According to a report by Variety, Broadway director Kenny Leon is set to direct the film version of the Jennifer Thompson-Cannino's 'Picking Cotton', entitled 'Cotton'. Adapted by Todd Komarnicki, the film is about a friendship that develops between a woman and her falsely identified rapist.
A familiar face on Broadway, Mr. Leon will return to direct Mountaintop, winner of London's Olivier Award for best new play in Spring 2011. In 2010, his hit Broadway show Fences garnered 10 Tony Nominations including Best Director. Receiving the most nominations for a play revival in the history of the Tonys, Fences also set box office records and earned the Tony award for Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor and Best Actress.
Past Tony nominations include his Broadway productions of Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean and Raisin in the Sun. Mr. Leon was nominated for Best Director by the Directors Guild of America for the film version of 'A Raisin in the Sun' which also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and won 3 NAACP Image Awards. He is the recipient of many awards including the Drama Leagues' Julia Hansen Award for a lifetime of excellence in theatre, MIT Eugene McDermott Humanitarian Award as well as the Abby and Christopher Awards. He has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, NBC, Charlie Rose and PBS, and was featured as People's Magazine 50 Most Beautiful and the 'Face of Martell's national and international advertising campaign.
Prior to founding
Kenny Leon's
True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre. Kenny's directorial credits span an incomparable range of work including classic theatre, drama, comedy, opera, musicals and film.
Kenny served as Artistic Director of the 10-play
August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center marking the first time all ten plays were produced in repertory under one roof. He also directed Swimming Upstream featuring women of New Orleans and the impact of Hurricane Katrina on their lives and city, and Breaking the Silence, a United Nations event aimed at bringing awareness to child abduction across the globe. In London, he directed Flashdance: The Musical which toured the UK through May of 2009 and served as Stage Director on
Alicia Keys' "As I Am" worldwide tour. He also staged the world premiere of Toni Morrison's opera Margaret Garner, featuring mezzo-soprano
Denyce Graves at the Michigan Opera House.
He has produced world premiere works including Disney and
Elton John's Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida,
Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo,
Pearl Cleage's Flying West and Blues For an Alabama Sky among others. With True Colors, Leon produces the
August Wilson Monologue Competition, an annual competition currently in five major cities that provides workshops and training to hundreds of teenagers for in anticipation to reach the national competition on Broadway and is currently producing a documentary film about the importance of 'The Arts' in our lives.
Holding honorary doctorates from Roosevelt University, among others, Mr. Leon is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University. He has been the featured speaker for many arts organizations, corporations, universities, awards shows, political gatherings and churches including Aspen Ideas Festival, Yale, Northwestern, Tish, Coca-Cola, Grantmakers of America and Association of Performing Arts in New York.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
