People Who Led to My Plays

by Adrienne Kennedy

In this remarkable memoir, Adrienne Kennedy charts her life from growing up in Cleveland in the 1930s and 40s in a middle-class black family through marriage and motherhood and her eventual move to New York City in the 50s. Out of a sequence of deceptively spare statements emerges a complex portrait of the artist as a young woman as she examines the people and events that compelled her to be a writer.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Plays, Biography Memoir, Theatre

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Kari Yergin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
A fascinating “ memoir” written as a list of short snippets of people, characters, books or bits of text, historical figures, travels that the playwright thinks were instrumental in leading to her becoming a published playwright. I it’s not exactly an exciting read, but it is fascinating how ever so gradually you can feel all of these influences helping her to become who she is meant to be. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I had any knowledge of who she was beforehand or of any of her plays.

A few of her choices:

My mother: “continued to encourage me to read, and by the fifth grade, I had read all the books in the school office library. She shared her secret thoughts and tears over the movies she took me to see so that I learned early that there was a secret locked inside movies and songs that caused adults to cry, to become quiet, to reminisce.”

Percy Shelley:
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory;
Odors, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped on the beloved’s bed;
And so the thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.

All the Elizabeths:
Women who had whole epochs named after them. That meant I must keep trying to rise above shopping at the supermarket, gossiping with other young mothers. I was a woman too. I must try to achieve.

[dkaufman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, found very inspirational, lots of good reading recs as well

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever considered spending a few afternoons making lists of things in the phenomenal world which have been the markers of your interests and curiosities? You might remember how you felt while playing a childhood game, or feeling empathy with your parents moods; maybe you recall your favorite teacher’s blue-rinsed hair; reading a book that knocked your socks off, or feeling mystified about a scientific concept you learned in the 7th grade. Consider the kinds of notes you would make if there was no pressure, and then you went through photo albums and magazines or wherever----to find accompanying images. What you might come up with would be akin to Adrienne Kennedy’s 1987 publication, People Who Led to My Plays.

At the time, notes in the back of the book described Adrienne Kennedy as being “the most complex contemporary American Black dramatist and certainly one of the most complex of all contemporary playwrights....she writes surrealistic and expressionistic avant-garde drama, characterized by lyric dialogue and penetrating insights. ” She wrote the book while in her 50s in response to having been asked so often who and what influenced her to write “in such a nonlinear way?” and “who are your favorite playwrights?” The book covers a 25-year span---from 1936-1961---and is grouped in six sections: “elementary school”, “junior high school”, “high school”, “college”, “marriage & motherhood”, and “a voyage”. Many entries consist of a few sentences or a few paragraphs, and aren’t composed as revelatory narratives. It comes off as a casual inventory, but that only made me realize my own attachment (or expectation?) to traditional “memoir” or “autobiographical” forms.

I came away from reading this book loving that Adrienne Kennedy touched on all types of influences---not just the theatrical, the literary, or the “highbrow”. She doesn’t favor or privilege certain influences with an eye towards impressing others with erudition. I haven’t yet read any of her plays, nor have I seen them performed, but I look forward to doing so. (Three and one half stars with a heart-shaped smiley face would be my true rating for this one).

[Matthew Eck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Structured as a list of her writing’s influences, Kennedy’s memoir was a refreshing perspective for writers and non-writers alike (u r definitely supposed to read this in the voice of a commercial salesperson)

[Constance Kwinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for every artist.

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quirky and intriguing and moving. It's part memoir, part photo-essay, and it's filled with imagery that recurs throughout Kennedy's work. Some of the influences Kennedy discusses are obvious: Bette Davis in Now, Voyager and Juarez; Patrice Lumumba; Beethoven; her father and mother; Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Anne Boleyn. But others are surprising and revealing! She speaks, for example, of the influence that The Wolf Man had on her and the way he captured her imagination. And I was surprised and delighted to read that Snow White was such an influence on her considering the title of her much later play He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box.

This is a wonderful, insightful text for Kennedy fans.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring book! This is such a creative and unusual autobiography — full of notes about the people and books and art that inspired her to strive to make art in her writing. A wonderful record of the journey an artist makes. I was SO struck and impressed by her unique way of telling about her life. A most fascinating and generous book. ❤️

[David Macpherson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be one of the best books for anyone who wants to be a writer or a creative person. It is all about the influences that led her to being a playwright. It is a long list of events and things she read or saw or experienced or thought about. I really loved it. I can't recommend it enough.

[Shawna Alston · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me, it’s really hard to write an entertaining memoir. Some authors get too caught up in what they think the reader should pay attention and lose focus of the goal of writing: to express and express clearly. Kennedy doesn’t do this. She’s succinct and raw and inviting. Really enjoyed this one.

[Lukia · Rating 5 out of 5]

finally, an autobiographical account by a writer that doesn’t finger-wag about working hard or self-aggrandize. short, but insightful. kennedy is simply a master of her craft.

[Andi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An atypical, spare, disjointed memoir that keeps spiraling back on itself

[Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun structure for autobiography.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it conceptually but not all that enjoyable to read once you get the idea

[Danny Turek · Rating 4 out of 5]

close to a 5

[Keri Murcray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this book through the acknowledgments page of The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez. Really unique idea and very interesting to read.

[Natalie Sickling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this I need to read her plays probably

[Belle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kennedy's mapping of a constellation of influences, arranged chronologically. Inspires you to think...what has influenced you? Actors/actresses, books, political figures, card games played as a child? Fairy tales?

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully language

[Flynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my elements of non-narratives course. The first bibliography I've read that doesn't follow chronological order. It helped me appreciated Lee's biography of Virginia Woolf