Tag: Kenny Leon

Danielle Deadwyler’s work is inventive, thought-provoking, and captivating; Hollywood was always eventually going to take notice. Station Eleven, The Harder They Fall, and Till made clear that she had the screen presence to command viewers’ attention and the emotional depth to sway their hearts. Jumping into the Hollywood machine only sharpened and heightened Deadwyler’s already considerable talents. Clearly, she was just getting started.

The Atlanta University Center has shaped generations of leaders—for the nation and for their home city. Atlanta would be nothing like it is today without it.

A roundup of yearbook photos of famous Atlanta University Center alumni, including Martin Luther King Jr., Samuel L. Jackson. Raphael Warnock, Stacey Abrams, Tayari Jones, and more.

The Alliance Theatre gives its adaptation of the 1983 comedy some twists, including bringing back Tony Award–winning director Kenny Leon to helm the production. Here are four things you need to know about the new musical.

On Monday night, Kenny Leon will direct Scarlett Johansson and her Avengers co-stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, and Maximiliano Hernández in the 1938 Thornton Wilder classic during a special one-night-only performance at the Fox Theatre.

Kenny Leon believes in hard work. He does not, apparently, believe in sleep.

When True Colors Theatre Company asked Chris Coleman to direct his old friend Kenny Leon and the luminous Phylicia Rashad in the 1975 play Same Time, Next Year, the former Atlantan and cofounder of Actor’s Express first thought, “Oh my God, that’s kind of random.” Then he became titillated by the thought. “Getting the job of making Kenny Leon make out with Phylicia Rashad —come on! Who is going to turn *that* down?”

After Kenny Leon directed Denzel Washington in the 2010 revival of August Wilson’s Fences, they made a pact: The Atlanta director and the Hollywood titan would continue to work as a theatrical team. So not long ago, Leon told Washington it was time to make good on that handshake.

You don’t have to go to New York for adventurous drama. The Alliance Theatre and True Colors Theatre regularly stage brand-new works, U.S. premieres, or reinvented classics.