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This season, Branden Jacobs-JenkinssAppropriateenters lineage of our great American shouting plays.
Im curious howAppropriatehit you when you first read it.
It was clearly a typo.
How do you know youre more of a Bo?I have a stable presence.
I read as traditionally masculine: tall, bald, deep voice, and maybe subtler signifiers.
But Ive never been into sports or fishing and my best friends have always been women or girls.
Do you feel that in the scene?Yes, definitely.
Its an interesting experience developing the role in rehearsal and then playing him.
I spend a lot of time not talking in the play, especially in the first act.
From the beginning, I am trying to control the situation, but it is out of my control.
That manifests itself physically.
During the performance, I was originally expending way too much energy.
It almost felt like sleep paralysis.
I was being attacked by Toni or criticized by Rachel and feeling a need to retaliate and control.
Thats what leads to the sort of explosion at the end.
You have a really interesting challenge here.
In a classic American family play, how do you make that dramatically interesting?Its an ensemble piece.
Its all about telling the story of this family.
Its not the story of Bo, its not even the story of Toni.
Its about these three siblings and the next circle out in their families.
In rehearsal, I did a lot more.
Lila gave me permission to be focused on maintaining the status quo.
If there isnt a force like that in the play, the centripetal force sends everybody flying.
I want to talk about Jewishness.
You grew up Jewish, is that correct?Not practicing at all.
We would do the holidays, but I never went to Temple and I wasnt bar mitzvahd.
Traditionally, Yale was just Yankee.
The fact that Bo went to Yale meant something to the family and to him.
Bo pointedly turned his back to that world.
There was something, culturally, about Northeastern, intellectual, and Jewish it was all one thing.
That was the world that he wanted to be a part of.
I found Bos relationship to his father to be the most unwieldy.
Its often dependent on who hes with.His fathers a real blind spot for him.
He so identifies with him that he cant see him.
There was a lot of unspoken, un-acted-out aggression towards his father.
He plays peacemaker a lot.Hes not very good at it.
Hes definitely the middle child.
Who is Bo when hes not around his family?I dont think he gets into fights.
Hes at least on the surface an easy going guy.
I get the sense that hes a solid guy and he really values that.
I love that scene.Me too.
There was one full week where every day he would come in with that scene completely rewritten.
Were really happy with the outcome.
Can you feel audiences rooting for specific characters from the stage?Hugely, hugely.
I felt them rooting against you at the start.I dont know if thats entirely true.
And then Ill say something awful.
The one where theyre with the suitcases?Yeah.
Hes constantly denying the audience that satisfaction.
We worked so hard to kill that.
Natalie has this beautiful release about how fucked up this whole situation is.
And then, suddenly, it feels like Im totally betraying her and siding with Toni.
Its a crazy 90 degree turn.
When youre crying?Even within that scene, they realize where that denial Im in is coming from.
My saying We dont know is not to paper over.
Its to save myself.My father was in the Ku Klux Klan?Its just too much to take in.
And yet, thats what we all have to confront, whether we have that exact inheritance or not.
You go far enough back in anybodys history and there is evil.
Those of us who have privilege get that privilege from evil.
What you do about that is the problem of America.
The play comes so close to writing these people off.
Bo and Rachel most mirror Broadway audiences.
In some ways it gives me license to do less, because the audience will know who I am.
It was pretty disappointing in some way to realize how little weve changed.
What in the play makes audiences uncomfortable?When Rachel talks about antisemitism in this funny voice.
When youre first confronted with this, its hard because the audience is just getting on board.
Depending on the audience, they either think Toni is hilarious, or they really, really hate her.
And that can differ from night to night.
I saw the play during previews, and the crowd felt pro-Rachel.
We had a dress rehearsal with a lot of students and they would snap.
Maybe Im just out of touch, but I feel like its antithetical to the theater.
Its a kudos.Its a self-soothing sort of instinct.
Its an instinct to go against conflict.
This story has been edited and condensed for clarity.
