Feature: PRIMARY TRUST at Westport Country Playhouse
Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eboni Booth is directed by Logan Vaughn
The Westport Country Playhouse continues to live up to its promise of being “A historic theater with powerful, one-of-a-kind experiences.” On April 14th, the Playhouse will present Eboni Booth’s 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Primary Trust, a dramedy story about courage, change, and building relationships.
In Primary Trust, Kenneth (played by Alphonso Walker Jr.) is a 38-year-old African American man who has worked all his life in a bookstore in a fictional suburb of Rochester, New York. When the store closes, he thinks about applying for a new job at Primary Trust Bank. But this is not as easy for Kenneth as it is for others who have been laid off from work. Kenneth is emotionally bruised and often isolated and is forced to confront the world, which he has avoided for so long. He has an imaginary friend, Bert (Lance Coadie Williams) to help him on his journey of self-discovery. The play also features other characters, played by Greg Stuhr and Jasminn Johnson, who help him on this journey.
Eboni Booth and director Logan Vaughn share their vision of Primary Trust with BroadwayWorld.com. Both women started out as performers but developed complementary interests and skills in theater.
Booth recalls spending all her 20s and most of her 30s trying to land acting roles and then supplementing her income by working in bars and restaurants. “I felt really far from my dreams, I was drinking too much, and I felt really unmoored and lonely,” she said. “Years later, when I sat down to write a play, I found myself tapping into that time in my life when I needed so much from other people but wasn't sure how to go about getting it.”
When Logan served as an associate artistic director at Ojai Playwrights Conference, Booth and director Knud Adams were developing Primary Trust. Logan’s immediate response was, “This is one of the most special stories I’ve ever encountered. It felt both radical and profound to experience this story through the lens of Ken—a Black man. I knew it would create space for, and resonate with, so many men like him, especially men of color. To now return to the play as a director feels like a beautiful and unexpected gift.”
To BroadwayWorld, it sounds as if many people can relate to Kenneth because of the seismic changes in work, society, and politics since the beginning of this decade. There is a lot more to Kenneth’s background, though, and Booth hopes that audiences will find meaning in Primary Trust by recognizing some of Kenneth’s struggles in their own lives. She says, “When I watch something, I find myself investing in stories that help me understand more about the world and make me feel less lonely. I think maybe a lot of us carry around some solitude. We sit with an internal quiet that can make it hard to reach out to other people or get our needs met.” Vaughn would like audiences to feel “a deep sense of the power of radical love and compassion -- and an understanding of the necessity, and possibility, of healing our past wounds so that we might live more freely-boldly with joy.” To us it sounds like a perfect pairing of a playwright and a director.
We were curious how this team came about. Vaugh said that there are many ways for a play to be matched with a director. “For me, because my work is largely rooted in new play development, my relationship to a piece usually begins with the playwright,” she explained. “It’s been relatively rare in my career to direct a play that has already had a previous life or production, so when Westport’s Artistic Director Mark Shanahan approached me about Primary Trust, I was genuinely thrilled by the opportunity to approach this play as a director and dream into its world.”
We knew the cast would be terrific because the Westport Playhouse always, always, always has performers who are perfect for their roles. Vaughn said that casting roles is “a true exchange of ideas and imagination, with the goal of challenging and inspiring each other around who these actors could be and what they might bring to the roles. Casting directors are artists in their own right, and the best of them are visionaries.” But does the living playwright have a say, too? Sometimes, the playwright may no longer be living. Still, it’s the director who does indeed make the final decision about casting. All this comes after in-person auditions, tapes actors send in, and sometimes direct offers. What makes the casting successful is that the casting director and producers feel genuinely excited by the final cast. That shared enthusiasm helps energize the entire company as you move into production.” And this doesn’t even include the creative team for the set design, costumes, sound, lighting, and other things behind the scenes that make a play run smoothly.
This is a lot to think about when you see any show, but it is more significant when you’re seeing a play that’s relatively new because there’s little chance of comparing it to other productions. That said, the theater environment everywhere has changed. Many theaters are struggling because of continual budget cuts and ordinary donors who are besieged by everyday expenses that keep rising. Booth said, “I was very, very lucky to have my first production right before Covid shut theaters down.” Despite the difficulties that theaters are facing, she encourages new playwrights to finish what they start. BroadwayWorld believes that people are hardwired for entertainment, especially live theater because the connection between the audience and creative team is so compelling, whether the play is new or a reimagined classic.
We hope to see more works by Eboni Booth and Logan Vaughn. Booth hasn’t yet written a part for herself in a play. She spent a lot of time in the Northeast, and finds inspiration in the changing landscape and changes in the towns and small cities. “That relationship between geography and culture is interesting to me -- how people adapt, or don't, to their environments.” Vaughn was a professional dancer for 15 years and she considers movement and choreography an essential part of a play, whether it’s a musical or not.
Primary Trust runs from April 14th through May 2nd. The Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court in Westport. Call 203) 227-4177 or visit www.westportplayhouse.org.
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