Adrienne Lita Kennedy

About

American playwright who is best known for Funnyhouse of a Negro, which premiered in 1964 and won an Obie Award. She is also known for the plays The Owl Answers and A Rat's Mass. Her work has been characterized as bold due to her experimentation with structure and repetition.

Before Fame

In 1953, she graduated from Ohio State University and in 1956, she graduated from Columbia University.

Trivia

In 2018, she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. Her other published works include 1991's Ohio State Murders, 1965's The Owl Answers, 1996's Sleep Deprivation Chamber and more. Her plays often feature topics such as race, violence in American society and kinship. She has drawn on her own experiences in life to inspire her writing.

Family Life

She is the daughter of Etta Hawkins and Cornell Wallace Hawkins. She married Joseph Kennedy on May 15, 1953. They had two children, Joseph Jr. and Adam P. Kennedy. They divorced in 1966.

Associated With

In 2022, she received the Gold Medal for Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which has been awarded to only 16 people, including Eugene O'Neill.