At Steppenwolf Theatre, Phylicia Rashad is reimagining the Black family drama

Phylicia Rashad walks in to the upstairs conference room at Steppenwolf Theater, flanked by her publicist, Irene Gandy. Rashad is familiar to most as Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show"; she’s also the winner of two Tonys. Gandy is a star in her own right, known for representing famous musicians such as The Jacksons and Earth, Wind, and Fire, as well as Broadway stars like August Wilson.

Rashad is in Chicago to direct Steppenwolf’s upcoming world premiere of “Purpose,” which is currently in previews and opens March 24. She seems eager to end the gauntlet of press interviews and get to rehearsal with the cast, but noticeably perks up when I ask about the show’s script, written by award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

“The opening monologue,” Rashad says with a smile when asked what in the script made her agree to take on the project. “That was some intelligent writing. That’s when I said, ‘Yeah, I want to do this.’ ”

“Purpose” is a dive headfirst into the complexities of one political Black family. And it is powered by a unique trio — a celebrity director, a talented playwright and the theater’s first Black co-artistic director — who have been building up to this moment, staging a contemporary family drama that challenges audiences to think about how the dynamics of politics and religion can seep into familial relationships.

It all unfolds in a city with its own unique political Black dynasties, from civil rights leader Jesse Jackson’s family to the Obamas.

“I was really fascinated by Chicago as a city of Black political life,” Jacobs-Jenkins said. “I was very interested in imagining a Black political dynasty. I wanted to think about a Black family that was power adjacent and had ties to significant cultural and political moments in the 20th century. That’s where I began.”

Joel Moorman

For the trio driving the show, the goal is a play that has something to say about contemporary life. Rashad is most notable for portraying the matriarch of the quintessential Black middle-class TV family on “The Cosby Show.” This was a character rarely seen on TV at the time — a hardworking lawyer and mother with strong feminist values. But she eventually went on to have a successful Broadway career.

Glenn Davis, named co-artistic director of Steppenwolf in 2021, is known for staging shows like “King James,” a contemporary work about two friends debating the legacy of basketball player LeBron James. When Davis saw an early version of the “Purpose” script, he immediately knew Rashad was the director needed to parse the nuance of the complex themes facing the family on stage.

Then there’s Jacobs-Jenkins, an experienced writer who has achieved stardom both on stage (“Appropriate” just finished a Broadway run) and on television (as writer and showrunner of “Kindred” on FX and Hulu).

Joel Moorman

With “Purpose,” Jacobs-Jenkins takes a huge swing at the reimagining of the Black family onstage. Danielle Bainbridge, assistant professor of theater at Northwestern University, said there has always been representation of Black families in American theater, but Black people themselves have not always been the authors of those stories. “There’s been theatrical representation [of Black people] at least as early as the 19th century,” Bainbridge said. “There were lots of different iterations of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ And plays like ‘The Octoroon,’ which is not necessarily focused entirely on a Black family, but does deal with some structures of Black family life. And these were plays that were written by white people.”

What has shifted over time is that Black people are telling their own stories — beyond the prominent plays that continue to be restaged, such as “A Raisin in the Sun” or selections from August Wilson’s cycle. Jacobs-Jenkins said he hopes to create a modern-day entry into the canon that speaks to Black families today.

“I thought about how all the privileges I’ve had in my life, luxuries, they’ve all been because of politics,” Jacobs-Jenkins said. “I’ve been shaped by American political history, so for me, it’s right to think about family as a thing that is very much history bound. It’s affected by history, but also in some ways contributes to the making of history. All these things, like politics, policy and the great movements, are actually very much domestic things.”