INTERVIEW: Steve H. Broadnax III on the family drama at the heart of ‘The First Deep Breath’
Photo: From left, Lee Edward Colston II, Candace Thomas, Ella Joyce and Opa Adeyemo star in The First Deep Breath at Geffen Playhouse. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. Photo courtesy of Jeff Lorch / Provided by Geffen Playhouse with permission.
Director Steve H. Broadnax III was one of the first believers in the brilliance of Lee Edward Colston II’s play The First Deep Breath, which first premiered more than three years ago at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. Now the show is back with its West Coast premiere at the famed Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
The epic drama is truly epic, clocking in at nearly four hours. The show follows Pastor Albert Jones and his family as they attempt to memorialize the death of their late daughter, Diane, according to press notes. Problems begin when the pastor’s eldest son, Abdul-Malik, comes home from prison — and, as the audience quickly learns, Albert blames his son for Diane’s death. Colston pulls double duty, not only serving as playwright but also playing the part of Abdul-Malik. Other cast members include Ella Joyce, Herb Newsome and Candace Thomas, among others.
Broadnax became entranced by the piece because of its family feel on stage.
“It was family, seeing how a family communicates, and it was familiar to me in a lot of ways, seeing how love is at the core of all families,” the director said in a recent phone interview. “But there are times through maybe not knowing how to communicate, lack of communication, some information or secrets or whatever, that can get in the way of a family loving on each other. This family drama was familiar, so I was like, oh yeah, this is really cool.”
The script that is being performed at the Geffen Playhouse, where performances continue through March 5, is largely the same one that was brought to life at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. During its world premiere, there was a lot of editing, but for this version, there were only minor tweaks.
“There were some things that [Colston] learned from the last production, but nothing super-major,” Broadnax said. “A slight epilogue change, that was the biggest change. There are things that we may have cut in Victory Gardens that we have brought back or edited down or repurposed from what he learned from that show. It’s slight.”
Broadnax sees the show as centered on this towering patriarch — the pastor of Mother Bethel Baptist Church — who dearly loves his family and will do anything to set them up with positive, fulfilling lives. In many ways, he wants them to be better than he is.
“Providing for his family is his love language, and he loves his family deeply,” said Broadnax, whose previous credits include Thoughts of a Colored Man on Broadway and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Sally & Tom at the Guthrie Theater. “He has the spiritual connection because he’s the pastor of a church, but he also may not understand from a different generation how to emotionally be there for his children outside of what he has coined for their lives. Parents can sometimes have expectations or hope for your life in what you want. He has these for the betterment of his family and for the success of his children — and the love — but what they are and who they are may conflict with what he has hoped for them. But he loves them tremendously and does everything to support them.”
Broadnax’s approach in the rehearsal process is a unique one, filled with inclusiveness and respect for the artists as humans. He stressed “people over plays” as a mantra he comes back to time and time again.
“It is important for us and me to acknowledge and give agency to these artists as human beings first and foremost before we take on imaginary circumstances,” he said.
He likes to break apart the word “respect” and clearly define it for his company of actors. “Re” means again, and “spect” means looking. So he starts each and every day by “looking again” and checking in with everyone in the cast.
“People have real-life things going on, but for us to just acknowledge each other and respect, to look again to our humanity, all of us in the room, before we begin to build,” Broadnax said. “That’s how we begin. We begin our day that way and end our day that way, and we build a community of artists in human beings first and foremost before we start taking on specific roles of the play.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The First Deep Breath, written by Lee Edward Colston II and directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, continues through March 5 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Click here for more information and tickets.
