Steppenwolf Theatre’s “Purpose” showcases actor and director Phylicia Rashad’s production about complicated family dynamics
CHICAGO (CBS) — In Steppenwolf Theatre’s “Purpose,” you’ll meet a family of overachievers dealing with the problems that impact us all.
Its director is one of America’s best-known and accomplished actors.
With 2’s Got Your Ticket, CBS 2 Entertainment Reporter Vince Gerasole sat with Phylicia Rashad and members of the cast to talk about
For so many, she’s America’s mom.
Phylicia Rashad played matriarch Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.” She also won two Tony Awards and made a name for herself as a director.
In “Purpose” at Steppenwolf Theatre, she’s directing a powerhouse cast in a play that explores family dynamics. The ensemble is quick to applaud her skills and generosity.
What attracted Rashad to this project?
“The fact that it was not completed. That it was wide open. That it’s an adventure,” Rashad said.
“She looks directly into you. I’ve been so pleasantly surprised at how collaborative she is but also generous with her wisdom,” said actor Jon Michael Hill, who plays Nazareth “Naz” Jasper in the production.
When asked if she’s constantly collaborating with the playwright and the actors, Rashad said the actors are doing that work.
“I’m asking questions, and they’re answering me through the work that they do,” she said. “And the answers that they give inspire more questions or give me insight into suggestions that I will make.”
“She has suggestions, but she always checks in and says, ‘How is that working for you,'” said actor Alana Arena, who portrays Morgan Jasper. “She is everything that her name evokes, and yet she is extremely generous with her spirit.”
“She is such a genius actor in her own right. So she can, in just one word, a phrase, a gesture or a look, she can tell us all that we need to know about a particular moment,” added Harry Lennix, who is Solomon “Sonny” Jasper in the play.
Rashad said her family background has inspired the characters she’s portrayed and the work she continues to do.
“My mother is from the small mill town of Chester, South Carolina. My father was born on the back porch of a farm in Lobdale, Louisiana. I don’t consider myself the product of sophisticated family. I come from grassroots, salt-of-the-earth people,” Rashad said. ” I could not have been Aunt Esther (in August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean.) I would not have understood Mama in “A Raisin in the Sun.” This is what I know from where I’m born and how I live. I treasure that.”
