“It take a grain of love to make a mighty tree. Even the smallest voice can make a harmony.” ~ “The Color Purple” from the musical of the same title, soon to be opening the 2022-2023 season at Signature Theatre. A powerful show, with book by Marsha Norman, and music & lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray, based on the 1982 novel by Alice Walker and its 1985 film adaptation, this striking musical has the potential to be a dynamite way to open Signature’s new season. In a TheatreBloom interview, we’ve taken a few moments to chat with Kaiyla Gross to talk about her involvement with the production; Gross plays Nettie, Celie’s sister in this show.
Thank you so very much for giving us some of your time today; we really appreciate it. Is Signature’s The Color Purple your first live, in-person production back since before the pandemic?
Kaiyla Gross: No this is actually not my first performance back. I started back with Rent at Signature Theatre last fall. And then I moved to do Ragtime at Duluth Playhouse in Minnesota. Then I did Godspell, it was supposed to be at The Museum of The Bible but it switched to being in Traverse City in Michigan. And now I’m back here in the DC area, with Signature, for The Color Purple.
What does getting to be a part of The Color Purple mean to you as a performer?
Kaiyla: That’s a beautiful question. I did The Color Purple in college and I played Celie in college. But learning so much from life experiences from then, from the Pandemic, and every other thing that’s happened in life since then, I have a different outlook on The Color Purple now. There’s so much that I didn’t feel the first time that I did it that I’m feeling now because of things that are happening in this world, that are continuing to happen in this world. It’s a beautiful piece that really highlights the power and the strength that Celie has in her connection with God and being rooted and grounded in that connection. It highlights how much having that higher power that you believe in can really keep you grounded and focused on the things that really matter. Even when life is doing what it’s doing. Having that foundation just allows you to be present in the moment that you’re in and be content even if it is not what you expected it to be. The Color Purple brings joy and helps me remember who I am and just how you need to grow and that you need to continue to grow and that it’s a wonderful thing.
You’re playing Nettie and she is Celie’s sister. What are you bringing to Nettie, what is she bringing to you? How are you and Nettie similar and how are you guys different? I know you mentioned you’d played Celie in college, what is it like getting to be the other half of that sisterhood?
Kaiyla: I think it’s beautiful to be able to play Nettie. I really take this as me and my sister’s relationship. I have an older sister and she is my best friend. I will protect her for everything. I take it as just that loving bond that you have with your sister, especially being close in age the way Celie and Nettie are; they’re only two years apart. Me and my sister are four years apart but she is my best friend. I couldn’t go through life successfully without my sister. I know having that strong bond with someone in your family makes a big difference in life.
As far as Nettie and Celie, Nettie really just wants to be there for Celie as much as she can and as much as she is knowledgeable about at the time as she’s progressing through life. Their bond that they have is so beautiful because that’s all that they have. All around them is all this turmoil and negative things that keep happening to Celie and to Nettie. So it’s just this beautiful thing that they can be rooted back into this connection that they have, the love that they have for each other that will never go away. It’s beautiful.
What would you say has been your biggest challenge up to this point with tackling the role of Nettie?
Kaiyla: I think just remaining present. Our beautiful director Timothy (director Timothy Douglas) just always asks us to remain present and allow for our true feelings to be released through what we’re actually communicating with the text. So the challenge is just allowing my emotions that I’m really feeling with the character to just be released through what she’s actually saying. Knowing that Nettie has to go through so much too, it’s heartbreaking but it’s also very— I can’t think of the word— it just gives you that release to know that life does happen but there is greater good in the chaos that is also happening. It’s important, I think as Nettie, being that younger sister who is in the mix but not really in the mix because Celie really takes the “majority of the beatings”, that she stays grounded in hope. Nettie is just trying to be that light. She is the light. She’s carrying that light from the beginning and I think she’s just trying to help Celie see that you are light too. You can be more than what people are trying to portray you as and you are more than what people are trying to put on you.
Is there a moment in the show that really defines what the show means for you as a person and a performer? Where is that moment in the show for you?
