Purpose
September 10 - October 11, 2026
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Josiah Davis
Approximate Run Time: 2 hours, 50 minutes including one 10 minute intermission
Content Advisories: Please note this production contains the use of theatrical haze, dry ice, occasional bursts of bright light, and the use of a gunshot in the second act.
Click here for content advisories addressing thematic elements →
Notable Dates:
Press Opening: 9/16 at 7:00 pm
Open Captions – Tuesday, September 29th, 2026 @ 7 PM→
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About the play:
WINNER! Tony Award for Best Play
WINNER! Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize and a smash hit on Broadway, Purpose is the explosive and wildly entertaining new play from Tony 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. Don’t miss this searing and hilarious exploration of faith, class, ambition, and heritage — what The Washington Post called “a feast of jaw-dropping tea and riveting food for thought.”
How the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning ‘Purpose’ uses the traditional family drama to upend expectations
“…in the hands of playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the oldest tricks in the book somehow feel completely novel. While the acclaimed dramatist seems comfortable sitting squarely within genre, he’s also unafraid to infuse that familiar framework with his signature, singular voice. The result is a weighty and tightly wrought drama that also happens to be pretty hilarious.”
Ezra Knight on His Leading Role in The Huntington’s Upcoming Production of “Purpose”
“As an actor, that’s the feast of what acting is about — to play the complexity, the contradictions, the idiosyncratic elements of the character. Solomon Jasper has all of those things.”
The incendiary family drama ‘Purpose’ wrestles with generational conflict, legacy and identity within an elite Black political dynasty
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, now onstage at the Huntington theater, centers on a Civil Rights icon and his fractious family sparring with each other in one explosive weekend.
Cast & Creative Team:
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Playwright
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a writer and theatre artist whose plays include Purpose, Appropriate, The Comeuppance, Girls, Everybody, War, Gloria, Appropriate, An Octoroon, and Neighbors. He is a Professor in the Practice at Yale University and serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild council. He has been the recipient of two Tony awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award.
Josiah Davis
Director
Josiah Davis
Josiah Davis is a multidisciplinary artist. A director, choreographer, designer, and performer, his work intersects expressive movement, live music, emerging technology, and ritual to breathe new life into storytelling. He asks: How do we create space for people to be in alignment while being pulled apart by invisible systems? Josiah is a graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the Brown/Trinity MFA Directing Program (2020). He is a Princess Grace Award Honoraria recipient, a New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellow, a National Black Theatre “Soul” Directing Resident, the recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing Award, a Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, and the Associate Artistic Director of the On the Verge Theatre Festival (Santa Barbara).
Phyllis Yvonne Stickney
Claudine Jasper
Phyllis Yvonne Stickney
Phyllis Yvonne Stickney (she/her) Off Broadway: Tartuffe [AUDELCO Award]; Big Momma and ‘Nem [AUDELCO Award]. Regional: A Raisin in the Sun (Arkansas Repertory Theatre).
Ezra Knight
Solomon Jasper
Ezra Knight
Ezra Knight (he/him) Broadway: Othello, Mean Girls, Pretty Woman, Cymbeline. Off Broadway: This Land Was Made, Coal Country, Toni Stone, Merchant of Venice, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, King Lear. Regional: A View From The Bridge, Playing the Assassin, The Tempest, The Darker Face of the Earth.
Ugo Chukwu
Solomon "Junior" Jasper
Ugo Chukwu
Ugo Chukwu (he/him) The Huntington: Ripcord. Off Broadway: Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! (Soho Rep); Usus (Clubbed Thumb); Lunch Bunch (Play Company/Clubbed Thumb); What To Send Up When It Goes Down (Playwrights Horizon/Movement Theater); [Porto] (WP Theater/Bushwick Starr/New Georges); Today is my Birthday (Page 73); Do You Feel Anger (Vineyard).
MarHadoo Effeh
Morgan Jasper
MarHadoo Effeh
MarHadoo Effeh (she/her) Regional: Gem of the Ocean (Actors’ Shakespeare Company); Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (SpeakEasy Stage); The Crucible, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Julius Caesar (The Hanover Theatre Repertory).
Omari K. Chancellor
Nazareth Jasper
Omari K. Chancellor
Omari K. Chancellor Off Broadway: Amani (Rattlestick Theatre). Regional: Fences (The Old Globe), soft (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Film / TV: Love Story (FX), The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Apple), Elsbeth (CBS), Chicago Med (NBC). Directing: commercial campaigns for Puma, Chipotle, Underground Grillz, and more.
