Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ‘Purpose’
Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Tony-nominated and Pulitzer Prize–winning play, is set in the home of a Black upper-class Chicago family of civil rights leaders. While the play hints at real-life inspirations like the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s family, it quickly moves in a distinct direction, exploring themes of sacrifice, succession, asexuality, and spirituality with originality and wit.
With the same vivid language and electric dialogue that earned Jacobs-Jenkins accolades for Appropriate, Purpose features an ensemble cast that’s been nominated for five acting awards. It first premiered in 2024 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater, directed by Phylicia Rashad, and has since been revised for its Broadway run.
On the stage of the Helen Hayes Theater, where the most charged dinner scene takes place, Jacobs-Jenkins sat with the six main cast members to reflect on the play’s development and deeper meanings. What emerged was more than a conversation—it was, as Jacobs-Jenkins put it, “family therapy.”
The cast includes Harry Lennix as the patriarch Solomon Jasper, LaTanya Richardson Jackson as the incisive matriarch Claudine, Jon Michael Hill as the introspective younger son Nazareth, Glenn Davis as the charismatic older son Junior, Alana Arenas as Junior’s outspoken wife Morgan, and Kara Young as Nazareth’s innocent friend Aziza.
5. When asked about the complexity of their characters, Lennix remarked that each one is “right” in their own way, shaped by justifiable histories and beliefs. The play’s tension emerges from watching these individual truths clash in close quarters.
6. Changes from the Chicago run to Broadway included character arc refinements and trimmed dialogue. Jackson noted the challenge of removing parts of Jacobs-Jenkins’s “pearls,” saying, “Everything he writes is a rose, but you’ve got to kill some of them.”
7. The rehearsal process, by all accounts, was dynamic and deeply collaborative. Jacobs-Jenkins credited the cast for making bold choices that pushed him to reimagine scenes. “Rehearsal is my happy place,” he said, calling it a space for collective storytelling.
8. The actors recounted the mental strain of keeping up with rewrites, especially during previews. Davis shared the difficulty of rehearsing a new scene during the day, then performing the old version at night, joking that he relied on Hill to keep them both steady.
Hill recalled the fear of performing restructured monologues without full confidence in memory. Despite the risk, he described the process as “a leap of faith,” where the thrill of improvisation and discovery became part of the performance itself.
Young was especially moved by the emotional impact of rewrites, likening them to “open-heart surgery” on the script. Each revision, she said, added depth and resonance, often moving her to tears.
Arenas shared the mental toll of evolving scripts, praising Hill’s calm and professionalism, while Jackson admitted that adapting to Jacobs-Jenkins’s fluid process was especially tough at age 75—but the younger cast’s support helped her through.
The conversation turned to the idea that playwrights, like actors, are also in a constant process of discovery. Arenas appreciated Jacobs-Jenkins’s openness, recognizing that he was refining the play even during performances, which challenged the notion of a “finished” script.
Jacobs-Jenkins described theater-making as historically collaborative, emphasizing the importance of creating with actors in real time. While acknowledging the vulnerability this creates for performers, he sees the result as a richer, more organic final product.
The dinner scene, where much of the drama unfolds, was the spark that launched the play. Inspired by The Glass Menagerie’s narrator breaking the fourth wall, Jacobs-Jenkins crafted a scene where philosophical and emotional stakes intersect in explosive ways.
Lennix summed it up by saying the play is ultimately about a fractured family trying to rediscover love. “These themes—spirituality, morality, choice—are on full display,” he said. And while Purpose raises more questions than it answers, its power lies in putting them boldly on the table.
