kenny leon, black director, professional profile
Kenny Leon, a black director, is the subject of this professional profile
Kenny Leon
People's Choice
Chosen as one of PEOPLE Magazine’s '50 Most Beautiful People' in 2004, acclaimed director Kenny Leon, 51, is more than just his good looks. The founder and artistic director for the True Colors Theatre Company is one of the leading directors in American theater.
Theater in his Blood
As the long-time artistic director for the Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta, Ga., Kenny Leon is credited with putting regional theater on the map. He left Alliance in 2001 and founded the True Colors Theatre Company, with the mission to preserve Negro American classics. The theater produces an eclectic mix of plays with multiracial casts, and aims to attract a diverse audience. He was once quoted saying: "We're doing The Wiz, but we're doing it with an integrated cast. We want to do Shakespeare and the Greeks and all that, but also do Negro classics."
P. Diddy in Raisin
Kenny Leon's received a Drama Desk Outstanding Director nomination for his production of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 classic. His inspired casting of hip-hop impresario Sean Combs, along with Phylicia Rashad, made history when she became the first African American woman to win the Tony award for best leading actress in a play and making Raisin the second-highest-grossing non-musical in the history of Broadway.
Kenny Leon as Actor
Actor Woody Harrelson with Kenny Leon they after performed in the 2005 play 'Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark' at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The play features the voices of individual human rights defenders from around the globe at the start of the Martin Luther King Holiday.
Radio Golf
Leon directed the final two plays in August Wilson’s epic, 10-play canon -- 'Gem of the Ocean,' and 'Radio Golf,' which starred Harry Lennix, Tonya Pinkins. He also directed the world premiere of Toni Morrison’s opera, 'Margaret Garner,' featuring mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. 'Margaret Garner' was produced at Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, where it sold more tickets than any opera ever performed there, and Opera Company of Philadelphia.
Hold Him to It
Director Kenny Leon and John Earl Jelks on the set of August Wilson's "Radio Golf" in 2005, which was completed shortly before the playwright died. Quoting a campaign slogan used by one of the characters in 'Radio Golf,' Leon has said, "August always said, 'I wrote it, now do your part.' I promise to do my part, August. You can hold me to it."
In the Company of Friends
Leon's work is drawing the affection of African-American actors like Angela Bassett.
Theater Lovers
Leon with some of his friends and fans: Baseball legend Dave Winfield and actor Samuel L. Jackson.
Kids on Stage
Kenny Leon directs children in an Atlanta production of 'The Wiz.'
August Wilson Award
Kenny Leon with the winners and judges of True Colors' First Annual August WIlson Monologue Competition in February 2006.
What's Next for Leon
Next Leon will direct the 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,' based on the original Oscar-winning screenplay by William Rose. The play will be adapted by Todd Kreidler, who served as dramaturg to the late August Wilson. The show will premiere on Broadway in fall 2008.
Three Questions for Director Kenny Leon
There are Tyler Perry plays that some call 'chitlin circuit,' and your plays that some consider more theatrical. How do you make a distinction between the works?
It's different, but that's like comedy is different from jazz and jazz different from blues. There is room for Madea and August Wilson's 'Radio Golf.' Why am I'm just going to have spaghetti when we can get to have it all. See Madea on one night, see August Wilson on another, and see Chekvov on another. Let's discover our connection to other human beings. [August Wilson] did tell me that what they were doing on the chitlin circuit is a new frontier. Art form in the new stages of development. August Wilson was always teaching one lesson: Everything a black person needs to sustain himself, he got from his mother. We know how to sell our stories, how to market them. What Tyler has done with the film world is good thing.
What is your philosophy in choosing a play to stage?
What I have learned is God puts you in a place for many different reasons. I look back on it now, and I'm really glad I did go through that because I have gotten my power back ten-fold. I have always had a burning desire to not only be successful but to do the right things in life and to help people and the successful part is going to come.
You have to find the passion in your life. If there were no money, what would you do free and get up everyday. Storytelling is my ministry. It has to really move me and touch me everyday. My thing is if it doesn't move you and touch you, you will drop what you kind of like and do what you really like. 'Raisin in the Sun' introduced it to a new generation. My grandmother said you are not old until you can't do for yourself. I don't know what is in store for me. I'm trying to take art to reach a great number of people. I want to do a feature, a musical. I wanted True Colors Theater to be a place for diversity. To be that place that an artist can come back to visit and try new things, to give to the next generation.
How do you think your television premier on of Raisin in the Sun on ABC in the fall will be received?
It's going to be incredible. It's really going to shock the world. Diddy's performance is amazing and what these women do -- what Phylicia Rashad does, what Sanaa Lathan does -- I've never seen on screen before so I'm really, really pleased. And the sprit of Lorraine Hansberry, I think she will be proud. I think Lloyd Richards, who directed the original play will be happy. I think that generation who worked on the first one will be pleased. Because this film is not like what we did one Broadway. It's not like the original play. It's not like the original movie. What I'm hoping is that we bring a whole new generation of people to witness Lorraine Hansberry?s story. So it's going to be on a Sunday night, three hours. The network never does that anymore. I'm hoping that three or four generations of family can sit down together to watch. You've got Diddy?s fans, Felicia?s fans, Sanaa's fans. It was the second-highest grossing play in history of Broadway. Now we can reach a wider audience, so I couldn't be more pleased.
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