The Caged Bird Sings : * Being in jail brought James Kennedy some of his best theatrical ideas, though the dramas aren’t always set behind bars.

James Kennedy has an unusual MO when it comes to playwriting.

“Years ago, I had a couple of experiences in L.A.--like an inability to pay fines, things like that--and had to spend a little time in County Jail,” he explains. “Each time, I got a play out of it.” On Thursday, one of those dramas, “The Session,” opens under his direction at the Odessa Theatre (former site of the Gnu), where Kennedy and partner Reese Howard’s Epic Theatre Company set up shop in December.

“The Session” premiered in 1987 at the Burbank On Stage Theatre, where, the playwright says, “it had a much larger cast.” At the time, Kennedy says, “I wanted to explore the lives and work of 12 extraordinary women. Now there are eight.”

One of the characters who didn’t make the cut was French chanteuse Edith Piaf. Marilyn Monroe remains, however. Most of the other characters are fictional.

Set in a Hollywood studio, the pared-down story revolves around a celebrity photographer and the women he’s shooting for a magazine cover. “It’s a celebration of women, who they are, what they do, what they’d like to do,” Kennedy, 54, says of the 12-character piece. “The photographer claims that after each session, the subject leaves something (intangible) behind,” the playwright adds. “He also claims he can go to a grave and photograph the aura of a person.”

Born in Hartford, Conn., Kennedy hitchhiked cross-country to Los Angeles at the age of 17; less than a day after arriving, he was hit by a truck on Pico Boulevard and spent eight weeks in a hospital, then promptly returned to Connecticut.

“But as soon as I was mobile again, I came back,” he says proudly. After studies at L.A. City College, Kennedy spent six months in Las Vegas, “where I got clarity about what I wanted to do” and headed to New York City, where his acting teachers included Stella Adler and John Lehne.

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After a few back-and-forth moves, Kennedy finally settled in Los Angeles in 1966. In the late ‘70s he was a resident playwright at the now-defunct L.A. Actors Theatre (where his first jail-induced play, “Perfume,” had its premiere) and the also defunct Fig Tree Theatre in Hollywood. Over the past two decades, he has had 18 plays produced locally. One of those, “Slow Death,” will have its world premiere at the Odessa on Feb. 26.

“The springboard for the play was Ray Buckey and the McMartin trials--that’s what inspired it,” Kennedy notes. In the story, a prison bus with four inmates headed for Chino is taken on a detour to a naval bombing range by the van’s emotionally unstable driver. The prisoners include a suspected child molester, a white man who’s killed a black man, a man accused of statutory rape and one facing narcotics and fraud charges.

“The play was originally done at the Actors Studio as a staged reading in the ‘80s,” says its director, Howard, who at the time played the role of Paul, the prisoner accused of statutory rape. “When Jim and I got the theater, I told him I’d really like to direct it. It’s an exciting piece, a rough play, a prison-type drama--a real theater experience. It’s not Neil Simon, it’s not ‘Tea and Sympathy.’ It’s not tame.”

Where and When What: “The Session” and “Slow Death.”

Location: Odessa Theatre, 10426 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood.

Hours: “The Session” plays at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays until March 31, with a signed performance March 9. “Slow Death” opens Feb. 26 and plays at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays until April 3, with a signed performance March 11.

Price: $10 general, $8 students and seniors.

Call: (818) 752-0059.