Adrienne+Kennedy

ADRIENNE KENNEDY

 Adrienne Kennedy is an African-American playwright and was a key figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. She is best known for her first major play // Funnyhouse of a Negro //. Many of Kennedy's plays explore issues of race, kinship, and violence in American society, and many of her works are "autobiographically inspired." In 1995, critic Michael Feingold of the // Village Voice // declared that "with Beckett gone, Adrienne Kennedy is probably the boldest artist now writing for the theater."

 Kennedy is noted for the use of surrealism in her plays. Her plays are often plotless and symbolic, drawing on mythical, historical and imaginary figures to depict and explore the American experience. // New York Times // critic Clive Barnes noted that "While almost every black playwright in the country is fundamentally concerned with realism--LeRoi Jones and Ed Bullins at times have something different going but even their symbolism is straightforward stuff–-Miss Kennedy is weaving some kind of dramatic fabric of poetry." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Kennedy)

 (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Kennedy) Most notable **plays** :


 * // Funnyhouse of a Negro  // , 1962
 * // The Owl Answers  // , 1963
 * // A Rat's Mass  // , 1967 (revised as an improvisational jazz opera  //  A Rat's Mass/Procession in Shout  //  in 1976)
 * // The Lennon play: In His Own Write  //  (Adapted from J   ohn Lennon   's  //  In his own write  //  and  //  A Spaniard in the Works  //  ; with Victor Spinetti   ), 1967
 * // A Beast's Story  // , 1969 (produced with  //  The Owl Answers  //  under the title  //  Cities in Bezique  //  )
 * // Boats  // , 1969
 * // Sun  //  (monologue), 1969
 * // A Lesson in Dead Language  // , 1968
 * // Electra  //  and  //  Orestes  //  (adapted from the plays by Euripedes), 1972
 * // An Evening with Dead Essex  //  (one-act documentary drama), 1972
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White  // , 1976
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// A Lancashire Lad  //  (children's musical), 1980
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// Black Children's Day  //  (children's play), 1980
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// Diary of Lights  //  ("A Musical Without Songs"), 1987
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// She Talks to Beethoven  //  (one-act play, later collected as part of  //  The Alexander Plays  //  ), 1989
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// The Ohio State Murders  //  (one-act play, later collected as part of  //  The Alexander Plays  //  ), 1992
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// The Film Club  //  (A Monologue by Suzanne Alexander), published 1992
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// The Dramatic Circle  //  (radio play based on the events in the monologue  //  The Film Club  //  ; published in 1994 in  //  Moon Marked and Touched By Sun: plays by African-American women  // , edited by Sydné Mahone), 1992
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// Motherhood 2000  //  (single scene short play), 1994
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// June and Jean in Concert  //  (play version of Kennedy's book  //  People Who Led to My Plays  //  ), 1995
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// Sleep Deprivation Chamber  //  (with her son, Adam Kennedy), 1996
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; url(http: //bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.5/vector/images/bullet-icon.png?1); list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">// Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles?  //  (with Adam Kennedy), 2008

Links: http://www.upress.umn.edu/misc/kennedy/kennedy.html http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/adrienne_kennedy.html http://www.adriennekennedy.com/