Appropriate

by Branden Jacob-Jenkins

Moderated by Dr. Niambi Webster

Appropriate follows the estranged adult Lafayette siblings (Toni, Bo, Franz) as they return to their crumbling Arkansas plantation to settle their recently deceased, racist patriarch’s estate, uncovering a shocking photo album of lynchings and other disturbing mementos that expose their family’s deep-seated, systemic racism and hidden histories, forcing uncomfortable confrontations about their legacy and complicity in America’s racial sins, all while navigating personal resentments and secrets. 

About the playwright 

Branden Jacob-Jenkins

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a Brooklyn-based playwright, producer and Pulitzer Prize winner (for his play Purpose). His plays include Girls, Everybody (Signature Theatre), War (Yale Rep; Lincoln Center/LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre), Appropriate (Obie Award; Signature Theatre), An Octoroon (Obie Award; Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience), and Neighbors (The Public Theater). Most recently he was the showrunner, executive producer, and writer for Hulu/FX’s drama series, “Kindred,” based on Octavia E. Butler’s groundbreaking novel. A Premiere Resident playwright at Signature Theatre, his honors include USA Artists, Guggenheim, and MacArthur fellowships, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award and he currently serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild council. He teaches at Yale University.

About the moderator

Rev. Dr. Niambi Webster

Niambi D. Webster is a native of Batesville, ARK. She received a BFA at Drake University, M.S. at Mankato State University, Ph.D. at the University of Iowa, and a DTh. from Jacksonville Theological Seminary. She has played in over 30 theatrical productions throughout her career and directed over 23 plays. In Memphis she has performed in productions at Playhouse on the Square, Hattiloo, Theatre Memphis, Bluff City Theatre, New Moon, and Opera Memphis. Her most memorable performances were when she played Sister Margaret and Odessa in The Amen Corner, Beneatha and Mama in A Raisin in the Sun, The Lady in Red in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, danced and portrayed Lutibelle and Adella in the musical Purlie, and played herself in Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues. She is a proud recipient of “The Artist of the Year Award” from the State of Iowa Arts Council. In 1990, she founded, directed, and acted in productions of the touring ensemble, The Langston Hughes Company of Players. They performed For Colored Girls Who Have Committed Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Johnnas, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Your Arms Are Too Short to Box With God. She serves as co-director of The Spoken Word for the African Methodist Episcopal Church 13th District Christian Education Department and is the dramatics, poetry performance and oratory coordinator for the N.A.A.C.P. Academic, Cultural, Technological, Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO).

She retired in 2021 after teaching secondary education at the College level for 28 years and Speech, English, theatre, and dance in the Shelby County Schools for 23 years. Currently she produces and directs plays at her church Wilson Chapel AME where she is an Associate Pastor. She thanks God for all the wonderful years as an actor and pastor, and now has the time to produce and author plays she has written.

Most recently she completed the Teaching Artist Program at the Orpheum Theatre and played Nimbi in a musical theatre production of Exodus: Recreation, sponsored by The InHEIRitance Project |New York, NY. an innovative leadership development, inclusion, and community-building program.