Kalyne Ashley Coleman
Aziza Houston
Kalyne Ashley Coleman
Kalyne Ashley Coleman was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. Broadway: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. Off Broadway: Four, What To Send Up When It Goes Down (BAM); Lorraine Hansberry & Nikki Giovanni, Lessons in Survival (Vineyard Theater); Leigh, America v. 2.1 The Sad Demise and Eventual Extinction of the American Negro (Barrington Stage); Mary, Basil Biggs (Wilma Theater).
Chris Everett
U/S Morgan, Claudine
Chris Everett
Chris Everett (she/her) Regional: Bud, Not Buddy (Wheelock Family Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare on the Common); Stew (Front Porch Arts Collective Reading Series); Stew (Gloucester Stage Company); Break, Break (The Legion Theatre Project and Artists’ Theater of Boston); Weighting the Wait (Open Theatre Project); can i touch it?, The Interrobangers (Company One); Confidential Informant, Dust (TC Squared).
Kiera Prusmack
U/S Aziza
Kiera Prusmack
Kiera Prusmack The Huntington: Sojourners. Regional: The Mountaintop (Front Porch Arts Collective); Ain’t No Mo’ (SpeakEasy Stage); The Boy Who Kissed the Sky (Company One); Macbeth (Times Fool Company).
Joshua Wolf Coleman
U/S Solomon
Joshua Wolf Coleman
Joshua Wolf Coleman (he/him) Regional: Hello, Dolly! (Lyric Stage Company); The Full Monty (Umbrella Arts); Bud, Not Buddy, The Addams Family (Wheelock Family Theatre); The Thin Place (Gloucester Stage); Radio Golf (Trinity Repertory Company); Cloud 9 (Central Square Theater); The Crucible (Bedlam Theatre); also, ART Short Play Festival, the Guthrie Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and La Jolla Playhouse
Se Hyun Oh
Scenic Designer
Se Hyun Oh
Se Hyun Oh (he/him) is a South Korean set designer based in NYC. The Huntington: The Hills of California. Off Broadway: Once Upon A Korean Time (Ma-Yi Theatre/ La Mama Theatre); The Unbelieving (The Civilians/ 59E59 Theatres).
Celeste Jennings
Costume Designer
Celeste Jennings
Celeste Jennings (she/her) The Huntington: Purpose, Fun Home, Fat Ham. Off Broadway: Malvolio and Memnon (Classical Theatre of Harlem & Getty Villa in LA); Minor.ity (Women’s Project and Colt Coeur). Regional: Appropriate (Old Globe); Furlough’s Paradise (Geffen); The Monsters (Berkley Rep & La Jolla Playhouse), Minor Music at the End of the World (Teatro Stabile del Veneto). Upcoming: Uhuru (Alley Theatre), Radio Bette (Edinburgh Fringe).
Marika Kent
Lighting Designer
Marika Kent
Marika Kent Off Broadway: Ulysses (The Public/Elevator Repair Service); Seagull (ERS); The Great Privation (Soho Rep); Catch as Catch Can (Playwrights Horizons); Bernarda’s Daughters, Amani (National Black Theater); Usus, Not Not Jane’s (Clubbed Thumb); This Is Real (Target Margin).
Kathy Ruvuna
Sound Designer and Composer
Kathy Ruvuna
Kathy Ruvuna is a New York-based sound designer. Off Broadway: Cold War Choir Practice (MCC); Five Models in Ruins, 1981 (LCT3); Mary Gets Hers (Playwrights Realm); Amani (National Black Theatre), Bernarda’s Daughters (The New Group); Dark Disabled Stories, Self Portraits (Deluxe) (The Bushwick Starr), Circle Jerk (Fake Friends); In the Southern Breeze, Ni Mi Madre (Rattlestick Theater).
J. Jared Janas
Wig, Hair, and Makeup Co-Designer
J. Jared Janas
J. Jared Janas (he/him) The Huntington: Purpose, Fun Home, The Hills of California, The Light in the Piazza, The Art of Burning, Common Ground Revisited, The Bluest Eye, Indecent, Man in the Ring. Select Broadway: Proof, The Balusters, Dead Outlaw, John Proctor Is the Villain, Buena Vista Social Club, Our Town, Once Upon a Mattress, Prayer for the French Republic, Purlie Victorious, Good Night, Oscar, Sweeney Todd…, Frankie and Johnny…, Bandstand, Indecent, Sunset Boulevard, The Visit, Lady Day…l, Motown, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.
