Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Purpose, Appropriate) has made a name for himself as one of the most insightful and original playwrights of the American stage today. The two-time Tony, Obie, and Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow skillfully blends drama and comedy to probe how different generations define heritage amongst the complex dynamics of the great American family. Commissioned by the Armory and NBT, Jacobs-Jenkins lends his signature style and unmistakable wit to the world premiere of his latest work, equal parts fantasia, memory play, and morality drama.
Following a mother and son on a fantastical, picaresque road trip through the American South, the new play allows audiences to bear witness to the pair’s surreal encounters with fellow countrymen and remnants of American history. This surreal meditation interrogates the limits of identity on a modern-day search for meaning and the overlap of personal, ancestral, and national identities as well as their ramifications in periods of social conflict and upheaval.
PREVIEWS: February 19-25
Tuesday – Thursday at 7:30pm
Friday at 8:00pm
Saturday at 8:00pm
Sunday at 3:00pm
OPENING NIGHT: February 26
Friday at 7:30pm
PERFORMANCES: February 27 – March 28
Tuesday – Thursday at 7:30pm
Friday at 8:00pm
Saturday at 2:00pm and 8:00pm
Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm (2:00pm only on March 14 and 28)
TICKETS start at $40 (including fees)
co-commissioned and co-produced by
Park Avenue Armory and National Black Theatre
Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins
Playwright
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is an internationally acclaimed playwright and producer. Jacobs-Jenkins is a two-time Tony winner and received the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Purpose. Other notable theater credits include The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre Company, New York; Almeida Theatre, London); Girls (Yale Rep); Everybody (Signature Theatre); War (Yale Rep; Lincoln Center/LCT3); Gloria (Vineyard Theatre); Appropriate (Obie Award-winning, Helen Hayes Theatre, Signature Theatre); An Octoroon (Obie Award-winning; Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience); and Neighbors (The Public Theater). He is a Professor in the Practice at Yale University, serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild council, and on the boards of Park Avenue Armory and the Dramatists Guild Foundation, among others. He has received a USA Artists fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, the MacArthur fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award. Jacobs-Jenkins has been an Artist in Residence at Park Avenue Armory since 2018.
Sarah Benson
Director
Sarah Benson is an Obie Award-winning director based in New York City. Credits include Minor Music at the End of the World (International Theater Amsterdam, Teatro Goldoni, Venice, upcoming BAM Harvey), The Receptionist (Second Stage), Tartuffe (NYTW), Teeth (Playwrights Horizons, New World Stages), The Welkin (Atlantic), Fairview (Soho Rep, TFANA, Berkeley Rep), In The Blood (Signature), Samara, …Walt Disney, Elective Affinities (site-specific), and Blasted (Soho Rep); Futurity (Soho Rep, ART, Walker Arts Center); An Octoroon (Soho Rep, TFANA). Recipient of Obie Award, Obie for Sustained Excellence, Vilcek Prize, SDC Callaway Award, Outer Critics’ Circle, and multiple nominations from Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lortel Awards. Benson was a Director of Soho Rep from 2007 – 2023.
CREATIVE TEAM
Mimi Lien
SET DESIGNERJane Cox
LIGHTING DESIGNERStacey Derosier
LIGHTING DESIGNERBray Poor
SOUND DESIGNERJeremy Chernick
SPECIAL EFFECTS DESIGNEREnver Chakartash
COSTUME DESIGNERPARTNERS
