Onstage and Off, Whitney White Is Everywhere This Spring

This spring, Whitney White has been on an impressive creative streak. She first helmed Liberation, an ensemble drama staged Off-Broadway. Soon after, she moved to Broadway to direct The Last Five Years, a two-character musical. Just days following its opening night, she could be found upstairs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), diving into rehearsals for Macbeth in Stride—her unique reimagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which begins its performances this Tuesday.

During a run-through of the song “Reach for It,” White, portraying a contemporary version of Lady Macbeth, sang directly into the mic: “Power’s not supposed to look like me.” The line hits with a quiet force—maybe, just maybe, it should.

White, 39, is a rare creative force—multitalented and comfortable across disciplines. She’s an actress, musician, playwright for both stage and television (including work on Amazon Prime’s I’m a Virgo), and a Tony-nominated director whose reputation is growing rapidly. As she took a breather during rehearsal, she reflected that her current projects all revolve around ambitious women. “I think I’m one of them, in my own way,” she remarked with a laugh.

Raised in a modest one-bedroom apartment in Chicago by her hardworking single mother, White’s earliest encounters with performance took place in her grandfather’s church, the Apostolic Church of God. With a powerful 50-member choir, it was there that she first witnessed the emotional and communal power of live performance. Another pivotal moment came when she saw Cirque du Soleil, an experience that expanded her understanding of theatrical spectacle.

She eventually enrolled at Northwestern University, where she initially took theater classes. However, feeling like an outsider in what she described as a cliquish environment, she chose to major in political science instead. It wasn’t until she interned for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign that she had a defining realization: her heart belonged to the arts. “There’s really nothing else I can throw myself into fully,” she recalled.

After working as an actress for several years, White pursued a master’s degree at Brown University. It was there that she met Charlie Thurston, now her co-star in Macbeth in Stride. Thurston remembers her vividly. “She brings her entire being into any space. She’s electric,” he said. That spark was evident even during a quick lunch on BAM’s rooftop. Dressed in all black—from her leather biker jacket to her stylish heeled boots—White exuded charisma and warmth.

During her MFA studies, every student was required to direct a scene. White’s natural aptitude for directing was so clear that one of her professors pulled her aside to encourage her to pursue it further. “My mind is usually buzzing all the time,” she explained. “But when I’m directing, everything quiets down. That’s how I knew I had to keep doing it.”

Following graduation, she cast a wide net—auditioning for acting roles while simultaneously applying for directing fellowships. Her big break came when she was offered the chance to assist director Sam Gold on a star-studded production of Othello at New York Theater Workshop in 2016. The timing was perfect: she had just secured a role in a Porgy and Bess tour but chose to shift gears and accept the assistant directing role instead.

Those early years in New York were intense. White juggled daytime directing workshops with nighttime bartending gigs. In between, she performed at venues like Joe’s Pub and wrote music on her phone while commuting. For a long time, she felt she had to hide the full range of her talents just to make others comfortable. “I spent many years compartmentalizing myself,” she admitted.

In 2018, White’s talents earned her national attention when she directed Aleshea Harris’s What to Send Up When It Goes Down, an interactive performance that mourns the loss of Black lives due to racial violence. Her reputation solidified with the 2022 Obie Award for directing Our Dear Drug Lord by Alexis Scheer. By fall 2023, she had made her Broadway debut directing Jocelyn Bioh’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.

New York Times critic Jesse Green praised White’s work in Jaja’s, noting how she kept “the stage activated and the stories simmering at a happy bubble.” Her efforts earned her a Tony nomination.

Although her recent directorial ventures have primarily featured ensemble casts and centered on stories by Black women, White insists on exploring a broad artistic range. “Whitney’s always wanted her career to be expansive, beautiful, and diverse in every sense,” said Bioh, who has remained a close friend since their collaboration on Jaja’s.

White echoes this sentiment. “If people box me into one category, I’ll never get where I want to go,” she explained.

Despite the variety in her work, certain themes remain consistent. White’s productions are often bold, joyful, and deliberately inclusive. She values direct engagement with her audience, frequently breaking the “fourth wall” to foster connection. She considers each performance a tribute to the women in her family—those who sacrificed for her and who don’t always feel at home in traditional theater settings. “I’m making art that welcomes everyone,” she said.

So it came as a surprise to some that she would direct The Last Five Years, a musical beloved by theater enthusiasts but not widely seen outside that niche. The show, running through June 22, is a duet that traces the rise and fall of a romantic relationship between novelist Jamie and actress Cathy. Structured in a clever, time-shifting format, the musical is more conventional than most of White’s past work and dates back to 2001—neither a fresh debut nor a historical classic.

Yet White found a thematic kinship in Cathy. Like the characters in Liberation and her version of Lady Macbeth, Cathy is a woman with dreams and drive—even if those ambitions go unfulfilled. “That’s been my recurring theme this year: the question of whether it’s possible to want more,” she explained. In Cathy, she saw a reflection of herself. Notably, she had never seen a Black woman take on the role. She pitched the idea to Adrienne Warren, a Tony winner who was already collaborating with White on a musical adaptation of The Queen’s Gambit.

“Whitney had a clear vision from the start,” Warren said. “Her energy is magnetic. She’s like a firecracker of a director.” Warren now plays Cathy in the production, alongside pop star Nick Jonas as Jamie.

Still, as with the fictional relationship in The Last Five Years, not everything unfolded smoothly. The reviews were mixed. In a post-show curtain speech, composer Jason Robert Brown acknowledged the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, saying, “I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet Whitney White without them.” Though meant as a compliment, some interpreted it as suggesting White had been hired for reasons unrelated to her skill. (Brown declined to provide further comment.)

White responded with grace. “I think he meant to express gratitude for the team’s efforts and the final result,” she said diplomatically. She believes her work speaks for itself. As Bess Wohl, playwright of Liberation, noted: “Whitney brings her full self to every project. It’s extraordinary.”

White is not directing Macbeth in Stride herself—Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar are leading this production—so she can fully focus on performing. This show is the first in her four-part series All Is But Fantasy, a project that will explore several iconic Shakespearean figures.

According to Thurston, her co-star, this focused approach suits her well. “It’s exciting for her to dig deep into a single journey without having to juggle everything else,” he said.

That said, White finds excitement in juggling, too. As the mother of a young child, she’s constantly balancing roles—artist, mother, performer, director. She has her eyes on more Shakespeare, more musicals (including The Queen’s Gambit and a new show titled Saturday Church, featuring music by Sia), and more chapters in the All Is But Fantasy project. She also plans to write new works.

“I’m always searching, always driven,” she said. Ambition proved Lady Macbeth’s undoing, but for White, it might be her greatest gift.

When asked just how ambitious she is, White paused, then smiled. “I hope this doesn’t sound too wild,” she said. “But I’ve only accessed about 20 percent of what I’m capable of. I haven’t even really started yet.”