Adrienne Kennedy facts for kids

Adrienne Kennedy (born September 13, 1931) is a famous American playwright. A playwright is someone who writes plays for the theater. She is best known for her play Funnyhouse of a Negro, which first opened in 1964. This play won an Obie Award, which is a special award for off-Broadway theater. She also received a lifetime Obie Award for all her amazing work. In 2018, she was added to the Theater Hall of Fame.

In 2022, Adrienne Kennedy was given the Gold Medal for Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This award is very special because it's only given every six years. Only 16 people have received it, including famous playwrights like Eugene O'Neill.

Kennedy has been writing for American theater since the early 1960s. She has inspired many other playwrights with her unique and poetic plays. Her plays often explore how racism affects people's lives. She uses a style called surrealism, which means her plays can be dream-like and symbolic. They often don't follow a simple story but use mythical or historical figures to show the experiences of African Americans.

Life and Career

Adrienne Lita Hawkins was born on September 13, 1931, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a social worker. She grew up mostly in Cleveland, Ohio, and went to public schools there. She lived in a neighborhood where people of different backgrounds lived together. She didn't experience much racism until she went to college.

As a child, Adrienne loved to read books like Jane Eyre and The Secret Garden. She spent more time reading than playing games. When she was a teenager, she became very interested in theater. Seeing plays like The Glass Menagerie inspired her to become a playwright.

She started at Ohio State University in 1949 and graduated in 1953 with a degree in education. She continued her studies at Columbia University from 1954 to 1956. In 1953, she married Joseph Kennedy, and they had two sons, Joseph Jr. and Adam P. Kennedy. They later divorced in 1966.

Early Plays and Influences

Adrienne Kennedy's first play to be performed was Funnyhouse of a Negro. She wrote it in 1960 after visiting Ghana for a few months. This play explores a Black woman's thoughts and feelings, looking at her African and European background.

Many of her plays were performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City. This theater is known for showing new and experimental works. Kennedy was also a founding member of the Women's Theatre Council in 1971. She has taught or given talks at many famous universities, including Yale University, Princeton University, and Harvard University.

Her memoir, People Who Led to My Plays, was first published in 1987 and reissued in 2016. A memoir is a book about a person's own life. Much of her writing is based on her own experiences.

Broadway Debut and Recent Work

In 2022, Adrienne Kennedy's play Ohio State Murders opened on Broadway at the James Earl Jones Theatre. This was her first play to be shown on Broadway. The play starred Audra McDonald and was directed by Kenny Leon. It ran until January 15, 2023.

In an interview, Kennedy said she hoped audiences would realize they were "listening to a very articulate, thoughtful American Black woman." The play received good reviews, and Audra McDonald was nominated for a Tony Award for her role.

The Alexander Plays

Suzanne Alexander is a character who appears in several of Adrienne Kennedy's plays. These plays include She Talks to Beethoven, Ohio State Murders, The Film Club, and The Dramatic Circle. They were all published together in 1992 as The Alexander Plays.

These plays are less dream-like than some of Kennedy's earlier works. However, they still don't follow a simple, straight-forward story. Instead, they explore how Suzanne Alexander turns her memories into meaning.

Awards and Honors

Adrienne Kennedy has won many awards for her plays.

• In 1963, she won a Stanley Drama Award.
• She received two Obie Awards from The Village Voice newspaper. One was in 1964 for Funnyhouse of a Negro. The other was in 1996 for June and Jean in Concert and Sleep Deprivation Chamber.
• In 2008, she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Obie Awards.

She also received grants from important organizations like the Guggenheim Fellowship (1967) and the Rockefeller Foundation (1967, 1970).

• In 1990, she won the American Book Award.
• In 1994, she received the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writers Award and an award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
• In 2003, her college, Ohio State University, gave her an honorary Doctorate of Literature degree.
• In 2006, she received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award.
• In 2021, the Dramatists Guild of America gave her their Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes her amazing writing for the theater throughout her life.
• In 2022, she received the Gold Medal for Drama.
• In 2023, she was honored by the New York Drama Critics Circle. Her collected plays and other writings were published in the famous Library of America series.

Works

Plays

• Funnyhouse of a Negro, 1964
• The Owl Answers, 1965
• A Rat's Mass, 1967
• The Lennon Play: In His Own Write (adapted from John Lennon's books), 1967
• A Beast's Story, 1969
• Boats, 1969
• Sun: A Play for Malcolm X Inspired by His Murder, 1968
• A Lesson in Dead Language, 1968
• Electra and Orestes (adapted from Euripides' plays), 1980
• An Evening with Dead Essex, 1973
• A Movie Star Has To Star in Black and White, 1976
• A Lancashire Lad (children's musical), 1980
• Black Children's Day (children's play), 1980
• Diary of Lights, 1987
• She Talks to Beethoven, 1989
• The Ohio State Murders, 1992
• The Film Club, 1992
• The Dramatic Circle, 1992
• Motherhood 2000, 1994
• June and Jean in Concert, 1995
• Sleep Deprivation Chamber (with son Adam P. Kennedy), 1996
• Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles? (with Adam P. Kennedy), 2008
• He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, 2018

Other Works

• "Because of the King of France" (short story), 1960
• People Who Led to My Plays (memoir), 1987
• Deadly Triplets (novella), 1990
• "Letter to My Students on My Sixty-First Birthday by Suzanne Alexander" (essay), 1992
• "Secret Paragraphs about My Brother" (essay), 1996
• "A Letter to Flowers" (essay), 1998
• "Sisters Etta and Ella" (excerpt from a narrative), 1999
• "Grendel Grendel's Mother" (essay), 1999
• "Forget" (poem), 2016

Collected Editions

• The Alexander Plays, 1992
• Collected Plays & Other Writings, 2023