Adrienne Kennedy
| Adrienne Kennedy | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 13, 1931 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation | Playwright, Professor |
| Nationality | American |
| Literary movement | Black Arts Movement |
| Website | |
| adriennekennedy1 |
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Adrienne Kennedy is an African-American playwright. She is best known for her first major play, Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964).
Kennedy has been a force in American theater since the early 1960s, influencing generations of playwrights with her hauntingly fragmentary lyrical dramas. Exploring the violence racism visits upon people's lives, Kennedy's plays express poetic alienation, transcending the particulars of character and plot through ritualistic repetition and radical structural experimentation. 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."
Adrienne Kennedy was born Adrienne Lita Hawkins on September 13, 1931, in Pittsburgh, PA. Her mother Etta Hawkins was a teacher and her father Cornell Wallace Hawkins was a social worker. She spent most of her childhood in Cleveland, Ohio, attending Cleveland Public schools. She grew up in an integrated neighborhood and didn’t face many prejudices until her college years at Ohio State University. As a child she spent most of her time reading books like Jane Eyre and The Secret Garden. She often enjoyed spending time reading instead of engaging in games many other children enjoyed. She admired and crushed on actors like Orson Welles. Not until her teen years did she begin to enjoy and focus more on plays. One of the first plays she saw was The Glass Menagerie. It was plays such as this that inspired Kennedy to explore her passions for playwriting. When she went to Ohio State University in 1949, her interest in playwriting continued. She graduated from Ohio State with a B.A. in Education in 1953 and went on to study at Columbia University in 1954–56. She married Joseph Kennedy on May 15, 1953. They had two children, Joseph Jr. and Adam. The couple divorced in 1966.
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