Adrienne Kennedy to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award From Dramatists Guild of America

The Dramatists Guild of America, the national trade association of theater writers, has announced that Adrienne Kennedy will receive the organization's 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented at the Guild's annual awards ceremony. The date of that event has not yet been announced.

Bursting onto the theatrical scene in 1964 with the Obie Award-winning Funnyhouse of a Negro, Kennedy has gone on to write subsequent acclaimed plays including June and Jean in Concert, A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White, and A Lesson in a Dead Language. Her most recent play, He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, premiered at Theatre for a New Audience in 2018.

"Adrienne Kennedy has used her immense storytelling skill with beautifully brutal imagery to share her theatrical dreamscapes with the world," said Dramatists Guild President Amanda Green. "Adrienne has inspired countless young writers by remaining true to herself and her voice, knowing that what she had to say would resonate. "

Lloyd Suh, chair of the Guild's Awards committee, added, "This award is the Dramatists Guild's highest distinction, and is bestowed upon a writer entirely by other writers."

Previous recipients include A.R. Gurney, John Guare, Micki Grant, Paula Vogel, Terrence McNally, Sheldon Harnick & Jerry Bock, Lanford Wilson, Joseph Stein, Horton Foote, August Wilson, Stephen Sondheim, John Kander & Fred Ebb, Neil Simon, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Edward Albee, and Arthur Miller.

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