Interview: Steve H Broadnax III of ME AND THE DEVIL at Arkansas Repertory Theatre

Currently on stage at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre through Sunday, June 8, is the World Premiere of ME AND THE DEVIL, written and directed by the Rep’s new Artistic Director, Steve H. Broadnax III. Described as his “love note to the South,” the production pulses with blues, brims with drama, and drips with decadence—everything we love in a show. A few days before opening night, we had the privelege to get to know this powerhouse artist.

BWW: So you're the new artistic director. 

Steve H. Broadnax III: I'm the new artistic director of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.  

BWW: That is so awesome!  

Steve: It is pretty awesome. I’m still pinching myself.  

BWW: You're from here, though.  

Steve: Born and raised.  

BWW: I saw that you're in the Hall of Fame.  

Steve: Yup. I was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame last year.  

BWW: That is so cool.  

Steve: Yeah, it is. I'm very blessed.  

BWW: How did you get nominated? How does that work?  

Steve: The nominations come from a board or a committee that they have to submit and select. So you know, from the work that I've been doing over the years and outside of Arkansas, my Broadway show, working around the country and internationally, they voted me. 

BWW: They were like – you the man! That’s amazing! 

Steve: I think so.  

BWW: Ok, I need some background about how this all came to be. When were you here? When did you move? 

Steve: I was here until ‘93, I think. I was born and raised here. I went to elementary and junior high, and I went to Parkview High School Arts Magnet here in town. Then I went to college in St. Louis for my undergrad, Webster University Conservatory, where I majored in musical theater. While studying musical theater was my primary focus, I also studied directing, writing, and dance along with acting and musical theater.   

BWW: As you should. 

Steve: Ohh yeah, all of it. Then I went from St. Louis to working professionally in the region, Midwest region. I worked at Saint Louis Rep, Saint Louis Black Rep. I've worked at the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, and I did a couple of productions at the Muny before I went back to school. 

BWW: Where was that?  

Steve: So, I went to get my graduate degree at Penn State in acting, but while always studying, I kept writing, kept directing, and left there and went to New York City. Now, interesting enough, when I was in St. Louis, I was on tour a lot and had to have a series of vocal surgeries. I've had seven surgeries on my vocal chords.  

BWW: Nodes? 

Steve: Polyps. My ENT was like ‘it's your personality and you don't stop working. You are an overdoer. You have to be quiet.’   

BWW: And you’re like...I caaaaaan’t!  

Steve: I can’t! So, I came home from New York City to recuperate, because I was miserable in New York because I couldn’t do anything. After surgery, you can't talk for the first 24 hours. Then the first week you get five minutes and then the second week you get 10 minutes a day. So I made my way back home to Arkansas to recoop, and thought I'll make my way back to New York after I heal completely. But while I was here, I stayed with family. I was raised by my grandmother, Mary-Louise Williams, who is also an Arkansas Hall of Famer. She was good. So this is probably the first relative/family unit who are both inducted into the Hall of Fame. She was honored for education and her activism and her political work around the state. 

BWW: That is wonderful! 

Steve: Yeah. So she's 97 now, still here. She was at the show preview last night.  

BWW: Aaaawwww 

Steve: Ok, so me thinking I was here to just recuperate, a family friend said ‘UAPB is looking for a theater director. They have a theater department and it's about to go down, and if they haven't found anybody, they are going to shut that department down.’ So honestly, I was thinking, ‘I'll go to UAPB. I was kind of coerced to go and interview, but did since I was here for a little bit and thought I’ll be here for a semester and make a little money and then go back to New York City... three years later.  

BWW: Ohhhh OK. 

Steve: So I was there for three years, but during that time, I was able to really continue my foundation as director/writer because we (UAPB Theatre) didn't have any money for the budget of that department. Everything had to be generated through me. That means I directed everything. I started to write the things or do things that have open domain, because I... 

BWW:  didn't have any money  

Steve: Right. So during the third year, we participated in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, and while there, we, UAPB, became the first college in Arkansas to be invited to the Kennedy Center. Arkansas never had a school to go to the Kennedy Center and perform. That's the top award when you compete against colleges in the region, and we went all the way to the top to the Kennedy Center with a show that I conceived with the students.  

BWW: Fabulous! 

