Take You Wherever You Go
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From Tony Award-winning director and recipient of the prestigious Mr. Abbott Award, Kenny Leon, comes a powerful memoir of the lessons he has learned on his incredible life journey.
When Kenny Leon's grandmother told him to "take you wherever you go," she could hardly have anticipated that he would establish himself as one of Broadway's most exciting and acclaimed directors. But through years of hard work, Kenny would migrate from a small wooden house in rural Florida to the Tony Awards' stage, where he would win Best Direction of a Play for his 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun.
In Take You Wherever You Go, Leon reflects on the pillars of wisdom he learned every step of the way from the most important people in his life--from his grandmother's sagacious and encouraging motivations to the steady hand of his mother to the deep artistic and social influence of iconic American playwright August Wilson.
Take You Wherever You Go is a poignant, ruminative, and inspirational memoir that empowers you to be true to yourself as you navigate your own path.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tony Award winning director Leon assesses the long journey from his modest Florida upbringing to his professional success, including receiving the best director award for his 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun. Leon was born in Tallahassee in 1956 and raised by his grandmother while his mother worked in St. Petersburg. Among the women who influenced him were his Grandma Mamie, who had a "simple, direct, endearing" approach to life, and Annie Ruth, his conservative Christian mother who gave him a moral compass. Leon graduated from Clark Atlanta University, then attended Southwest University School of Law in L.A., "starting and stopping" his education and doing undercover security work ("snitching on people at various job sites"); he returned to Atlanta jobless, but began focusing on theater. Leon glows when speaking of his time at Atlanta's Alliance Theater, even if his tenure began by receiving a letter that read, "When we come to the theater, we come to support our own kind. Not some pushy, uppity coon." Throughout, Leon celebrates the many actors and directors he worked with or admired, including Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson (who contributed the book's foreword), and his idol, playwright August Wilson, whose Fences he directed on Broadway. Leon delivers revealing personal stories of theatrical success in this uplifting memoir.
