From Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz

By presenting Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders, we will begin this year’s exploration of the cultural connections and collisions between Africa, Europe and the Americas. One of Kennedy’s most remarkable works, Ohio State Murders has never received a full production in New York, though its urgency and imaginative daring cry out for performance. This play’s startling juxtaposition of learning and the literary tradition with the terrors of extreme violence and racial prejudice are enhanced by its visionary mixing of past and present, hard fact and imaginative fantasy. Its rich, poetic density is an instance of the individuality that makes Ms. Kennedy one of the most admired writers of her time, a playwright’s playwright whose work has left a permanent mark on our literature. As Michael Feingold writes in the Village Voice, “With Beckett gone, Adrienne Kennedy is probably the boldest artist now writing for the theatre.”