Go Inside Opening Night of SLAVE PLAY on Broadway with Jeremy O. Harris & More!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Playwright Jeremy O'Harris is making his Broadway debut with Slave Play. Following a critically acclaimed, sold-out run off-Broadway

it is once again directed by Robert O'Hara, and we caught up with the company just minutes after their opening night curtain rang down

Living in the body I've lived in for as long as I've lived in it

with the recognition that my body was matured in and around plantations in Martinsville, Virginia

and to come to a place like New York or L.A. or Chicago

and have people who saw my body not in that history made me think about how I could rearrange their brains

to see their bodies in that same history as mine. What has it been like for you meeting the audience

There was an audience of every age in diversity coming to see your show. There was someone there the other day who was like 12 years old

loving this piece. So what does that mean to you? It means a lot because I was a kid who didn't see any access for myself in Broadway

I didn't think that there was a space for me there. And the fact that I know that I've been multiple people's first Broadway shows

and so many people are coming up to me afterwards being like, oh, I didn't know that that was possible

means that maybe our industry will keep blossoming and becoming a place of infinite possibilities and not minute possibilities

I play Kanisha and my way in was that she a character who easily triggered by everything So living in that heightened state where anything could tip you off over the edge was kind of exciting to play

I don't know if there's an unlocking. I just think Jeremy's rhetoric is good, and his arguments are good in the play

and when words are that good, I feel like the play does me, not the other way around

And so I get to walk into the room and just be available to the play

Working together, you two are so beautiful to watch. What is that

I mean, that chemistry is so great. What's it like sharing the stage together? Oh, my God

First of all, he's the sweetest, kindest person ever. So it's honestly the best

It's the best experience. He has such a great heart and is so fearless in his exploration

So I'm so happy to have him as my partner. She's being very kind

I'm lucky because Jaquina is a hugger and I need hugs after this show

And I want to give hugs. But she came into the room with so much in her suitcase to begin with

And I'm just lucky to be on stage with you. This show is such a mountain to climb

and I feel like we just really accomplished something. Yeah. I feel insane

I was with this play since the very beginning of it, and to do it with all of my friends I still have to pinch myself that we actually doing this on Broadway So when you first read the play what went through your mind saying I have to do this play

Well, I had just never read anything like it. And I knew that I was feeling a lot of things

I knew I wanted to speak to someone about it. The play was actually sent to me by a good friend of mine, Dustin Wills

And after reading it, I was just blown away. you know so I was terrified of it but I knew I had to be a part of it you know yeah I've never

heard a story like this nobody has done it with such a bravery and no filter and I believe that

it tapped into something that we don't talk about as a country enough especially in theater

especially on Broadway so when I first read that I was like well this I have to be involved in any

way that I can there's nothing like being with a lot of people you love doing work that you believe

as like your introduction. This is all surreal. I keep thinking I'm dreaming

but I'm very happy to be sharing this with my friends. So when you two first got the script

like what went through your minds of saying, I have to do this? Well, Shalia and I have been with the play

since its first reading at Yale School of Drama when there was no third act

and that's actually where we met. So ever since we read the unfinished script

at least for me, I knew I couldn't put it down and I knew that I needed to be attached to the project

because we hadn't seen anything like this and it was important work that needed to be done Yes similarly when I first read the script I had heard phrases and lingo that people have been trying to use especially like in academia as well of how to talk about race gender how to connect a little further than when since we obviously haven gotten as far as we like to be

And it was the first time seeing a play dissect that language to see, are we getting closer? Are we getting further? Are there new questions that we have? And that was what really took me

It's surreal. I've cried multiple times today just living in the moment of not only Broadway debut

but Broadway debut in this play that we've been on a journey with for over a year

It's hard to put into words. It's very, very exciting, I think

Yeah, I think she said it. She summed it up. To be on Broadway, it's my debut as well, but to be in this show is just extraordinary

I'd like to be making it together. And you play together in this show

What kind of conversations did you have? Like, oh my God, tonight we're making our Broadway debut in this groundbreaking piece

Well, I mean, if I say anything like that, sorry. He's not going to

He'll make a joke. That's why he's a very good scene partner

Because I can get a little hysterical. And then he'll just make a joke and I'll calm down

Yeah, you kind of, backstage, it's funny, before the show backstage was like the most laid back environment ever. Yeah

People are listening to music, drinking tea, hanging out, and it's not until moments like this where you kind of go, oh, this is kind of a thing

Yeah