(LeVonte’ Herbert as Sam (tan shorts with cigarette in hand) and Brenden Wrenn as Kenneth. Photo courtesy of NSU Theatre Company.)
By Jerome Langston
“And when it was done, and the rights became available — I saw it online… I think I was in Walmart. And I stopped shopping. And I immediately applied for rights,” said NSU Theatre Company’s producing artistic director, Professor Anthony Stockard, with a chuckle, recalling the day he applied for the rights to Primary Trust, the Pulitzer Prize winning play that his theatre company is producing as part of this year’s Norfolk Theatre Festival lineup. It’s been quite the rainy Thursday, and Stockard and I are joined by two of the lead actors starring in the play. Rehearsals are just beginning inside Brown Memorial Hall, the large academic building on the campus of Norfolk State University, which houses the theater spaces for the award-winning HBCU theatre program. This drama, however, is being produced as part of the company’s professional series, which Stockard started a few years back. It allows him to hire fully professional actors for roles in these types of shows — with many of the professional actors having studied theater at NSU while student actors.
Ain’t Misbehavin’, the vibrant Fats Waller musical which launched the current season of Virginia Stage Company, was produced by VSC in partnership with NSU Theatre Company’s professional series. As with the upcoming Primary Trust, Stockard directed the classic musical, and the show was a success during its run last September at the historic Wells Theatre. It was the first professional series collaboration with Virginia Stage Company, but followed numerous shows that NSU Theatre Company co-produced with VSC over several past seasons; including Dreamgirls and Shakespeare’s Henry V.
Primary Trust was on Stockard’s wish list to produce and direct, since the show’s success in the Big Apple. “There was not another show in New York that had as much buzz as this play, for about a good 5 or 6 months,” he says. Written by playwright Eboni Booth, the inventive stage play introduces us to Kenneth, a 30-something bookstore worker, living in a fictional small town — a suburb of Rochester, New York, set sometime prior to smartphones. Kenneth is socially awkward, but well-meaning. He’s experienced considerable loss… and has created an imaginary friend, Bert, most likely as a coping mechanism. Through the telling of both the inner and outer lives of the central character, themes of friendship, loneliness, and self-discovery are satisfyingly explored within this fast moving, no intermission, dramatic play with comedy. It premiered off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre on May 4, 2023, in a production starring William Jackson Harper as Kenneth. For his highly lauded performance, Harper won an Obie Award. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2024. Since then, high-profile regional productions at Arlington’s Signature Theatre, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and Houston’s Alley Theatre, have further introduced the new work to a diverse audience. NSU Theatre’s production is the first professional production of the play in this region.
“It won a Pulitzer Prize for a reason. There are multiple, highly interesting narratives for characters in this play. And then the devices that she (Eboni) uses to jump time with him — and it is a memory play — he’s active in the play, but he’s also our narrator, at the exact same time. So we meet 28-year-old Kenneth, and 38-year-old Kenneth…” Stockard explains. Student actor Brenden Wrenn portrays the complex protagonist, while Corrina is played by Kyla Wright, Bert is portrayed by Myron Simon, Jr., and Philip Amofah, Jr. plays the character of Clay. And then there’s the pivotal role of Sam, portrayed here by actor LeVonte Herbert, who is also a professor in the Drama department. The play is being staged inside the smaller studio theater space, to better illustrate the world of Kenneth. Stockard encourages patrons to arrive on time for the performances, and teases that “they will be surprised that the play starts on arrival.”
There is a lot being asked of any actor who inhabits Kenneth, and for Wrenn, this is his very first professional production. He’s still a freshman. “This is my first actual professional credit,” he says. “It’s a huge role to step into. And it’s a lot of weight… But I do believe that I can handle it.” Professor Stockard evidently believes that he can as well, since he cast him in the role. The director tells me later that “Brenden, his audition, was special. It was so clear that he did his work, connected, and made very bold choices in a way that nobody else did.” For the important female role of Corrina, who befriends Kenneth, Kyla eventually beat out other actresses, in a more competitive process than what occurred with the Kenneth role. She relates to Corrina’s “deep sense of justice,” and admires that “with an open heart, she accepts him for who he is. And they develop a friendship from there,” says the Nashville native, who is a graduating senior.
Stockard is excited to dig into the story’s complexity through a rigorous rehearsal schedule, and its eventual staging. “It’s a very moving piece. It’s also chock full of comedy,” he notes. “The storytelling is so compelling. And so layered. And the inventiveness that happens inside of the play, takes it to another level.”
WANT TO GO?
“Primary Trust “
Presented by Norfolk State University Theatre Company
March 27 — April 5
NSU Browm Memorial Hall Studio Theater