Samuel D. Hunter is Making Art Out of the Mundane

It's a good time to be Samuel D. Hunter. The award-winning playwright, who has brought us such acclaimed works as The Whale, A Bright New Boise, A Case for the Existence of God, and a dozen more, celebrates two major milestones this fall. 

He will officially make his West End writing debut in just days with Clarkston, led by Joe Locke. Then just weeks later, he'll make his Broadway debut with Little Bear Ridge Road- a play he specifically wrote for its star and director, Broadway icons Laurie Metcalf and Joe Mantello. It arrives on Broadway following an acclaimed run at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2024. 

Samuel took a break from rehearsals for Clarkston to check in with BroadwayWorld and tell us all about this exciting new play. 

What a month you're about to have, Sam!

It's a lot! Having them both on top of one another was like... it just happened! It's great, but it's overwhelming. So I'm here in London now, and we open on the 25th. And then I go back the next day. And then understudy rehearsals will have started already. So I'm coming right as sort of things are ramping up. 

I was so surprised realizing that this is going to be your Broadway debut. I feel like you've been around forever...

Yes, a lot of people have been saying that. I mean, this is my 12th or 13th play in New York, I think. It's obviously not something I've been avoiding, but in all the off-Broadway stuff that I've done, I've never done an MTC or Roundabout play, where they have a Broadway space that they can move it to, though I've been a signature resident for so long at this point. So yeah, it was never in the cards, but, I also just love off-Broadway, so I wasn't complaining about it! But, it feels great. I'm really excited about it.

Can you take me back to when you wrote it and I guess why or what those inspirations were to write this one? 

The inspiration for it was that I wanted to write a play about watching television. The last few plays in mind, I think I've been interested in how I can make things that are very untheatrical, theatrical. So, two guys in the cubicle was A Case For the Existence of God, or in Grangeville, it's a series of phone calls and Zooms for the first big chunk of the play. With this one, there was just something about watching television... which was an idea I actually had before the pandemic, but then the pandemic hit. We were all retreating to our screens and it kind of gained a new relevance.

But really the thing that pushed me to write it was Joe Mantello and Laurie Metcalf approaching me and saying, "Would you write a play for us?" It really was that simple. They wanted to do a play at Steppenwolf. They had looked through a couple older plays, but none of them really jumped out for various reasons. And so then they had this idea of commissioning a writer to do it. Then they came to me.

I was in tech at Signature for revival of A Bright New Boise and I just met both of them for the very first time in the Signature Theater lobby. They were like, "Do you have an idea?" and I said, "Ugh, I think I want to write a play about watching television?" And to their credit they were like... "okay!" 

That is crazy. Is this a common trajectory for your plays?

This has been the most concrete version of truly writing for someone. I sometimes have actors in mind when I write plays. I remember when I wrote A Bright New Boise, I was writing it firmly for Andrew Garman in my head... but this was before I'd even talked to him about it. But developing this with Laurie and Joe has been a dream. I think we we have a similar sensibility. We have a similar sense of humor. So it was all just really good. 

What were those rehearsals like at Steppenwolf?

It was really joyful! One of my favorite things became writing laugh lines for Laurie and delivering them to her in secret so she could just toss them out in front of everybody to see if they worked. It was very, very collaborative. I'm not a precious writer, so for them, they could say, "I don't think this scene works," and I could say, "Okay!" I think they maybe appreciated the fact that I was really willing to get in there with them.

They've also worked together so much that I'm sure their short-hand helped too?

Honestly, I was nervous entering into such an established collaboration. I think this is their seventh play they've done together. But they just were so generous with me and just welcomed me in. 

What are you hoping that this play will make audiences walk away feeling?

You know, I never write a play thinking the play has like, a thesis statement. You know what I mean? I think what I'm after with every single play is just catharsis. Just the experience of having gone through something that is hopefully profound. But also, I don't think the play is humorless by any means. I wrote a lot of comedy for Laurie! I'm just really after hopefully giving people something that hits them in the gut. 

What do you think will most surprise audiences about this play? 

Hopefully, I think probably given the subject matter, [they'll be most surprised by] how funny it is. I would imagine that's what's to be the most surprising thing for them. 

Little Bear Ridge Road will begin previews at the Booth Theatre on October 7 and will open on October 30, 2025.

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