Adrienne Kennedy

Adrienne Kennedy, Playwright

Photo by Jack Robinson / Getty Images

Disclaimer: This playwright profile is part of the BIPOC Playwrights Project, a resource for theater educators and practitioners. Playwrights listed on this website are not necessarily affiliated with UC Berkeley or the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.

Representative Plays:

Madame Bovary (2015)
Ohio State Murders (1992)
Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964)


About the Playwright:

Adrienne Kennedy continues to influence the world through her art. She was the recipient of the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lila Wallace—Reader's Digest Writers' Award and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in Literature Award. She was also granted a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing, awarded the Pierre Lecomte du Novy Award, and ended her academic career teaching at Harvard.Kennedy was playwright-in-residence at the Signature Theatre in New York City during their 1996-1997 season. Her play Movie Star is in a volume of Norton Anthology of American Literature and her play Funnyhouse of Negro, most recently performed at the Classical Theatre of Harlem in NYC, is a landmark piece that speaks to students trying to find a place in the world.Her plays are taught in classrooms and performed in theatres all over the world.

Source: Concord Theatricals


Links:

Adrienne Kennedy, Playwright: Still Quiet, Still Bold, Still Furious (NY Times)

The Adrienne Kennedy Project (Fordham University)

Profile on NYU's Contemporary Playwrights of Color Website


UC Berkeley Library Resources:

Accessible to UC Berkeley affiliates with CalNet authentication

Funnyhouse of a Negro (Full Text)

Motherhood 2000 (Full Text)

The Ohio State Murders (Full Text)

The Owl Answers (Full Text)

Sun: A Poem for Malcolm X Inspired By His Murder (Full Text)