Steve: So we did that, we went to the Kennedy Center, and that brought us on tour. There were other places that were asking us to go around like Seattle and Texas. Different people were like ‘we love this show, we saw it at the festival, and we would love to do it.’  So, we then came here to The Rep, and they did a special event for us, and we did a run here at the Rep. It was so successful we transferred it to Robinson Center, and we did a couple of nights at Robinson. But then Penn State called. All that attention at the Kennedy Center because we won a lot of awards...for Best Production, Best everything.... they called me back and was like, ‘hey, we hear you're doing great things in Arkansas. We want you to bring that back to Penn State. Would you be interested in coming back as a professor?’  

BWW: Nice 

Steve: And in my mind, I thought that gets me closer to New York, because I thought that I would be here for a semester and ended up being here three years, but things were going well, you know what I mean? But then I was like, well, I wanna go back to New York. So, I went to Penn State thinking I'll do this maybe for a year..... 19 years later. 

BWW: Ohh, my goodness.  

Steve: And now I'm a tenure full time professor at Penn State University and the head of the MFA directing program.  

BWW: Congratulations! 

Steve: So, when I got back, my work started to go around. I started to Associate Direct with some bigger names. Kamilah Forbes, who's right now over the Apollo Theater, is a director as well. She has a show coming on Broadway next year. So, I was her associate, and she was having a baby at the time and needed to stop some of her directing gigs. Since I was the associate, I moved up, and the Apollo was my first New York show. Then my career just went from that show -- The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Ensemble Studio in New York. Then I started to do regionally and work with different East Coast writers like Dominique Morisseau who is infamous now and Katori Hall who's from Memphis, TN. But these are, you know, Pulitzer Prize winning, award-winning writers that I was working with, and it just grew from there.  

BWW: You do work a lot! 

Steve: But then I got a call one day. I was directing many things, my name got around, and I'll never forget -- I was eating breakfast one day in Pennsylvania, and I got a call that said ‘hey, we heard your name. We have this Broadway show that's coming up.’ Taye Diggs was the original director of Thoughts of a Colored Man, and he had his TV show (All AMerican)  going second season. His schedule didn't work out, so they were looking for a new director. They said ‘Your name is in the mix. We want you to meet the playwright.’ And I'm saying ‘Oh my God.’ They were interested because a lot of people in their team knew my work and wanted me to come for an interview. I met with the writer, and that’s how I got my first Broadway show. From there things just continued to open because once you, you know, have a Broadway credit under your name, then the doors open. I’ve worked in most major institutions around the country, like I just did a show that closed last week at the Steppenwolf in Chicago. In the fall, I will do a show at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago. It's a new musical that's headed to New York City, hopefully Broadway, starring the music of Tom Morello. He's a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. I just finished a show at the Globe, which was one of the best selling ticketed shows of all time by Branden Jacob Jenkins. So I have been blessed. I've had New York Times critics picked three times. So things just keep going going going, but I’m from right here. 

BWW: That is inspiring, but also....a lot.  

Steve: Yeah. And then last year The Rep called and said ‘I want to take you out of retirement. We have a role in August Wilson’s Jitney, we want you to be in it.’ And I was like ‘Yeah yeah, I would love to.’ You know my major has been in acting, so I was like ‘absolutely, that would be fun to get back in acting.’ So, I came back last summer to be an actor. 

BWW: I saw Jitney. 

Steve: Did you see it with me? You may not, because I caught COVID and so the last like four shows had an understudy. Anyway, I was in that, and they talked to me about becoming the Artistic Director. I met Ken-Matt Martin, who was the Iterim Artistic Director, and they asked me if I would I be interested? I met with the Arkansas Repertory Theaters board of directors here at the Rep and was honored that they asked if would I come back and be the new Artistic Director.... and I said ‘of course.’ 

BWW: So as the new Artistic Director, what are your roles? What are you doing? 

Steve: This season, I am using the artistic lens towards the future. Next year is our 50th season. Very few theaters in the country have reached 50 years -- We are one of them. The Steppenwolf in Chicago just turned 50 this season. The Goodman, for example, I think they either turned 100 or they are going into the hundredth season, but very few theaters across the country have reached 50 years. I want to build on the legacy that was here. There was  Cliff Baker, who was the first Artistic Director, followed by Bob Hupp, and others. I'm the first person of color to ever be the Artistic Director here outside of Ken Matt Martin who was the Interim. So, I want to build upon the tradition that the people before me set. Arkansas Rep is the Flagship in Arkansas professional theatre, and I want to stand on our foundation, but evolve us and expand us so we can be here for another 50 more years. American theater has changed, period, around the country, so we will focus on how we evolve with the quality and the standard of what we want to be, which is remaining the Flagship.   

