Interview: LaTanya Richardson Jackson Has Taken on One Mother of a Role in PURPOSE

If you think your family dinner table conversation is intense, just wait until you meet the Jaspers- the family at the center of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' explosive new play, Purpose.  The production, directed by Tony winner Phylicia Rashad, opened on Broadway in March following a record-breaking run at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. 

For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black political power and familial duty.

The indomitable matriarch is played by none other than the great LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who returns to the stage after producing last year's Tony-nominated Purlie Victorious and directing the Tony-nominated The Piano Lesson in the previous season. BroadwayWorld checked in with LaTanya to learn about her journey with the play so far, find out who inspires her character, and so much more. 

You're opening night is behind you. You've been in performances for almost two months now. How is it going at The Hayes? 

It's 500 million times better. When we started previews, we were just really getting into the play. I know that some of the cast had done it before, but still we were a new company gelling.  And you need to know that the word on the street is the truth, which is that we were getting new pages every day. One day we got 26 pages! This play didn't lock until the Saturday before we opened and we opened on a Monday. We were still doing new lines and even new sections until then. It has been an extraordinary experience for me... very unorthodox and certainly different to what I'm used to doing. I haven't done stuff like this since I was... I don't know! [Laughs] Since I think I first came to New York 100 years ago! 

I spoke with Glenn Davis at the start of previews and he was telling me about how Branden was still perfecting every word and tailoring every line to each of you. That must have been such a wild experience. 

It was beyond wild! I mean, it would have been different if we hadn't been in previews, but you get out at night and go, "Is this the right line?" or better still, "What is the line?" It was exciting and thrilling and there were such exhilarating colors. Branden is so prolific. He's got so many things going on in that little crayon box. 

Truly. What a relief it must be that it's frozen now... 

Yes, and you what has happened? An ensemble depends on each other anyway, but this particular situation, we truly had to depend on each other because of the lines and because how we were considering moving the scenes. We had to really depend on each other and it made us, the family, truly gel. 

This is an extraordinary company.  I am so impressed with these young people. They are truly extraordinary- especially Jon Michael Hill, who has to stand there from the beginning and just talk for three hours.  

Do you feel like the language is living inside of you now? 

Definitely. And I love it. I think that Branden is a genius of an extraordinary caliber. I am overjoyed and overwhelmed to, at this age in particular, be a part of something that is so massive and genius. And yes, it lives inside all of us, but 'Claudine' lives inside me. I look in the mirror before I go on the stage and I say, "Oh hey, welcome. I see you!"  

I feel like watching Branden's plays is like watching Shakespeare. His writing is truly poetry...

I know what you mean. And you know the story is also very Greek. We know this story. Maybe it didn't happen to you, but I guarantee you, you've heard the story happen before. The relationships between the parents, or even everybody has their own crazy story about Thanksgiving. This isn't a Thanksgiving play, but it's certainly happening around a dinner table. 

I'd love to talk a little bit more about 'Claudine'. You bring so much depth to this character and she goes on such a ride. What are some of the challenges you faced in bringing her to life?

In finding the nuances of how a woman of her caliber, who had to deal with a complete movement, and a man who was an idol and in charge of a civil rights movement. How do you remain normal? How do you create a family and how do you stay in charge at home?  I think of so many  genius people like Winnie Mandela and Coretta Scott King and Mrs. Abernathy.  I thought about these woman and about my family, I thought about my mom and my grandparents. I thought about all of the women who, when I was growing up, I was privy to having influenced me. How did they go about their daily life? I tried to infuse an amalgam of all of them, including myself, into 'Claudine.'

But I also looked at her particular situation. 'Claudine' is also dealing with sons who have some challenges. There are a lot of complexities with 'Claudine'- also with her husband! Theres' a lot of pressure and a lot that she has to contend with as a woman. So in trying to put all of that in, I couldn't make her angry the whole time. I try to figure out the truth of how we actually navigate these particular situations. 

You and Kara Young were the only new additions to the cast for Broadway. What was that like entering a company that was already so comfortable with each other? 

They were and also, they are all a part of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. They know each other in a completely different way. Kara and I were just in love with each other from the start. And you know, the Bible says, perfect love casts out fear. So we just became perfect love in the room. They were very inviting to us and they opened their arms and welcomed us in such a way.  Everybody was just assuming the best for us. 

There are so many great moments in this play that incite an audible reaction from the audience. You have a particularly awesome moment with Alana [Arenas] that I won't give away...

You know, we have to do a fight call every night for that moment! You have to put the mechanics of it in your body so that you have the memory of how to execute it. Let me tell you, this is one of the few shows that runs almost three hours that you're not sitting there backstage looking at the clock.

Can we talk a little bit more about Phylicia? How has your relationship with her grown in this process? 

I always had the utmost respect for her work. I think she always had that strange alchemy between creativity and what is printed. Whenever I have watched her work, she never overshot what the playwright's intentions were. I never watched her and thought, "Oh, she's acting now." She's an easy actor to watch. So I was looking forward to  working with her because I can be just the opposite... I can be too much to watch! So I was happy that she might be able to help me calm down. [Laughs] For me,  she was that guiding hand,  that guiding force for all of us. She helped us  to find  the truth in living in those situations in each scene. 

You have also directed, produced... you've done it all. What is it that you love most about working in the theater?

The theater for me is alive. I can just come in and be loud. Let's find the colors. I love creativity and I love creative people. The theater has  given me that. It has given me that kind of home and that kind of nurturing. I have never not felt at home- even when I was doing pieces that I questioned why I was in them-  there was still something there in the camaraderie of the work. I enjoy the people; I enjoy knowing that I'm a part of a community  that cares about culture and what people have been before us. 

This is all-inclusive in the medium- in directing and acting and producing. It's all a part of this goulash. I like art. I was just born with it- like Lady Gaga says, I was born this way.  The fact that God has allowed me to live inside of it and really flourish is always every day a reason to get up and not look at the gray, but look at the other colors that I'm bringing. 

You are about halfway through the run of Purpose now. What are you most looking forward to in the months ahead?

I love this play, but I know we all have to leave. I would do it at a moment's turn again,  as long as I wasn't too old. [Laughs] It's something that I'm super proud of! I'm proud of everything I do, but I am really proud of this.  

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