2021 Distinguished Alumnus Award

The Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Award recognizes Park alumni who have distinguished themselves through career, service or community achievements.

Kenthedo Robinson, ’80, playwright, producer, director and educator, remembers the moment he became captivated with the theater.

“My elementary school teacher took our class to a production of Hansel and Gretel. When the lights went down, I was transported to another world,” he recalled.

While waiting for the bus, he saw the theater house lights come up, stage curtains part and actors gathering props and costumes. He was awestruck. “I said, ‘Wow! That wasn’t real? You mean, I can create another world like that?’”

And so it began.

Street theater

The next day, Robinson gathered his neighborhood friends, doled out roles for his first play (either Cinderella or Rapunzel — he doesn’t remember) and tried his hand at stage and costume design.

“I took my family’s freshly washed sheets and hung them on our clotheslines for theater curtains. I also painted a pair of my mother’s pantyhose white for a friend who played the prince,” he said.

Although his parents encouraged his creativity, Robinson’s mother was less-than-thrilled about

his use of resources. “That play didn’t last long once my mother found out about her pantyhose,” he recalled. Robinson, though, spent the remainder of his childhood writing plays, poetry and short stories.

The right fit

Robinson recalls bouncing around a couple of colleges before finding the right fit at Park University. “I felt at home,” he said.

Working with Melanie Tang, Ph.D., associate professor of English, and The Stylus staff accelerated Robinson’s development as a writer. Serving as an officer for the Park Student Government Association developed his leadership skills and confidence. While Parkville, Mo., was a big stepping stone for his growth, the Big Apple was the ultimate plan for Robinson’s career.

“Close to graduation, I told my mother I was going to New York. I thought she would say no, but she said yes, and I couldn’t turn back.” After graduating from Park with a bachelor’s degree in communication arts, Robinson moved to Harlem to begin a master’s program in theatre playwriting/directing at Hunter College, City University of New York.

If you can make it there…

Robinson lived with a couple employed by Broadway’s Nedelander Theatre and Negro Ensemble Company. The experience steeped Robinson in their theatrical community, including their friendships with actors Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Harney (who portrayed “Curtis” in the Broadway production of Dreamgirls). Robinson also found a supportive playwriting community of his own, including Emmy Award-winning writer Bill Gunn, and Arthur Miller, author of Death of a Salesman.

Since arriving in New York, Robinson has written, produced and directed more than 20 plays, and has taught in the New York City public school system for 25 years. His career received a remarkable boost when he was commissioned by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to write the biography For Bird with Love, a tribute ballet for jazz legend Charlie “Bird” Parker.

In 1985, Robinson founded the Crystal Image Performing Arts Company, with productions including Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, A Raisin in the Sun, Godspell, Dreamgirls, The Piano Lesson, Fame, My Mamma: The Superaction Hero, The Wiz, A Streetcar Named Desire and Oedipus the King, which received four Jean Dalrymple Awards for Excellence in Off Broadway Production for set design, best actor and supporting actor (two).

Recently, he wrote and produced The Buffalo Hero of World War I: The Wayne Miner Story, which honored the legacy of Miner, an Army private from Kansas City, Mo., who valiantly volunteered to take artillery to the frontlines during World War I when fellow soldiers refused. Miner died in the hours between the signing of the Armistice and the time it was set to go into effect. Currently, Robinson is working on Marcus in the Clouds on the 777, a modern take on Icarus, set in 1980s Kansas City, and York: Slave or a God, in homage to the slave who accompanied William Clark III and Meriwether Lewis on their Corps of Discovery Expedition.

No matter where his art takes him, Robinson often revisits his roots — a modest Kansas City upbringing, hard-working parents and the pivotal time spent at Park. “I’m very proud I attended,” he said. “My Park education provided me with a foundation that was life-changing.”