Video: PURPOSE Cast Talks 'Genius' Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins & More on TAMRON HALL
The new play is now running at the Hayes Theatre.
By: Josh Sharpe Apr. 18, 2025
This week, Purpose stars LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Kara Young, and Alana Arenas visited the Tamron Hall Show to chat about the new hit Broadway play, now running at the Hayes Theatre.
On the show, Jackson shared her experience of reading the script for the first time, which is written by Tony Award-winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. "We say 'genius' a lot of times lightly, but I'm not saying it lightly," the performer noted.
Young discussed returning to Broadway, following three consecutive Tony nominations, which included a win for Purlie Victorious. "I feel so grateful to come back to the stage this season, especially in this play with this company."
For Arenas, she is making her Broadway debut in Purpose, having first appeared in the play at Chicago's prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre. "[It] is so special to know that so many people are getting to know me as an artist in a completely different city...I'm using the same skill set to be the same person that I was, just in a different setting." Watch the full conversation now!
The play, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, features Two-time Tony Award nominee LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennix, Steppenwolf ensemble member Jon Michael Hill, Steppenwolf ensemble member and Co-Artistic Director Glenn Davis, Steppenwolf Ensemble member Alana Arenas, and Tony Award winner Kara Young.
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.
