Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ ‘Purpose’ Wins Pulitzer Prize For Drama

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins – Stephanie Augello

Purpose, the new play by Tony Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama on Monday, May 5, 2025.

The play, which premiered in March of last year at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, stars LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Kara Young, Harry Lennix, Jon Michael Hill, Glenn Davis, and Alana Arenas.

The play is a family drama following the members of the politically active Jasper family, who rose to prominence following the Civil Rights movement. Still, it is then affected by an embezzlement scandal.

Purpose had been running up against two separate Tony Award nominees—Oh, Mary!, written by and starring Cole Escola, which is currently running on Broadway, and The Ally, written by Itamar Moses, which premiered Off-Broadway in February of last year.

It marks the first Pulitzer win for Jacobs-Jenkins, who had previously been nominated as a finalist in 2017 for the play Everybody. He also won a Tony Award last year for his revival of Appropriate.

Purpose is playing at the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway from Monday, March 17, 2025, till Sunday, July 6, 2025.