John Kenley

John Kenley (February 20, 1906 – October 23, 2009) was an American theatrical producer who pioneered the use of television stars in summer stock productions. In 1950, he was the first producer to desegregate live theater in Washington, DC. In 2004 he was made an Honorary Life Member of Actors' Equity for his contributions to American theater. His Kenley Players company was described by Variety as "the largest network of theaters on the straw-hat circuit."

Early life Kenley was born John Kremchek on February 20, 1906, to Ana Machuga and John Kremchek Zyanskovsky singing in church in both Russian and English, and was given a solo part at age 4.

Three years later he moved to New York and landed a part as an acrobat in John Murray Anderson's Greenwich Village Follies. With the signing of his first performance contract Kremchek became known as John Kenley. to 1940, Kenley worked as an assistant to producer Lee Shubert. He estimated he read 1000 scripts during that period and discovered William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life and Lillian Hellman's first play, The Children's Hour.

After the war, Kenley was unable to find stage work in New York and began producing summer stock in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Over the next fifty years, Kenley's summer stock productions became what Variety called the "largest network of theaters on the straw hat circuit". His Kenley Players company brought popular shows and celebrities to Ohio, in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Warren. and Barbara Eden. Eden recalled him confiding in her that his parents had concluded "it would be easier for him to go through life as a male rather than as a female," and that he spent the theater season in Ohio and the off season living in Palm Springs as a woman named Joan. In his unpublished memoirs, Kenley writes, "People have often wondered if I am gay. Sometimes I wished I was. Life would have been simpler. Androgyny is overrated." Washington was at the time "without professional theater because, in response to segregationist seating policies, the Actors Equity union would not allow its members to perform there," and describing him as having "refined and ultimately defined the golden days of Equity Summer Stock."