"Purpose," a powerful Broadway family drama about legacy and faith, took home two awards at last month's Tonys. The man behind it, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, spoke to CBS News.

Broadway

Broadway experienced a record-breaking season, with the family drama "Purpose" standing out as a major success, earning two Tony Awards. Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins spoke about his approach to theatre, describing it as a space for audiences to safely explore complex emotions together.

Jacobs-Jenkins highlighted the significance of the American family as a framework for addressing themes of identity, history, and belonging in his plays. He also discussed the unifying power of laughter in theatre and revealed that the title "Purpose" was inspired by the concept of a 'crisis of purpose' encountered during his research.

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins on his Broadway hit "Purpose"

Broadway just had its biggest year ever, smashing records with nearly two billion dollars in ticket sales. It was a season driven by blockbusters and breakouts, among them Purpose, a powerful family drama about the legacy and faith which took home two Tony Awards. John Dickerson interviewed the man behind it, the playwright Brandon Jacobs Jenkins. You said, or have said, that the theater is a place for ugly feelings. What does that mean? Well, I like to think of the theater as like a gym for the emotions. You know, I think in its best iteration of itself, it's where we go to feel things safely that maybe we don't feel safe feeling out in the world, you know, and to also experience each other experiencing those things collectively. So I like to think that, you know, it's where we go to kind of exercise anger, to question our own sense of shame, to hear other people doing the same things. It's about being like a kind of collective around emotional experience. And physically being in the same space as a person who is going through that shame or anger. That's totally right, yeah. And unlike a movie, you know, the actors are also humans who are alive in front of you, so there's a really interesting kind of back-and-forth or kind of communication that happens that I find always very moving to witness. Ian, Appropriate, which I also have seen as well as Purpose, the family across generations are in both. What is useful about the American family as a way to tell your stories, to explore those feelings? Well, you know, the family drama is like the most American theatrical drama genre. It's, you know, it's sort of the unit in which we're mostly forged as Americans. You know, I think a lot of European drama is set in like a little village, you know, or it's some kind of mythical kingdom in other cultures. But we really somehow think that the family is all we need to kind of talk through the big questions about identity, about history, about belonging, about love, about hate. And I don't know, it's just the thing we love. It's like our favorite past time, I guess, after baseball. Yeah. Comedy plays such an important role in your work. Help us understand what role it plays for you as a playwright in carrying out a story. Yeah. I mean, laughter is such a mystery, right? No one knows why we do it, you know, yet we do it. And yet people are never more vulnerable or more open than when they're laughing, you know, and especially when you're laughing in a group. And I find that it's a very equalizing experience, no matter who you are, black, white, male, female, old or young. When you're laughing with other people, you somehow are connected in a way that you never are otherwise. And I find that that's just the right moment to kind of insert a thought or an idea or get people to think collectively, you know. So for me, I think of laughter as a unifying event in the same way that we all kind of, everyone feels shame about crying, but no one's ever really ashamed of laughing, you know. So I try to celebrate it. I mean, ironically enough, I always think I'm writing like the saddest plays in town, but then I show up and the audiences are cackling. So I'm now just finally dealing with the fact that I might be a comic writer, but, you know, learning something new every day. Exactly, exactly. Purpose, the name of the play, where did that come in your journey of writing it? That's a great question. I think it, I actually think it came across in some reading I was doing. I was doing a lot of research around these figures in this era, and I came across the phrase crisis of purpose, which really inspired me. And I started thinking about what that meant, what that word is, you know, how all the dimensions of it. Brandon, well, this was a joy. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here.

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Jerusalem

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Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

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Texas

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Los Angeles

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