The Unstoppable Tide of Kara Young: The Tony Winner on Her Latest Broadway Role in the Fiery Family Drama Purpose

Kara Young is blessed with the ability to jumpstart a scene the moment she steps on stage. This small but mighty actress manages to simultaneously disappear into a role while commanding the audience’s attention. After several years of impressive but under-the-radar off-Broadway performances, Young landed a one-two-three punch of successive Tony nominations for Clyde’s, Cost of Living and Purlie Victorious. Perfectly cast as the vivacious Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins in Ossie Davis’ satire of racism in the Old South, she took home a richly deserved Best Featured Actress Tony last June.

Since that night, Young has co-starred with her real-life partner, Biko Eisen-Martin, in the charming off-Broadway rom-com Table 17 and is now back on Broadway disrupting a dysfunctional family’s birthday celebration in Purpose. Directed by Phylicia Rashad, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ follow-up to the Tony-winning Appropriate goes inside the home of a Civil Rights icon and reveals cracks in the clan’s façade, including a take-no-prisoners dinner scene. As a friend of the youngest son, Young delivers some of the evening’s funniest lines and serves as a buffer for the toxic goings-on. In a chat during previews, the sweetly self-effacing star looked back on her big Broadway year.

Purpose is a whopper of a family drama. What drew you to the play?

I’m obsessed with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and it’s been a dream of mine to work with him. Ms. [Phylicia] Rashad is directing, so I was like, “What?” And my character is from Harlem, where I grew up. I’m like, “What?” This is a kismet thing, and I’m so honored to be working with this company of people I’ve looked up to for so long.

There’s a lot going on in the play’s almost-three-hour running time. What themes spoke to you?

Many things. The family dynamics; the skeletons in the closet; the secrets we hold, and how we protect those secrets. I think the play interrogates a lot of questions about mental health, and why people forget the most important things in life. There’s so much packed into it. We look at the power dynamics of Solomon Jasper [played by Harry Lennix] as head of the household, versus the person who is actually keeping it together—the mother [played by LaTanya Richardson Jackson] is making sure everything looks good on the outside, upholding the legacy in a family that has accomplished a lot. I’m the outsider who grew up knowing about [Solomon’s] contributions, but now I’m wondering, “Are they able to see what I’m seeing?” And they’re not.

Is it fun to play the observer of the madness?

Absolutely. It’s such an exercise in listening, and every acting teacher will tell you that’s the thing. You’ve got to listen.

Are you all actually eating in Act One’s climactic dinner scene?

We really are eating in that epic dinner scene—potatoes, chicken, green beans. There is an electric inconsistency in that scene because it’s different every night. You’re sort of like, “O-kay, this is the ride we’re going on.” You have no idea what will happen next, in a wild way.

What’s it been like to be directed by Phylicia Rashad?

She’s the epitome of grace. What has struck me so magically is that she has an overwhelming belief in each and every one of us. That’s refreshing and so comforting. She is literally a legend, a master of the theater, and she holds us with such love. She has created a beautiful, sacred and safe space to explore.

Are you aware how impressive it is that you’ve done three Broadway plays going into Purpose and earned two Tony nominations and a Tony Award?

I’m aware that it has happened, but I always feel like I don’t know anything when I walk into a room.

On the first day of rehearsal?

Yes. The beauty of theater is collaboration, to commune and to create a family for however long you’re together. I hold that as a priceless, magical process. Making a piece of art always seems impossible. You’re like, “How does a writer do this?” I’m obsessed with writers, with the idea that they’ve conjured this magic onto a page. The intention is always to not only bring justice to their work but to honor the story they’ve written, and we do that as a collective.

Let’s get back to you, winning a Tony last June. [She laughs] What was that night like?

Oh man, I remember Wendell Pierce calling my name, and that was super special because he’s a special figure in my life. I remember my dad sitting next to me. My father has been in the hospitality industry for 40 years, and for him to attend an event that he would normally be taking care of people afterward, I just felt, “Is this really happening?” The Tony doesn’t just belong to me. It stands as a special place in a journey I’ve taken with individuals who have poured themselves into me. So many people carried me to that moment—every director, every playwright, every cast member I’ve worked with, every community I’ve been a part of.

Speaking of your dad [Klay Young, a longtime server at the Rainbow Room atop 30 Rockefeller Plaza], how cool was it when he got a standing ovation at the Tony nominees luncheon?

The first luncheon was like one of those New York moments. Here’s the iconic Rainbow Room, where my father has worked events countless times, and I am being mentioned. The entire room understood his sacrifice in a beautiful way. It was otherworldly.

A lovely moment in your acceptance speech was a salute to your late great-grandmother, who was able to see you in Purlie.

Yes, she came two weeks before she passed. She was so adamant about it. She said, “I’m going to get there, I don’t care if I have to take a taxi.” It’s as if she sort of knew….

You also mentioned your partner, Biko Eisen-Martin, and a few months later, the two of you played ex-lovers on stage in Douglas Lyons’ Table 17. Was that a happy accident?

Definitely. We’ve been together for some time, but we’re not the kind of couple that advertises our love. We’re not posting pictures of ourselves on Instagram or anything of that nature. I was asked to do a reading of Table 17, and then our director asked Biko to do the reading, and when we did it together, it was magic. It was a total accident, but an absolute blast, and a beautiful challenge of building that world and doing justice to the script.

Where did you get your gift for comedy?

I really don’t know! I’m a fan of sitcoms—I Love Lucy, Frasier—but I have no idea where it came from. I was a mime when I was a kid and then went into musical theater, but I wasn’t a very good singer. It was a bunch of kids in El Barrio, in Spanish Harlem, and when kids get together, it’s about entertaining people and making them laugh. Sometimes there are pivotal points where you realize you can do something. In the incredible Lynn Nottage’s [play] Clyde’s, Montrellous [played by the late Ron Cephas Jones] says something like, “You can take any ingredient and make something with it.” I think our lives are made up of many ingredients and memories, and we can do something different with that cumin or that turmeric or that honey. We create our dishes and just continue to live in our truth.