Adrienne Kennedy was born in 1931 in Pittsburgh and brought up in Cleveland. She attended Ohio State University and then moved to New York to become a playwright. She appeared on the off-Broadway theatre scene in 1964 with her Obie Award-winning play, Funnyhouse of a Negro, which has since been translated into several languages.
Mrs. Kennedy is a recipient of:
- Two Rockefeller grants
- Guggenheim Award
- The Lila Wallace Readers Digest Award
- 1994 Academy Award in literature from The American Academy of Arts & Letters.
She is one of 5 playwrights included in the Norton Anthology of Literature. She has been commissioned to write plays for the Public Theater, Jerome Robbins, The Royal Court Theatre, Lincoln Center, and the Mark Taper Forum. Kennedy has been a visiting lecturer at many universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown ,and the University of California at Berkeley.
On June 13, 2003 Ohio State University bestowed one of it’s highest honors to Mrs. Kennedy – an Honorary Doctorate of Literature. To celebrate her honorary doctorate and the 50th anniversary of her graduation for OSU, the Department of Theatre is producing her play Sleep Deprivation Chamber. (This play was given its world premiere during Adrienne’s Signature season, and was awarded an Obie for Best New Play).
Adrienne was also selected as the recipient of the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Jury. Established in 1935, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards is the only American book award designated specifically to recognize works addressing issues of racism and cultural diversity. In the 68-year history of these awards, only 7 other writers have been presented with Lifetime Achievement Awards.
More information about Adrienne Kennedy can be found at:
http://www.adriennekennedy.com