Kaiyla: I think it would just be when Celie sings “The Color Purple.” That’s when she really feels like God is everything, not just what people are trying to make him out to be; he’s not just tangible things. He’s everything. He’s inside you, he’s breathing, he’s life, he’s in the mix of the chaos. You can find God everywhere. It’s just beautiful to know that realization that she has had that light inside of her that entire time and just the root of having the foundation of God has helped her bring out so much of what she already had inside of her. It’s just so beautiful.
What has been your big personal takeaway? Has being Nettie in The Color Purple given you anything that really hits home on a personal level during this experience so far?
Kaiyla: I would say just having that relationship bond with her sister, as far as me being the younger sister and having my sister be so close to me and knowing that I have her back in situations if anything like that were to happen to her— I would be devastated just like Nettie is with Celie. I think that resonates with me to feel that bond and to continue to build that bond with my sister. You should love on the people that love on you. You should continue to build those healthy relationships that make you happy and don’t stray away from things or emotions that make you happy. It’s just a beautiful thing to be around the people who want to be around you. And try, to the best of your ability, to be present and enjoy life even when the world may seem as if you shouldn’t be enjoying life, you should try to enjoy it to the best of your ability anyway. I think I resonate with keeping that bond with your sister, or whoever it is in your life that pours into you the way you pour into them.
Why do you think The Color Purple is still a relevant and topical show to be producing at this moment in time?
Kaiyla: In the world that we’re living in right now, with the whole women’s rights being in the forefront of the world, with what we can and cannot do to our bodies, with other people dictating the control of our bodies, and being told by other people, other men, that this is what should be done to our bodies and we just have to go along with it? That’s very similar to The Color Purple with Celie who just has to do what a man says because that’s what the time was. And that’s how she had to make it in life in order to keep her sister safe, and in order to be able to grow within herself to be a better person and bettering herself. The time that we’re living in now, this is very relevant. Dealing with women’s rights, racism and what that still is today, we have to see the greater good in people regardless of what else is going on in life.
Celie has everything that she needs inside of her. Pulling that out of her throughout the entire musical is what it’s all about. Everything is really already inside of everyone. I think it also helps with perspective. The Color Purple brings out different perspectives from the women, from the men— even though Mister was what he was— it brings about the discussion of mental health and childhood traumas. It brings out discussions of other traumas that may have happened in life and how they manifest in different areas of life that we may not even be conscious to. I think that’s how it is in the world now. There are a lot of people in the world healing from a lot of different things that we might not understand. Mental health is becoming a bigger thing, there’s more attention being given to it, which is a beautiful thing. I think The Color Purple helps show that there are things that people are dealing with that you might not understand but that doesn’t necessarily make them a bad person. It means they just have things, like we all have things, that they need to work through and heal from. I think it’s important that we extend grace to everyone, but more importantly, to ourselves so that we are able to extend that grace to others.
What is it you are hoping people are going to take away from seeing The Color Purple? Why do you want them to come and see it?
Kaiyla: On the surface level, everyone in the cast is phenomenally talented. They have beautiful spirits; they are great artists, they are themselves. So on the surface level they’re just beautiful performers. As far as the context and text, The Color Purple is just a beautiful play with music. It can get very deep and some of the songs can make you feel like it’s supposed to be joyous, but if you listen to the actual lyrics, it’s very disheartening sometimes. It makes you really give thanks for where you are right now. Things could be way worse and we could still be living in those times. There are some situations currently where these things are still happening; I don’t want to ignore that or pretend that there aren’t places even in this country where these situations still happen, but we are in a better time, even though we still have a lot of room to grow. I want people to understand that having that firm foundation of God and believing that everything you have to do in life is already inside of you. So it’s not about finding stuff it’s about unveiling what’s already there that just needs to come out.
If you had to sum up your experience with this production of The Color Purple in just one word, which word would you use?
Kaiyla: I would use release.
The Color Purple plays August 16 2022 through October 9 2022 in the Max Theatre at Signature Theatre— 4200 Campbell Avenue in Shirlington, VA. For tickets call the box office at (703) 820-9771 or purchase them online.
