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Adrienne Kennedy (BS '53, DRH '03) Celebrated at Round House Theatre

November 17, 2020

Adrienne Kennedy (BS '53, DRH '03) Celebrated at Round House Theatre

Adrienne Kennedy

The award-winning playwright and Ohio State alumna Adrienne Kennedy (BS '53, DRH '03) is the featured artist of a month-long festival entitled "The Work of Adrienne Kennedy: Inspiration and Influence". Presented by the Round House Theatre in association with the McCarter Theatre, the four plays are streamed for viewing. The festival opened with He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box on November 14th.

Two plays in the series had productions at The Ohio State University's Department of Theatre. The first was Ohio State Murders in the 2000-2001 season. Streaming of the Round House production begins on December 5th. The second Ohio State Theatre production is Sleep Deprivation Chamber, which Kennedy co-wrote with her son Adam P. Kennedy. The department produced this work in spring 2003, fifty years after Kennedy's graduation from the university. The production, directed by Professor Emeritus Lesley Ferris, in addition to celebrating Kennedy's work, was the department's first production to partner with the Motion Capture Lab at the Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design. Kennedy was awarded an honorary doctorate at the spring commencement ceremony that year.

The Round House production of Sleep Deprivation Chamber, directed by Ohio State alumnus Raymond O. Caldwell (MFA '09), the producing artistic director of Theater Alliance in Washington, D.C., begins streaming on November 21st.

The festival concludes with the world premiere of Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side which begins streaming on December 12th. Throughout November and December, a series of panel sessions on Kennedy's influence, "acting Adrienne Kennedy", critical influence of her work, and a discussion on Black avant garde are streaming live before being made available on Round House Theatre's YouTube channel.