BWW: Right 

Steve: When I was growing up here in the Rock, it was Murry's Dinner Playhouse and The Rep. Those were kind of like the only two theaters in the city. But now we have... 

BWW: So many... 

Steve: Right? But I still remain and claim that we are the Flagship of professional theater in the state of Arkansas. We have many community theaters in our area, which we support and want them to grow as well, but we are the Flagship. So we will keep that quality, expanse to the new, be inclusive and diverse and a place for quality work, new works, classic works, and also let it be a lens of our region of the South. This season, we have Me and the Devil -- my love note to the South. We also have Glass Menagerie, which is, again, a southern play, so I always want the region to see themselves, and it to truly represent the community that we live in.  

BWW: I like that. So tell me about Me and the Devil.  

Steve: Yes, Me and the Devil is my love note to the South. It is based off of the folklore of a Blues man who went to the crossroads to sell his soul to the devil to be the greatest Blues man that ever lived. It’s building on that iconography of that folklore, but I'm taking it and expanding it, and exploring the ideology about what is destined for your life where nothing or no one can shift and change it, and though you may have trials and obstacles, the devil himself cannot detour or take away. My inspirations were based on the folklore of Robert Johnson and the Crossroads and Daniel Webster and the Devil.  

BWW: Well I can’t wait. It sounds like a lot of fun. 

Steve: It is a lot of fun. I like me some cool blues on an Arkansas summer night. I think you will be able to see our city, our culture, our place where Blues were formed here in the Delta area. So I'm excited to share with the city to see themselves and celebrate the south. 

BWW: Have you done this one before?  

Steve: Yep. Interesting enough. When I graduated from Penn State as an actor, it was my thesis. I had to create a one man show, and this is what I did. So, imagine what you're going to see, I played everything. It was a one man show, and it was like, 20, 25 minutes. I wrote it with my professor Charles Dumas at Penn State. So, I did that as my thesis and actually took that show to Edinburgh and toured at Edinburgh, Scotland. Then I did the show at the French festival, and then I toured around Pennsylvania. That was when I was in grad school. 

BWW: Right 

Steve: I got away from it, COVID hit, and everybody was home, and what a lot of theaters were doing was filming. If you remember, they had offers online that sent you links. So, a theater in Philly called The Lantern wanted to hire me to do a film, but it was something that they couldn't get the rights to because of another theater, so they asked if I  had something else? Being home every day. I was cleaning up boxes, old boxes, and I found my script for grad school, and I was like, ‘ohh, wow, I haven't seen this in years.’ So, I told them I had a script I found that I did in grad school and asked if they were interested. They read it and liked it. They hired an actor because I wanted to direct it, and so there is a film version of it called RL at the Crossroads. Then I sent it to Will and told him I really wanted to bring it to the Arkansas Rep -- It is my love note to the South. And Will was like ‘I want to encourage you to expand with it. I wanna see it become full length.’ So then I rewrote it, and it's what you're seeing now, Me and the Devil.  

BWW: So will this be the first showing of the full show?  

Steve: Yep, We're super excited. Yesterday was our first audience to ever get in front of it, and it was really well received. I'm very honored at all the compliments. We had an arousing standing ovation last night, and I think people are going to really, really responding to it. I'm excited for more, but it's changing. Like literally before I met with you, I added a new scene and shifted things.  The audience to me is the last cast member, so we have three days, four days of previews. We rehearse during the day, then I sit with the audience to see what’s landing, what’s not landing. So, they just got new pages today. We'll do them tonight.  

BWW: Bless them. 

Steve: I’ll see how that goes. Tomorrow morning I'll take notes and come back and maybe have some changes like yesterday. I added a brand new song, and I’ll keep shifting and learning from the audience up to opening night, where I’ll have to freeze it and can’t change it. 

BWW: Well I can’t wait! What little I heard through the lobby door sounded amazing!

2025 SummerStage Season

Me & the Devil | May 27 – June 8

God of Carnage | June 17-29

Hair | July 8-27

The Amen Corner | August 5-17

The Glass Menagerie | September 2-14

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