BWW Interviews: Karen Pittman Talks Broadway Debut of Pulitzer Prize Winning DISGRACED

The 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winning play Disgraced is about to begin previews at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre. In anticipation of this drama's return to New York City stages, I recently had an opportunity to talk with Karen Pittman, who is returning to the role of Jory. Together, we discussed the play's Broadway debut, its exploration of relevant sociopolitical issues, and why audiences must see this show.

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How excited are you to be returning to the Pulitzer Prize winning play Disgraced for its Broadway debut?

Wow, to hear you say "Pulitzer Prize winning" is exciting in and of itself [Laughs] for me. I've said this over and over again, but to tell this particular immigrant story to a Broadway audience is very exciting because I, obviously, feel very strongly about it artistically. There is a great team of artists working on it that I have a lot of respect and esteem for, including Ayad (Akhtar) and Kimberly (Senior). I'm glad to be working with them again and all the new actors, set designers, lighting designers, and costume designers. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm just really excited about it all, actually.

I've also said this before, but I am like many, many actors who come to New York City with the dream of being on Broadway. I come from a small town in Mississippi. To see your dream come to life in this way is very, very special. I feel very strongly that Disgraced is a story that should be on the largest stage in which we can present it. I feel very fortunate that that is now a Broadway theatre-the Lyceum.

Since you are returning to the character of Jory, what specifically drew you to this character?

Jory is... [Pauses] You know, in the play, Jory is a very interesting woman that I don't often get the opportunity to portray. Viola Davis, another African-American actress, talks about how sometimes our roles are kept to being simply a part of the story or supporting the story. But, Jory is a very strong, formidable, intelligent person with a connection and relationship to the story. Not just to Amir, who is the lead character in the story, but to her husband, Isaac. She has a life and career trajectory of her own and brings in a very important plot point. The thing that attracted me to Jory, mostly, is that she is a very strong character in the story that has a lot to do with how the story develops in a really interesting way.

I would also say that I am definitely an actor that is attracted to a story in and of itself and not just the character. I was really intrigued by this story because it talks about assimilation for people where the African-American story isn't at the center of it. Do you know what I mean? It's not August Wilson. It's not Lynn Nottage. It's a story where we're talking about race, but the African-American in the play is not the central story. The main story actually belongs to another brown person, for a lack of a better way to say it. In that way, I think that Ayad (Akhtar) acknowledges that in some way African-Americans have moved beyond this sort of external social conversation of "How do we assimilate?" In the bigger conversation, we can witness other people experience it after sort of having dealt with it ourselves. I was really intrigued by being in a story where that unfolded in front of me without it being about me. Do you know what I mean? Does that make sense?

Yes. That does make sense. I get what you are saying. [Pauses] It's almost like a passing of the torch in some ways.

It is in some ways! Also, the other thing that Ayad (Akhtar) does really beautifully in this play is that you have an internal conversation about race and religion, which, I think, in a lot of ways, as African-American players in the 20th century, we were still talking about. I mean of course we were having our internal conversations in August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, and even Katori Hall. But Ayad is talking about what that looks like for Muslim-Americans in the 21st century. Considering the social climate and what's going on in the world, I think it's very relevant and pertinent.

Kimberly Senior directed the Off-Broadway production at Lincoln Center that you were involved in. What is it like getting to revisit the work with her?

In the rehearsal room, she talks a lot about going deeper and opening wide things about the characters that maybe we touched on. Now, we're using this opportunity to expand those conversations in an even bigger way. Working with Kimberly, number one, is an opportunity to again go deeper and expand things about Jory and about the play. We have another opportunity to talk about it.

We also kind of have a short hand now. There's a real bond of trust that has been built over the last couple of years, having not just the success of the play but having the experience of doing it with her as a director, as an artist, as a visionary who has really strong ideas about how to tell stories, and who collaborates well with other actors. She's really an expert at what she does. I had a really great experience working with her at LCT3, so I'm really glad to be back with her for sure.

It has been over the two years since you played Jory at the Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center. As you have undoubtedly changed personally in this span of time, has Jory changed at all?

Yeah. I think she has. Because I've changed, she's changed. I'm definitely one of those actors that goes on the stage every night feeling like wherever I am, that's where Jory is. Of course, no one is the same from day to day. So, I would say, definitely, she's changed.

I think also she's changed because I have a different Isaac in Josh Radnor, who's really lovely. He's quite funny, different, and very experienced. He's been in the world in a different way than I have been. He's approaching his work on the character in a different way, so that means that I have to approach my character in a different way. So many things have grown and changed in the last two years besides just me in the play, [Laughs] so, yes.

My theory on being an actor is that we're just really vessels that have to remain open to allow these human beings to inhabit us. Not in a possession kind of thing, [Laughs] but we literally are vessels. We have to sit in the seat of the soul of these characters and allow them to live freely in our bodies and minds in a way. The stimuli has shifted a lot in the play, so the inspiration in how to bring Jory to life is going to be different for me this time around.

What about the play? Do you feel it has changed since its New York premiere?

