Cast and Creative Team Set for PURPOSE at The Huntington
The cast features Ezra Knight as Solomon Jasper; Phyllis Yvonne Stickney as Claudine Jasper and more.
The Huntington has revealed the cast and creative team of Purpose, a sharp family drama by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate, An Octoroon) and directed by Josiah Davis (Lifted). Purpose runs at The Huntington from Thursday, September 10 – Sunday, October 11, 2026 at the Calderwood Pavilion.
Purpose is the explosive and wildly entertaining new play from Tony Award winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, diving headlong into the life of a prominent and influential political dynasty. Encircled by civil rights leaders, pastors, and congressmen for decades, the Jasper family is a foundational pillar of Black American society. That is, until their youngest son returns home with an unexpected dinner guest, and their carefully curated existence begins to fracture.
Hot from a Tony Award-winning production on Broadway, a fresh staging of Purpose comes to The Huntington to kick of its 45th season. Huntington Norma Jean Calderwood Artistic Director Loretta Greco shares, “There is no better way to launch this thrilling new season than with the brilliant Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whom we are welcoming to The Huntington for the first time, with his stunning play Purpose!
Purpose was originally commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Company and workshopped at the Colorado New Play Festival in 2019. Directed by Phylicia Rashad, it premiered at the Steppenwolf in 2024 and transferred to Broadway in the 2024/25 season, winning the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Reflecting tensions between public legacy and private reality, Purpose is a sharp, deeply human story about what we inherit, what we hide, and how hard it is to truly love ourselves alongside the people who know us best.
This production marks the first time Jacobs-Jenkins’ work is being produced at The Huntington. Boston audiences may recognize his work from recent productions on other local stages in the mid 2010s, such as Appropriate at SpeakEasy Stage and An Octoroon at Company One and ArtsEmerson.
Director Josiah Davis most recently collaborated with The Huntington on the in-process presentations of Mfoniso Udofia’s Lifted (the seventh play in Boston’s acclaimed Ufot Family Cycle). Through very different pathways, themes of family and legacy were delved into during that dynamic run as well.
Unique to this production, audience engagement programming for Purpose is presented in partnership with community partner Embrace Boston. Embrace Boston is a racial justice non-profit organization founded in 2017 that works at the intersection of arts, culture, research, and policy to dismantle structural racism and build an equitable, radically inclusive community. Together, The Huntington and Embrace Boston will offer audience engagement experiences and community programming inspired by Purpose, enriching conversations sparked by the production.
The cast of Purpose includes: Ezra Knight stars as Solomon Jasper, father (Othello and Mean Girls on Broadway; Toni Stone Off-Broadway); Phyllis Yvonne Stickney as Claudine Jasper, mother (Tartuffe and Big Momma and ‘Nem Off-Broadway; Malcolm X); Omari K. Chancellor as Nazareth Jasper, youngest son (Amani Off-Broadway; Fences at The Old Globe; Love Story on FX); Ugo Chukwu as Solomon “Junior” Jasper, oldest son (Ripcord at The Huntington; Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! at Soho Rep; the Broadway national tour of Oklahoma!); MarHadoo Effeh as Morgan Jasper, wife of Solomon Jr. (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at SpeakEasy Stage; Gem of the Ocean at Actors’ Shakespeare Project; Salesman on Amazon Prime); and Kalyne Coleman as Aziza Houston, friend of Nazareth (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding on Broadway; Four Off-Broadway; Interview with the Vampire on AMC).
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