Adrienne Kennedy, a 1953 alumna, will make her Broadway debut with her play “Ohio State Murders.” Credit: Patrick O’Shea/NJ Advance Media via TNS
Ohio State will be under the bright lights of 42nd Street as one alumna’s play heads to Broadway.
Adrienne Kennedy, a 1953 alumna, will make her Broadway debut with her play “Ohio State Murders.” With an opening date to be determined, six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will star in the show as Suzanne Alexander.
The play follows Alexander, a Black writer, as she returns to her alma mater, Ohio State, to speak on the violence in her writing. Premiering off-Broadway in 2007, Kennedy’s piece is “an intriguing, unusual and chilling look at the destructiveness of racism in the U.S.,” according to Concord Theatricals.
The fictional writer’s life “both is, and is not, like her author’s,” according to Concord Theatricals.
Kennedy is a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and an Obie Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. In 2003, Kennedy also received an honorary doctorate of literature from the university, according to Ohio State News.
In 2001, the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Arts presented a production of “Ohio State Murders.” It also produced “Sleep Deprivation Chamber,” a play co-written with her son, Adam Kennedy, in 2003.
Directing the production is Kenny Leon, the director of “A Soldier’s Play” and “American Son.” Additional members of the cast and creative team and a theater are still to be announced.
