DG National Report: Tennessee by Andy Landis
There’s no place like home. And playwright Kenley Smith knows it. When I met him at Noshville Delicatessen I was curious to know how, as a playwright, he’d gotten to Middle Tennessee. In a smooth, slightly southern accent peppered with humor and strong opinion, Kenley shared his journey to Nashville where he now writes and resides.
Hailing from the mountainous town of Beckley, West Virginia, Kenley absorbed the Appalachian culture from which he would draw inspiration years later. But in 1976 when the world was ripe with rebels, the small town of Beckley couldn’t hold him. Fresh out of high school, Kenley moved 130 miles south to Roanoke, Virginia, where in 1982 he earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Hollins University.
Back then Kenley wrote prose and had a passion for cars. For ten years he successfully ran a high performance driving school traveling from upstate New York to Southern Florida. However, it wasn’t until he participated in No Shame Theatre in Roanoke, where artists perform their works for five minutes at a time, that Kenley found heartfelt success. While performing his first monologue in the summer of 2006, he experienced what he calls the “electric energy of the audience’s response.” He began writing and performing his plays “five minutes at time” and enrolled at Hollins University again—this time for playwriting. He joined the Dramatists Guild in 2008 and garnered his second master’s degree in 2009, becoming the first ever graduate of the Hollins playwriting program.
He began submitting his plays in earnest. At first they were Appalachian plays sown and reaped from his West Virginian roots. But in 2012, after being chosen for a year-long program in the Ingram New Works Festival, Kenley sold everything and moved 450 miles south to the festival’s home in Nashville, Tennessee. The Ingram New Works Festival was so supportive that he began to write what he calls his “cruel” plays. I asked him to elaborate. “It’s a cruel time and sometimes I have to write cruel plays,” he said.
He sipped his tea. “Nashville’s an artistic town,” he said. In fact, the house he now owns formally belonged to a respected, successful musician. The office where Kenley often writes was once a recording studio. “Art and artists are everywhere here,” he said.
Having moved to Music City a couple decades ago myself, Kenley’s decision made perfect sense to me. There are theatre lovers, thriving artists, gifted musicians, and colorful characters everywhere in Tennessee. Kenley fits right in.
Curious about something, I asked, “How long is your beard?” He stroked it, pulling on its length. “I’ve never actually measured it. But it reaches all the way to my navel,” he laughed. “I started growing it in 1976. This October, it’s ‘gonna be 40 years old.”
Of course, he has more Appalachian plays to write but one of his “cruel” plays is premiering in Memphis this fall. “It calls for a naked man to be water boarded on stage so we’ll see how far it goes,” he smiled. Meanwhile, he doesn’t want other forms of media to speak for him. Theatre isn’t like those other forms, he said. It’s an “intimate art form that speaks to the possibility of change … In the theatre, it’s as if the air can catch fire!”
Will he stay in Nashville, I asked. “Nashville offers me the chance to break out of the New York centered idea that theatre can only thrive in New York. I want to be a catalyst of change,” he answered pulling on his beard. “Besides, I like to put down roots. And it feels like home to me.”
I can’t help but agree. So in case no one else has said it, welcome home, Kenley Smith. Welcome home.
To learn more about Kenley, visit: www.KenleySmith.com
Kenley Smith – photo © Miriam Berkley