Cassie J. Williams
Wig, Hair, and Makeup Co-Designer
Cassie J. Williams
Cassie J. Williams The Huntington: Purpose. Off Broadway: Bigfoot the Musical (MTC); Sally and Tom (Public Theatre); Arms and the Man (Theatre Row).
Omar Robinson
Fight Consultant and U/S Solomon, Nazareth
Omar Robinson
Omar Robinson (he/him) The Huntington: Toni Stone, Common Ground Revisited, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Romeo and Juliet, Tartuffe.
Dr. Ayshia Mackie-Stephenson
Intimacy Consultant
Dr. Ayshia Mackie-Stephenson
Dr. Ayshia Mackie-Stephenson (she/her) The Huntington: The Grove, Hurricane Diane, Our Daughters Like Pillars, The Bluest Eye.
Kim James Bey
Voice and Text Coach
Kim James Bey
Kim James Bey Kim is an actor, voice/dialect coach and educator. The Huntington: Toni Stone. Off Broadway: Detroit 67, The Scottsboro Boys (Signature Theatre).
Ashley M. Thomas
Dramaturg
Ashley M. Thomas
Ashley M. Thomas (she/her) is a writer and dramaturg born & raised in Harlem, NY. Off Broadway: In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick Theater). Regional: Furlough’s Paradise (Alliance Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep, Yale School of Drama); Mothership (Penumbra Theatre); Trouble in Mind (Utah Shakespeare Festival); King Lear (Utah Shakespeare Festival).
Ashley Pitchford
Production Stage Manager
Ashley Pitchford
Ashley Pitchford (she/her) The Huntington: Eureka Day, We Had a World, The Hills of California, The Light in the Piazza, The Triumph of Love, Leopoldstadt, John Proctor is the Villain, The Heart Sellers, Fat Ham, Joy and Pandemic, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Our Daughters, Like Pillars, Teenage Dick, Witch, We All Fall Down, Man in the Ring.
Ross Gray
Stage Manager
Ross Gray
Ross Gray The Huntington: Oedipus El Rey, Fun Home, Don’t Eat the Mangos, Nassim, Toni Stone, Stand Up if You’re Here Tonight, The Band’s Visit, Prayer for the French Republic, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
Danica Rodriguez
Casting Director
Danica Rodriguez
Danica Rodriguez (she/her) Off Broadway: cullud wattah*, Romeo y Julieta, Soft Power, for colored girls…, Much Ado About Nothing [Shakespeare in the Park], Mojada, Ain’t No Mo’* (The Public Theater). Regional: Measure for Measure, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Our Verse in Time to Come (Folger Theatre); The World to Come*, The Great Privation, The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes*, Incendiary (Woolly Mammoth); Othello, Guys and Dolls, Merry Wives, Frankenstein*, Kunene and the King, Leopoldstadt, Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, The Lehman Trilogy, As You Like It, Macbeth In Stride, Evita, Here There Are Blueberries, King Lear, Jane Anger, Much Ado About Nothing, Red Velvet (STC).
Brett Duffy
Local Casting
Brett Duffy
Brett Duffy (she/her) The Huntington Casting Credits: Eureka Day, Oedipus El Rey, We Had A World, Fun Home, The Hills of California, The Light In the Piazza, Don’t Eat The Mangos, The Triumph of Love.
Tasia A. Jones
Assistant Director
Tasia A. Jones
Tasia A. Jones (she/her) is a professional director, performer, and educator focused on socially and civically engaged theater practices. She is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Boston University’s School of Theatre where she teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate programs.
LaTasha Snider
Emerging Artist Observer
LaTasha Snider
LaTasha Snider (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist. The Huntington (Education program directing): The Taming of The Shrew, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Co-Director).
Digital Program:
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From Director Josiah Davis:
“Legacy is hard to build. But it’s even harder to escape. The journey of finding yourself is difficult when expectations of who you ought to be, who you were raised to be looks over your head. Is it possible to escape familial demands and carve out a space of your own?”
From Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins:
“For me, Purpose is a family story that’s trying to transcend, to be about the universal. It’s a play that’s really trying to connect people… it’s about taking stock of the community immediately around you and figuring out how to love deeper and better.”
From Artistic Director Loretta Greco:
“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! Branden has conjured a richly layered family in the throes of a seismic generational reckoning — one worthy of the greatest family dramas. Experiencing Purpose had me constantly trying to catch my breath I was laughing so hard — until its complex truths hit home. The play’s beating heart: a compelling reminder that we all need something larger and more impactful than ourselves to strive towards in community with others. Perhaps now more than ever.”
Thank you to our production partner:
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. embraceboston.org
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