Ohio State Murders

This query gives Suzanne the platform to fully speak about her trauma experienced as a black woman at Ohio State University and the murder of her daughters Cathi and Carol by her professor, and father of her children, Robert Hampshire.

The play was first performed from January 14 to February 9, 1991, at Yale Repertory Theatre's Winterfest, starring Olivia Cole[3] and premiered at the Great Lakes Theater Festival on March 7, 1992, in a production directed by Gerald Freedman and Mary Bill.

[5][6][7] Ohio State Murders received renewed interest beginning in 2020, with a series of digitally distributed productions leading up it its Broadway debut.

The first was a reading to benefit The Actors Fund, featuring Audra McDonald and Lizan Mitchell; the cast also included Ben Rappaport and Warner Miller, but left vacant the role of Iris Ann.

Kennedy worked on many plays post move and as a woman contributed greatly to the Black Theatre Movement of the 1960s as the field was mostly male dominated.

At the time, black people were restricted from other things within the university that prevented them from growing in terms of gaining educational fulfillment, including not being allowed to major in certain subjects or be part of certain social clubs.

New York Times critic Michael Paulson recognized Ohio State Murders as a "powerful" and "gripping story" but "tough to sell".

Oladipo applauded director Kenny Leon and lighting designer Allen Lee Hughes for their creative work on the production, and she recognized Ohio State Murders as a social critique of prevailing systematic racism in universities.

[2] Literary critic Adam Bradley recognized Ohio State Murders as an undervalued work of the 20th century by a Black American author.

[21] The Wall Street Journal's theatre critic Charles Isherwood applauded Ohio State Murders' "unsettling power" as a "great work of art" through its execution of a tense tone, praising Audra McDonald's performance as Suzanne Alexander.