There were a few little shifts that they made in London. Ayad (Akhtar) very much wants the play to be a living and a breathing piece of art. As we breathe life into it again, inherent to that, it sort of takes on a life of its own. He's courageous in that he doesn't mind making little tweaks and little shifts in it. The template obviously is the same. It won a Pulitzer, so there is no need for it to change.

It's a beautiful and wonderful story to tell, but he's quite masterful in how he's able to conjugate the chemistry of the actors and the artists who have come into it and make sure that the play is still reflecting a whole-the sum of all of its parts, and not just one forcing everybody to sort of fall in line. It has changed because of the different artists, set designers, lighting designers that have come to it. But, it has not changed a whole lot.

The cast for the Broadway production is different from the cast for the Lincoln Center production. What new approaches do your new castmates bring to the material?

That's a challenging question. It's like apples and oranges. It really is because each individual brings his or her own authenticity to the part. It's hard for me to compare.

That's fair.

In the development of a play, there are many artists who work on it from its earliest inception to where it is now. So, in many ways, its almost as if the play, the characters, the lighting, the sets, the costumes carry in them the DNA of every artist who has been a part of it and offered themselves up to the play. Every Jory that has come before me is a part of the Jory I do now. [Laughs]

It's an interesting thing that a playwright does when they write a story. He brings in a lot of people to help him really hear, see, and visualize his story. It's a challenge to compare it because all of us, the artists and actors especially, are in these characters as the Broadway audiences will see them. They will see it inherent to the work that we do on stage. They'll see everyone.

The play tackles relevant and important societal issues concerning race and the status of the post 9/11 American Muslim. How do you emotionally and mentally prepare to run through this gamut of heavy material night after night?

This is a great question! The thing is that I don't prepare for it. Every night [Laughs] that I go into this play, I think, "This is going to turn out beautifully. We're going to have my Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding tonight. Tonight is the night that we're going to do that." I'm pretty good at convincing myself of that. [Laughs] So, when the moment occurs that things do shift, I'm always in a little bit of denial. I think, "No, no, no, no. This is not anything. We're still going to have a good time tonight. We're still going to get to our banana pudding." As an ensemble when we decide that this night is over, there is an actual and truthful sense that we're going to have to shift in a way. All of us are going to have to shift to something that we're not really interested in doing in that moment. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

It feels like trickery! But, it's not actually. There can't be a sort of preparation for the heavy things that we actually get into because what Ayad (Akhtar) has created so beautifully is this entertaining conversation that many, many New Yorkers have every Friday or Saturday night in their homes. What they don't expect is that these conversations are going to get out of control.

I think that is also the genesis of what Ayad's particular experience with this night was. He was just hanging out with his wife and friends at the time, and whatever his experience was-I know it's not autobiographical, but it was part of the experience that he had-ended up being so unexpectedly emotional and fraught with angst for him. Because it was so unexpected it was impactful.

So, the answer to the question is that I try not to prepare myself for any of the drama that's actually going to happen.

You let it be completely organic and in that moment.

I do! I actually do! That is the real art of doing what we do as actors. Number one, it's easy to do in this play because it is so well written. Did you see the play? Were you able to see it at Lincoln Center?

No. I just moved to New York about 11 weeks ago.

Oh my God!

In trying to figure out what I was going to talk about in this interview, I found and read excerpts online.

Well, you'll have to come see it. On the page it is one thing, but when you actually see it in action, which is also the beauty of the rehearsal room, it's a very different experience.

But, that is the real art. It's easier with this piece because the play is so beautifully written. But as actor, what you are hoping is that you can have a truthful response on the stage that is in the moment with the other actors you are with because then the audience gets completely drawn in by the authentic response that they're having to the story. Then it becomes a real conversation between the actors and the audience because the audience does not feel the difference in their own emotional journey and the emotional journeys of the characters that they're watching. That's when they get really pulled in! But, that only happens through a really truthful handing over of your self, as an actor and as an artist, to a story. That's why I say there's not a lot of preparation. You just kind of have to strap yourself in and just go with it.

That's fascinating. In my research, I drew a lot of parallels between this play and Yasmina Reza's GOD OF CARNAGE, which is also a play the cast has to just strap themselves in for and just go with it. But, it seems like a more tonally serious GOD OF CARNAGE.

The dinner party makes it similar to GOD OF CARNAGE, sort of. I compare it more to Clifford Odets GOLDEN BOY. I also compare it more to Lynn Nottage's INTIMATE APPAREL. It is that great immigrant story that we talk about over and over again and that we have been talking about for decades on Broadway-the experience of the American immigrant, the American man who has ambition, who has aspirations, who lives the American dream, who has American values, and who wants to make that happen. What happens on that journey in the process of trying to make your dream come true? How do external circumstances fail you, or how do you fail them through your own fall from grace?

I think that when people do come see it they will see the parallels between Yasmina (Reza)'s GOD OF CARNAGE and our scene, but I also think they'll definitely feel the sort of universal message that Ayad (Akhtar) talks about in being a man whose ambition is laid bare. And, this man's incredible frailty is wide open for people to see in the play as well.

