By now a handful of theatergoers have had the chance to see the latest production on Steppenwolf’s stage: “Purpose.” The play about a Black political Illinois family is brand new — so new that cast members didn’t even have a complete script when WTTW News sat down with them less than two weeks ago.
But playwright, MacArthur “genius grant” recipient and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins said that’s how the best productions are made. WTTW News joined him; director and two-time Tony Award-winner Phylicia Rashad; and the “Purpose” cast to find out more.
WTTW News: What’s it like to create something that’s never been done before?
Alana Arenas (actor): Excitement, excitement, excitement. Yes, this is a new work, and this is a new experience. As when we started this play, we had 50 pages and we’ve been creeping up, but we don’t have the end! … It’s very exciting!
Is it typical not to have the completed script as you’re rehearsing a play?
Tamara Tunie (actor): It’s not. But it is really exciting, and it puts us all on the same journey of discovery together, you know, all the actors and the director and even the playwright because he’s still, he’s writing it as we’re rehearsing it. And he has idea in his head, but he’s only now putting it on paper. So, the first day of rehearsal when we showed up, we only had one scene. And then by the end of the first week, we had a second scene and then by the third week, we had a third scene. And then yesterday, we kind of got an outline-ish of the fourth scene! It really puts us all on the same level in the same playing field as we do this all together. And it’s been incredibly collaborative.
Arenas: No one is panicked. We are all extremely thrilled. … And I would say, think about, you know, the cast list, the director, everyone said yes when there were only 50 pages. So that tells you something about him as a writer and the caliber of his work.
(left to right) Harry Lennix, ensemble members Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis and Jon Michael Hill with Tamara Tunie and Ayanna Bria Bakari in rehearsal for Steppenwolf Theatre’s world premiere of “Purpose.” (Joel Moorman)
Phylicia, you directed the play. What about this project and this production attracted you to it?
Phylicia Rashad (director): When I read this draft, which was the first act, I said, OK! Yeah, I want to do this because it wasn’t finished because there was so much about it that was unknown, yes. But I like the way he writes. I like the way he incorporates knowledge about so many different things within the context of a conversation that an actor is having with the audience or that actors or characters are in engaged in.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (playwright): You know, I was invited by one of the premier acting ensembles of this country to make a play, and it would be ridiculous for me to come in here with a prebaked, easy-bake dinner meal for them to reheat. You know, for me, the opportunity here is to collaborate with some extraordinary talents and artists. And I’m definitely of the school that, like, this is actually what theater has been since the beginning of time, right? Every great playwright was sort of tied to an acting ensemble, right? Shakespeare had his, what are they called, Lord Chamberlain’s Men? You know, the Greeks were rehearsing for years before that play kind of emerged. August Wilson and Lloyd Richards even, they had a whole coterie of actors that they pulled upon to tell their story.
So for me, the truest form of playmaking is a deep collaboration with actors, right? And that means that you kind of find the story together. And I feel like my, my responsibility is to build the game board, you know, but they’re the players for a reason and it’s called play for a reason. … I think that’s where you, Ms. Phylicia, talk a lot about finding the life of the play. You know, life is something spontaneous. It’s organic. And I think that those qualities are what you kind of need to bake into a process to really achieve that.
(left to right) Associate director Tyrone Phillips and director Phylicia Rashad in rehearsal for Steppenwolf Theatre’s world premiere of “Purpose.” (Joel Moorman)
Give us a sense of what’s it been like to produce something brand new that’s never been done before.
Glenn Davis (actor): The characters that you’re playing, the play itself has your DNA in it. You’re saying things that the playwright is hearing and adjusting to, and saying, ‘Oh, try this,’ or ‘I like what you did there. So let’s, let’s add that.’ So this is thrilling for us.
Jon, tell me about your character.
Jon Michael Hill (actor): My character Nazareth comes from a very prominent Black family in Chicago. His father is a pastor, and his brother is a senator, like very political family, in the public eye. And he’s an introvert. So he’s sort of the black sheep of the family.
Ayanna, tell me about your character. You play Aziza?
Ayanna Bria Bakari (actor): I think she represents, like Nazareth, a younger generation of thinkers, of feelers and shakers. She challenges, you know, the old heads for lack of a better term. So there’s this dichotomy of like, ‘I’m so happy to be here, but there’s so many things that are wrong here. How do I help? But do I be quiet?’
Harry, you play the patriarch of this family, Tell us about him. What’s he going through?
Harry Lennix (actor): This has really been quite an interesting thought experiment and in dramatic form. That is, I’ve always wondered, you know, if somebody’s played characters, people, historical figures like Adam Clayton Powell, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass. I’m supposed to be doing Thurgood Marshall pretty soon. So I’ve played a lot of these characters, and I’ve certainly studied it as somebody who is far more kind of traditional. What would the new world look like? What would this new millennium look like? What would they do in the AI time when a lot of things have replaced traditional values? When they replace traditional family, when gender roles have changed so significantly and perhaps seismically, the unsettling what that would do with a man who’s now a little bit past well, or perhaps a lot past, his prime.
(left to right) Ensemble members Alana Arenas and Glenn Davis with Tamara Tunie and Harry Lennix in rehearsal for Steppenwolf Theatre’s world premiere of “Purpose.” (Joel Moorman)
Glenn, tell us about your character. He’s home from prison.
Davis: Yeah, I think he’s on a journey of redemption. And I think he is trying to keep his family together and … finding reentry somewhat challenging. So I think for him, he’s trying connect with his father, his mother, his wife, his children. And really the play questions whether folks are deserving of a second chance and what it costs to impart that second chance on someone, what it costs the family, what it costs he himself.
What do you want people to take away from this production as they see it?
Jacobs-Jenkins: Ms. Phylicia would really like people to take away their coats and their wallets and their jackets and their phones, not leave anything in the theater. (laughter) Yeah, just don’t lose nothing in the theater.
But I think we’re both invested in a kind of theater that’s more of an occasion for group reflection, right? If I felt like a play was about sending a message, I would just send you the message. Do you know what I mean? I don’t think plays are about anything other than the people who show up and together kind of examine their values, their relationships to each other, to their community. So I think we’re just trying to build an occasion to reflect on family, think about how families are shaped by history, how families make history. To think about how for some folks, family is a luxury that only goes back a few generations. And to really examine the ways in which ideas of family and family values are shaping, or shifting rather, in sort of new directions and expansive directions and inside of that expansion, maybe get a clear sense of where we are now versus where we used to be.
Rashad: Y’all come see the show, come see the show!
The production was extended before opening night. “Purpose” is slated to run through April 28 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.
