Video: Go Behind the Scenes of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' PURPOSE at The Huntington
Director Josiah Davis and cast members Ezra Knight, Omari K. Chancellor and Kalyne Ashley Coleman discuss the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
Go behind the scenes of The Huntington's production of Purpose, the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Watch the video!
Director Josiah Davis and cast members Ezra Knight, Omari K. Chancellor and Kalyne Ashley Coleman offer a look inside the new production and discuss Jacobs-Jenkins' family drama. The video was filmed and edited by Mike Kligerman of Kligerman Productions.
Purpose runs September 10 through October 11, 2026 at The Huntington's Calderwood Pavilion.
The play centers on the Jasper family, a prominent Black American family whose lives have long intersected with civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. When the family's youngest son returns home with an unexpected dinner guest, their carefully maintained existence begins to fracture, exposing tensions between public legacy and private reality.
The Huntington production marks the first time Jacobs-Jenkins' work has been produced by the company and launches its 45th season. Davis previously collaborated with The Huntington on in-process presentations of Mfoniso Udofia's Lifted, the seventh play in the Ufot Family Cycle.
Purpose was originally commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Company and premiered there in 2024 in a production directed by Phylicia Rashad. The production subsequently transferred to Broadway, where the play won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The Huntington cast features Ezra Knight as Solomon Jasper, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney as Claudine Jasper, Omari K. Chancellor as Nazareth Jasper, Ugo Chukwu as Solomon “Junior” Jasper, MarHadoo Effeh as Morgan Jasper and Kalyne Ashley Coleman as Aziza Houston.
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