriculum developer for over 20 years, she integrates puppetry and multimedia storytelling into classrooms and teacher training, launching Kids Creative Power, the arts education division of Khunum Productions.

Works Available to Tour

"HUMAN"

Premiere: July 2026, The Shed, NYC

Traveling cast & crew: 9 (5 performers, 4 crew)

At the Bottom of the Ocean

Where the Darkness Meets the Stars

the Octopus will Tell the Story of a thing once called the HUMAN being…

Now that humans have made themselves extinct and the world as we knew it has ended, the Octopus has a decision to make... will it be willing to give up one of its 3 hearts in order to create a new, more sensitive human being? Will it be willing to give humanity a second chance?Told through the windows of a sunken submarine, using images of the human heart, and a variety of puppetry styles, "HUMAN" is a 60-minute interactive puppet performance for the whole family! Comprised of a variety of puppetry styles, dance and original music, this work asks families to explore what it truly means to be "HUMAN".

Photos by Shannel Resto

Food for the Gods

Premiere: 2018, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, NYC

Touring Cast: 3 traveling performers, 1 director, 3 crew + 12 local performers

Food for the Gods is a multimedia performance installation about “human value.” A three-part expression of rage, indifference, and celestial knowing. Inspired by the killings of Black men, this work uses object and puppet performance to explore dehumanization, light, invisibility and well...the magical-less-ness of it all.

Touring History

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, LaMaMa Experimental Theatre (NYC), Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta, GA), Asheville Creative Arts (Asheville, NC), Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, NY)

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