Founder, Artistic Director
 Kenny Leon, co-founder and Artistic Director of True Colors Theatre Company, directed the 2004 Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, featuring Sean Combs, Sanaa Lathan, Audra McDonald and Phylicia Rashad; the show garnered two Tony Awards, and for Kenny, a nomination for Outstanding Director by Boston’s Drama Desk Awards. His production of A Raisin in the Sun went on to register the highest-grossing box office sales for a drama in Broadway history. In Fall 2006, Kenny directed the film “A Raisin in the Sun”, featuring the Broadway cast, set to air on ABC in Fall 2007. He also directed the final two plays in August Wilson’s epic, 10-play canon, the five time Tony-nominated Gem of the Ocean (pre-Broadway and Broadway), and Radio Golf (pre-Broadway and Broadway in Spring 2007). Kenny directed the world premiere of Toni Morrison’s opera, Margaret Garner, working with Composer Richard Danielpour, Conductor Stefan Lano and 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.
Kenny’s directorial credits span an incomparable range of work, from classic theatre, to drama, to comedy, to musicals, to musical revues, to film. He’s directed extensively around the country, including, among others, Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Boston’s Huntington Theatre, Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre and Hartford Stage, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group, Milwaukee Reparatory, New York’s Public Theatre, Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, Seattle Reparatory, Georgia Shakespeare, San Jose Reparatory, Dallas Theatre Center, and Oregon Shakespeare. He directs True Colors Theatre Company’s annual, all-youth production of The Wiz, offering Atlanta’s youth an unforgettable experience with a Broadway design team.
During his unprecedented 11-year tenure as Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre Company, Kenny commissioned and directed three new works from Pearl Cleage, Flyin’ West, Blues for an Alabama Sky and Bourbon at the Border. Also while at the Alliance, Kenny produced the premieres of Disney’s and Elton John’s Elaborate Lives: the Legend of Aida, and Debbie Allen’s Soul Possessed.
Kenny was chosen as one of People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2004, and was awarded the “Martell Cognac Rise Above Award” in 2004, honoring his artistry and entrepreneurial spirit. He is the “Face of Martell” for the ’05-’06 advertising campaign and has been featured on the back covers of GQ, Black Enterprise and Jet magazines. Kenny was chosen as one of the “Top 20 Southerners to Watch” by the Financial Times of London Magazine, received the Atlanta Business League Trailblazer Award, and the MIT Eugene McDermott Award, among many others.
A graduate and honorary Ph.D. of Clark Atlanta University, Kenny is also very active in the communities in which he lives and works. He sits on the Board of the New Globe Theatre, New York, NY; he’s a member of 100 Black Men of Atlanta; he conducted an improv workshop at the Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts in Washington, DC, last fall; and for the Dekalb County, GA, school system, he directed Snapshots: From a Decade of Directing American Theatre, a retrospective of his directorial work performed by students from across the county. Kenny is co-Founder and Artistic Director of True Colors Theatre Company, Principal of KL Productions, and a highly acclaimed director, producer and actor. Kenny founded True Colors in 2002 in order to further his personal and professional mission of preserving and refreshing the African American classics, while also producing works from various times, cultures and perspectives. Kenny is a sought-after motivational and inspirational speaker with engagements at civic and arts associations, and corporations around the country.
kleon@truecolorstheatrecompany.com |
