When Danielle Brooks learned she’d been offered the role of Sofia in the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple,” she burst into tears. This was the show, after all, that made her want to be a performer. At Juilliard, she and her best friend memorized the score and performed it most nights in their dorm room. There was one problem: She already had a job, playing Taystee in the popular Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black.” But Brooks was determined to do both. The producers of “Orange” said OK, but reminded her that they had priority. And so began a grueling 4 a.m.-to-midnight schedule that, for the fall of 2015, turned 26-year-old Brooks into the hardest-working woman in show business. “I usually shot ‘Orange’ one or two days a week,” she says. “So I thought I could handle that and ‘Purple.’ But just when I started rehearsals for ‘Purple,’ I got the breakdown for the new season of ‘Orange’ — and Taystee was in it a lot. Four or five days a week!” Danielle Brooks (right) is well known for her role as Taystee on “Orange Is the New Black,” now in its fourth season.Po: JoJo Whilden/NetflixThere would be no letup. “Orange” continued shooting while “Purple” started previews. Here’s an hour-by-hour look at her typical schedule last fall, to show how she made it work: 4:00 a.m.: The alarm goes off in her Brooklyn apartment. Thirty minutes later, she’s in a van headed to the Orangeburg, NY, set of “Orange.” In the van, she’s memorizing her lines for that day’s scenes. 5:00 a.m.: Hair and makeup. Brooks is running her lines while she’s being transformed into Taystee. 7:30 a.m.: Rehearsal for her scene. This eats up 45 minutes because it’s a big scene with extras in the prison cafeteria. 8:00-8:30 a.m.: Brooks has some quiet time in her trailer. If she’s got her lines down, she takes a catnap. If not, it’s back to the script. 9:00 a.m.: Shooting begins. It will not let up until noon. 1:00 p.m.: Lunch, catered at the studio by craft service. But Brooks doesn’t have time to sit and eat with the rest of the cast. She shoves what she can into a to-go box and jumps into a van, which is now speeding to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre for “Purple” rehearsals. At 1:30 p.m., she runs through the stage door just in time to work on Sofia’s big number, “Hell No!” 5:00 p.m.: Rehearsal over, Brooks heads to her dressing room. She locks her door so that no one will disturb her. It’s time for another nap. She listens to her jazz playlist, “Jazz for Sleeping.” She drifts off to Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child.” 6:30 p.m.: Dinner in her dressing room. She’s picked up a habit that helps her relax before the show: adult coloring books. “There’s something about having to stay in the lines that helps me focus,” Brooks says. “By nature, I’m scatterbrained.” Brooks has received rave reviews for her turn as Sofia in Broadway’s revival of “The Color Purple.”Po: Matthew Murphy8:00 p.m.: Show time. She doesn’t make her entrance until 8:20, but after that, she’s seldom offstage. 10:30 p.m.: The curtain comes down after a standing ovation. But now, because the show is catching fire, a lot of VIPs are paying backstage visits. “I like to get into a pair of pajamas after the show,” she says. “I love my onesies. But then one night Steven Spielberg came backstage, and I thought, ‘You cannot look like a homeless person around Steven Spielberg!’ ” Jennifer Hudson started helping her select the right clothes to wear when A-listers stopped by. 11:00 p.m.: Brooks walks out the stage door, but spends the next half-hour signing autographs and posing for pictures. “You do not neglect the people who came to see you in the show,” she says. Midnight: She’s back in her apartment. She checks her e-mail and finds she has a new monologue she has to learn for next day’s “Orange” shoot. Before bed she takes a bath to relax, and then tries to catch a few hours’ sleep before her alarm goes off again at 4 a.m. “When it was all over, and ‘Purple’ had opened, I fell on my knees and thanked God for getting me through it,” Brooks says. “But I never once felt sorry for myself. I would never complain. Most actors are out of work. I had two jobs. So I had a lot to be grateful for.” Thankfully, things have eased up now that “Purple” is a hit and “Orange” is on hiatus. But the TV show starts up again in two months — just about the time Brooks is likely to find herself campaigning for a new role: Tony Award winner.
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