In The Last Five Years and Macbeth in Stride, Whitney White Is Wondering If Women Can Have It All

“We’re going to leave this room in 90 minutes better than when we came in,�� Whitney White tells the room. It’s Saturday, April 5, 11 AM, and the busy director is getting ready to open a show. Actually, she’s getting ready to open two shows. That afternoon, White is trying to figure out if she should rewrite one of the songs in her show Macbeth in Stride, an exploration of the Scottish play that she wrote and is currently performing through April 27 at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Then the next day, April 6, is opening night of The Last Five Years on Broadway, starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren, which White directed.

Though speaking to her that rainy day, as she dressed for comfort in a matching jeans and jean jacket set, her long hair flowing freely, White was the picture of focus. “Say it again!�� she exclaims to co-star Charlie Thurston (who was at that point starring in Liberation, another play that White directed). “Heterosexual death spiral,�� says Thurston. “Should that be a lyric?�� remarks White, typing furiously in her Macbook.

Director Taibi Magar asks when White, who’s also the mother of a two-year-old, plans to write this new song for Macbeth in Stride. White responds, “There’s two hours every morning where I can write.�� Says Magar, “I don’t know how you do it all Whit. Like, how?��

That’s a great question. Because besides those three aforementioned shows, White also directed Walden by Amy Berryman, starring Emmy Rossum in the fall. She’s also a judge for the Obie Awards (she previously won an Obie in 2020). And earlier that same week, she attended the opening night for Good Night, and Good Luck starring George Clooney (yes, she did get to meet him and yes, she was gobsmacked when he knew who she was). In short, at 39, White is in her busy and in-demand era.

“I really don't know,�� White admits when asking how she balances it all. “I just get it done because I feel compelled to do it. Like, if I'm not compelled to do something, I just can't do it. I was very compelled to direct Liberation and The Last Five Years. I didn't expect them to go in the same season. That was a surprise.�� She then exclaims, smiling, “I'm not in charge of all these fancy theatre schedules!��

But she’s also thinking hard about what this all means. Macbeth in Stride has performers acting out scenes from Shakespeare’s play, while singing original pop-rock songs and questioning the entire thing: What it means that Lady Macbeth is still such a popular archetype—an ambitious woman who goes crazy. “I am of the mind that narratives affect our lives, the idea of a glass ceiling, the idea of Lady Macbeth syndrome…these are all stories we've been told,�� muses White after that Saturday rehearsal session.

After all, there is a reason that Shakespeare is considered timeless, and there is also a reason why “can you have it all?�� is a question that is only ever asked of women. “I do feel like ambition is a question of the season, of my season,�� says White. “Because even in The Last Five Years, that's about a couple—they both have the same ambition to make it as artists. One does and one doesn't.�� That imbalance fractures their relationship. Similarly, in Liberation by Bess Wohl, it starts off with its central character asking why her feminist mother gave up her own career and goals to have a family. Adds White, “I feel like I'm an artist that has questions, and I think it's useful and productive to question things. But I am not an artist who has all the answers.��

Adrienne Warren and Nick Jonas in *The Last Five Years* Matthew Murphy

White burst onto the theatre scene in 2018, when she directed a play Off-Broadway by Aleshea Harris called What to Send Up When It Goes Down—an exploration of police brutality that was structured like a religious ceremony to honor Black lives, with audience participation. Last year, White received her first Tony nomination for directing Jocelyn Bioh’s play, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, about immigrant women working in a hair-braiding salon. White’s direction isn’t defined by a central aesthetic; instead, she’s focused on shining a light onto rarely told perspectives, one that says, as White puts it: “We're human, and actually, you're gonna identify with my story as much as I would identify with yours.��

White didn’t set out to become a director. She originally trained as an actor and singer. She grew up singing with her local church in Chicago. Choir singing soon led to White writing her own songs. “I was in a band called Funk in the Trunk,�� White says, putting her head down on the table laughing. It also led her to musical theatre and opera; White says music calmed her busy mind. “My mom spent all her hard-working money to get me voice lessons when we were living in a one-bedroom apartment,�� she says. At Northwestern, she graduated with a degree in political science and a certificate in theatre.

After undergrad, White found steady employment as an actor regionally, working on Caroline, or Change; Rent; Passing Strange; Show Boat. But she soon found herself dissatisfied by the roles that were being offered to her, for shows that usually centered on pain and trauma. “I was playing token best friends, prostitutes, chorus girls. There was no plan for me. And when I would say, ‘I think I can do a little bit more, no one would hear that,’�� recalls White.

At Brown University, where she got her MFA in acting, she was trained to be a holistic artist—the program encouraged actors to try directing and writing. That’s when White began writing Macbeth in Stride and pursuing directing fellowships (she began her directing career as an assistant to Sam Gold for Othello at New York Theatre Workshop in 2016, which starred David Oyelowo and Daniel Craig).

The past eight years, as White’s directing career has become more and more high-profile, she has kept returning to Macbeth in Stride, having performed it in Philadelphia; Cambridge, Massachusetts; New Haven, Connecticut; and Washington, D.C.—all to rave reviews. She also teases a future engagement of it after this New York one.

But as she becomes more successful, White still finds herself plagued with the same questions that led her to write Macbeth in Stride—which was inspired by her aunt and her cousin who both died young. “These untimely deaths, you know, in the Shakespearean sense, like…you can't, it's there, you know,�� she says, the rare time in the interview White didn’t have the words. “But I have hope for love and women finding ways to actualize themselves in the world, realize themselves in the world, and be in love and start a family.��

So how can women have it all? Answers White: “I think that it takes a village. I have an amazing husband. He's an artist, and he's helped me heal a lot of wounds or misconceptions around whether it's possible.�� White’s married to Maxim Pozdorovkin, a filmmaker. They live in Brooklyn. She also credits the nannies and her mother, who all help watch her son.

Whitney White and Maxim Pozdorovkin Jalen Gregory

After rehearsals, White will meet up with her mom and go shopping for opening-night outfits. When reviews come out for Last Five Years, White will stay positive: “I consider it to be part of a dialogue—everyone is entitled to their opinion, it doesn’t change how I feel about my actors and the show,�� she says lightly in a follow-up conversation. “It makes me want to say to people, ‘Come out and see it, and create your own opinion.’��

While White is continuing to question, she’s also focusing on how far she’s come—the fact that she, a Black woman, now has the space to interrogate Shakespeare. The fact that Adrienne Warren and Nick Jonas have made history as the original Broadway cast of The Last Five Years. The fact that White has been able to put her vision of those constantly revived stories on the stage.

“I was able to achieve something that still feels like me,�� says White. “I'm just after what's gonna connect people most.�� On that Saturday in April, before she departs to go shopping with her mother, White shares this anecdote from a performance of Macbeth in Stride—when she performed to a mostly Black audience. “The audience wrote me affirmation. Like, ‘You're blessed. You're here. Thank you for the night.�� A woman brought me wine she'd made in her home. They said a prayer for me. It was one of the most meaningful moments of my life,�� she recalls, her voice thick with emotion. “Theatre can transform not just them, but me. I'm grateful for it.��