Meet the Cast of PURPOSE, Beginning Previews Tonight on Broadway

Alana Arenas

ALANA ARENAS joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 2007 and created the role of Pecola Breedlove for the Steppenwolf for Young Adults production of The Bluest Eye, which also played at the New Victory Theater Off-Broadway. Recent Steppenwolf appearances include the Steppenwolf for Young Adults production of Monster, The Fundamentals, Marie Antoinette, Tribes, Belleville, Head of Passes, Good People, Three Sisters, The March, Man in Love, Middletown, The Hot L Baltimore, The Etiquette of Vigilance, The Brother/Sister Plays, The Tempest, The Crucible, Spare Change and The Sparrow Project. Other theatre credits include Disgraced (American Theater Company), The Arabian Nights (Lookingglass Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Kansas City Repertory Theatre), Eyes (eta Creative Arts), SOST (MPAACT), WVON (Black Ensemble Theater) and Hecuba (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Television and film credits include David Makes Man, Canal Street, Crisis, Boss, The Beast, Kabuku Rides and Lioness of Lisabi. She is originally from Miami, Florida, where she began her training at the New World School of the Arts. Alana holds a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University. PURPOSE marks Ms. Arenas’ Broadway debut.

Glenn Davis

GLENN DAVIS is an actor, producer and Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, alongside Audrey Francis, where he has been an ensemble member since 2017. His Steppenwolf credits include Downstate, The Christians, You Got Older, The Brother/Sister Plays, Head of Passes, King James (also Mark Taper Forum), Describe the Night, and, most recently, Purpose. Broadway credits include Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (also Kirk Douglas Theatre, Mark Taper Forum). Off-Broadway credits include Transfers (MCC Theatre), Wig Out! (Vineyard Theatre), Downstate (Playwrights Horizons, Outer Critics Circle Nomination), and King James (MTC). Other regional credits include Moscow x6 (Williamstown Theatre Festival). International credits include Downstate (National Theatre, UK); Edward II, The Winter’s Tale and As You Like It (Stratford Festival); Othello (The Shakespeare Company). Television credits include Billions, 24, The Unit, Jericho and The Good Wife. Glenn is an Artistic Associate at the Young Vic in London and at the Vineyard Theatre in New York. He is also a partner in Cast Iron Entertainment, a collective of artists consisting of Sterling K Brown, Brian Tyree Henry, Jon Michael Hill, Andre Holland and Tarell Alvin McCraney. Cast Iron is currently in residence at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. In 2021, Glenn founded The Chatham Grove Company along with his producing partner Tarell Alvin McCraney.

Jon Michael Hill

JON MICHAEL HILL joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 2007. Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Purpose, Leroy and Lucy, True West (also Galway Arts Festival), Pass Over, Constellations, Head of Passes, The Hot L Baltimore, The Tempest, Kafka on the Shore, The Unmentionables. Broadway: Superior Donuts, Pass Over. Off-Broadway: The Refuge Plays (New York Theatre Workshop) Pass Over (Lincoln Center). Film: Pass Over, Widows, In The Radiant City, No Pay, Nudity. Television: A Man in Full (Netflix), Elementary (CBS), Detroit 1-8-7 (ABC), Eastbound and Down (HBO), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC) and Person of Interest (CBS).

Harry Lennix

Broadway: Radio Golf. Off-Broadway: Titus Andronicus. Chicago: A Raisin in the Sun, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Permanent Collection, Othello, The Great Gatsby, King Hedley II (Mark Taper Forum). Theatre Directing: The Glass Menagerie (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), A Small Oak Tree Runs Red (Congo Square Theatre and Billie Holiday Theatre), Permanent Collection (Robey Theatre Company), Unjustifiable Acts (Goodman Theatre). Select Film & Television: Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel, Ray, The Matrix franchise, Love & Basketball, Titus, The Five Heartbeats. TV: The Blacklist, Billions, Keep the Faith, Baby, Dollhouse.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson

LaTANYA RICHARDSON JACKSON is a two-time Tony Award-nominated stage and screen actress, director and producer. Her onstage Broadway credits include “Lena Younger” in the 2014 revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (Tony nomination, Best Actress in a Play), as “Calpurnia” in Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, and as “Bertha Holly” in the 2009 revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. She became the first woman to direct an August Wilson play on Broadway with the 2022 revival of The Piano Lesson, starring Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington and Danielle Brooks, which received a Tony nomination for Best Revival of a Play. She was also a co-producer on the 2023 revival of Purlie Victorious (Tony nomination, Best Revival of a Play). Her extensive theater work includes Shakespeare in the Park’s Taming of the Shrew, For Colored Girls…, Spell #7, Casanova, Unfinished Women, Stop Reset, and August Wilson’s Century Cycle. Her screen credits include the HBO limited series Show Me A Hero (NAACP Image Award nomination, Best Actress), ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, Netflix’s Luke Cage, FX’s Damages, Blue Bloods, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Lumet’s 100 Centre Street and the films Freedomland, Losing Isaiah, The Fighting Temptations, U.S. Marshals, Juanita, Mother and Child, and Nicole Holofcener’s You Hurt My Feelings. As a screen producer, she executive produced the limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey and the EPIX docuseries Enslaved; and as a filmmaker, she directed and starred in the acclaimed 2000 short film Hairstory, which will be revived for a Restoration West Coast Premiere this December at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Spelman College where she and her husband recently opened the LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Performing Arts Center.

Kara Young