For Tony Award Winner Kara Young, ‘Purpose' Is History-making

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3 hours ago

Kara Young is on a roll. Four Broadway shows in four years, with Tony nominations for each of those performances, she's one of two performers to have achieved the feat of four consecutive nominations. (The other is Laurie Metcalf.) Last year, Young won for best featured actress in a play for her role in 'Purlie Victorious.' If she wins again this year for her role in 'Purpose,' she'll be the first Black person to take home two consecutive Tonys.
'What has happened, and what the realities are, I have not absorbed any of it,' says Young of her historic four-year nomination streak. 'I've been going from play to play to play, to filming, to play. So I haven't had quite a second to just take it all in.'
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She's in good company: four of Young's costars are also nominated for their performances in the play, which is still going strong with an extension through August 31.
It's the week before the Tony awards ceremony, and Young has been spending much of her down time between performances doing press. But the actress appears to be an endless well of energy, attention, and gratitude for whatever task is in front of her. More often than not, that task is bringing her character Aziza to life onstage from a Pulitzer-winning script by Branden Jacobs Jenkins, who also wrote last season's Tony-winning 'Appropriate.'
'I feel incredibly honored to be working with him this time around,' says Young, who stars as the effervescent Aziza. 'And I'm sure that also the Tony nominations add to the sense of popularity around the show as well.'
Asked if she's felt a new sense of buzz leading up to the awards ceremony, Young is insistent the energy has been there since the beginning. 'I remember people feeling quite electric after that first dress rehearsal,' says Young. 'People felt the thing that I think they're feeling now, too.'
The six-cast show takes place inside the Jasper family home in Chicago. Naz, the show's narrator, tells the audience that he recently agreed to be a sperm donor for his New York neighbor turned close queer friend Aziza. The pair meet up for the donation in Niagara Falls, Naz misses his flight home, and Aziza offers to drive him.
Walking into his parent's impressive house, Aziza quickly discovers that her lowkey friend from the city is actually the son of a famous civil rights activist, and his brother is a politician who has just served time for campaign-fund fraud. There's a winter storm brewing outside, and Aziza is invited to stay for dinner, and the night.
Naturally, all that glitters is not gold. And since this is a Branden Jacobs Jenkins family drama, there's a lot of tarnish hiding under the surface. And humor, much of it delivered by Young.
'One of the most meaningful things that I hear after the show is, 'I saw this three times,'' says Young of audience reaction. 'Or, 'I'm coming back and I'm bringing my mom,' or 'I'm bringing my dad. I'm bringing my family. We're pulling up.' There was one woman from Harlem who rolled 20 deep.'
One of those large groups were students from Young's former Harlem high school. When Young heard that the teenagers were able to see themselves reflected in her character, an unapologetic social worker also from Harlem, 'It just shook me to my core,' she says.
And then there was the 105-year-old woman who was in the audience the night before, who reminded Young of her own grandmother, who passed away at the age of 105 shortly after seeing Young perform in 'Purlie.'
For Young, the purpose of the Tony nominations seems to encompass all of that: continuing to tell stories, continuing to connect with audiences. So while she hasn't processed what all of the Tony nominations mean, it does seem to be an invitation to continue. Earlier this week, Young and Kerry Washington were announced as the stars of a new production of the Whoopi Goldberg-penned solo show 'The Whoopi Monologues,' which will be staged next summer.
'I want to experience all facets of storytelling, in all of the mediums,' says Young, whose screen projects include 'I'm a Virgo.' 'I would love to do more film and television. I would love to continue to do theater; it's my foundation. But the stories — the stories — feel like the thing that matter,' she adds. 'And it feels like a very ancestral thing that we're doing every day in a theater, in an enclosed space where people get to be together.'
In May, Young attended the Met Gala, dressed by Maxwell Osborne's AnOnlyChild. Her suited look was accessorized with a Judith Leiber beehive-shaped handbag, an homage to a central beekeeping metaphor running throughout 'Purpose.' Asked about a highlight from the night, Young roots the memory in fashion.
'The exhibit was incredible,' says Young. 'I got to see Frederick Douglass' glasses, his hat, his top coat. I was like, oh my God — what am I witnessing right now? There was Prince's iconic white shirt…'
On Sunday, she'll continue her own fashion story. Last year, Young accepted her first Tony Award wearing a chartreuse chiffon gown by Bibhu Mohapatra. And this year she'll be wearing…
' I think it'll be a very nice follow-up to what she wore to the Met,' teases her stylist Mary Gigler. 'There's a nice continuation there, fully encompassing what Kara does in a storytelling aspect. I think it [will] kind of sum it all up in a nice way. It'll be a moment.'
Speaking of moments: the night's pre-performance fight call was drawing closer, and after an afternoon of press, Young's next agenda item was to get her head back in 'the game' before emerging onstage to a fresh round of applause.
' I'm gonna take a second to drink some tea and get my head back in the books,' says Young, while seeming in no rush to go. ' Wind down — before I have to wind up.'
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