And they'll see DEATH OF A SALESMAN. People have compared it to other sort of classic plays from the late 20th century that deal with that whole journeyman experience. It's very prevalent, and I think they'll see that too. It's why the story is so universal. It's not just a story about a Muslim-American man. It's about a lot of different people in America.

With the hard-hitting discussions of racial profiling, religious faiths, and current geopolitical struggles, what do you personally hope the audience takes away from Disgraced?

I hope they take away... [Pauses] This is sort of what we do as actors. [Pauses] I come from a very specific actor DNA or pedigree. I went to NYU Graduate Acting, and a strong mentor of mine there was Zelda Fichandler, who is a sort of iconic figure in American theatre. She was very much the person who taught me that as actor you are here to serve humanity. It's about having an opportunity to show people who they are on stage in a real and truthful light. That is the greatest service that we give the audiences that come in. It's not about us. It's about them.

It's interesting because American theatre, certainly on Broadway, is so significant in an actor's journey because it does give us the biggest platform to shine a light on things and topics that we do consider to be very important. So, I'm hoping that people will come to this play, and, in service to this playwright, people will see in me no difference between themselves and me. I hope that we lose the artifice of skin color and gender. Sitting in that theater and in that seat, I hope that they actually do become connected long enough to feel no difference between me and them, and that that in some way permits them to create empathic conversations with other people in the world.

I think one of the greatest tools an actor has is to have enormous empathy for the character that they create and to show that, demonstrate that, in a real and truthful way to the audiences that sees them work. You want them to think, "Well, that person did... [Grumbles] But, I can sort of understand because this person did that, and that person did this, and that person was going in that direction!" They're having a conversation internally without them knowing it. They are creating an empathic understanding of what it means to exist as human beings.

So, the short answer [Laughs] is that my character's arch becomes their journey as well. They're enlightened. They're unburdened. They're opened up to a new way of thinking, not just about other people but really about themselves. That's so important to me as an actor. Those internal conversations begin and that's really the only way to create the change that any good piece of visual art does. That's what the painting "Juan de Pareja" by (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y) Velázquez, which Ayad (Akhtar) talks about in the play, does. Just internal conversation with the audience is what I'm hoping we can do.

When I was living in Houston, I saw Jeff Talbott's THE SUBMISSION at Black Lab Theatre. Because the show was so emotionally charged, the cast talked about decompressing after every show by hugging each other and telling one another that they loved each other. Disgraced is also an emotionally charged piece. How do you and the cast decompress after the each show?

We're still in rehearsals, but that's interesting. We do have runs, where we run through the play, pretty frequently during the week. It's pretty short. It's a jam-packed hour and 30 minutes. There's no intermission. There doesn't need to be an intermission. But, there are moments after a run where [Laughs] it's funny but we do sort of automatically hug each other. We do. [Laughs] I'll reach out and I'll give Josh (Radnor) an arm or shoulder rub. He'll come over and do a little rub on my shoulder or something like that. I'll give Gretchen (Mol) a big hug. That's so funny. We actually do that quite automatically. [Laughs]

Since you haven't seen the play, I don't want to tell you everything that happens. I want you to be totally blown away, but it is emotional. It is fraught with a lot of physicality, and not just negative physicality. We really do touch each other a lot on stage. We show affectionate moments between couples on stage, so when that negative intimacy happens on stage, you definitely feel it. You sense it in the room. To carry that forward in a truthful way, we give it emotional closure by [Laughing] rubbing each other's backs after the rehearsal is done.

Yeah. I had never thought about that. No drinking! No going out! I heard there was one actor that would go out after he did DEATH OF A SALESMAN or something, and he would have a big steak and a glass of scotch, bourbon, or whatever. That might happen. [Laughs] But, so far, we just go into automatic "Are you ok?" taking care of each other.

What advice would you offer to others hoping to make a career as a performer?

It's so hard because everybody's path is different. You know that, coming from Houston to New York City. Nobody's path is the same; you do what feels right for you in the moment.

I would say two things. One, get used to being uncomfortable. Get used to a level of discomfort of not knowing how to get to where you're going to get, what your next job is going to be, what your next opportunity is going to be, and what the trajectory of your career is going to look like. Get used to the sense of not knowing, and be ok with that. The other thing I would say is the best advice is really no advice. I could tell you what has made me successful on my path, on my journey, but, inherent to being an individual, your journey and your path is going to be different from mine. So, I would say just to really listen to your heart. That's so corny. It's so cliché.

I think it is a good advice though.

It is. But the thing I know for sure is that my truth isn't your truth because it is my truth.

Yeah.

So, I always cringe when people say, "Tell me how to do this," "Tell me how to make it," or "Tell me how to be successful." It's very tricky because I don't think anyone can tell you how you're going to be successful, even if you see in his or her career the template of what you want to do.

Be sure to catch the dinner party that all of your friends and most like the Tony voters will be talking about. Disgraced starts previews on September 27, 2014 and will officially open on October 23 at the Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), New York City, New York. Tickets, starting at $37.50, are currently on sale through January 18, 2015. Performances are Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday matinees at 2:00 p.m. will start on October 15. For tickets and more information please visit http://www.disgracedonbroadway.com or call either (212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250.