Lester  most recently performed  the role J.P. Madison in What I Learned in Paris at Portland Playhouse he just closed Thurgood at Cleveland Playhouse and he performed the role of August Wilson in his one man show How I Learned What I Learned at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, he has performed in regional theatre across the country including a national tour as Othello in Othello, and as Augustus Newcastle in The Darker Face of the Earth and Lester Mason in The Big White Fog, all with The Guthrie Theatre. A long time company member with Penumbra Theatre where August Wilson was discovered, Purry has played the roles of Cory in Fences, Clay in Dutchman, Hambone in Two Trains Running, Lymon in The Piano Lesson the production that Wilson said was the best he’d ever seen, Hedley in King Hedley II, and Booster in Jitney, to name a few. At Baltimore Center Stage Purry was Marvell Thunder in Thunder Knocking on the Door, as well as King of the Hill in You Can Stop On a Dime. He played Lymon in The Piano Lesson, Scarus in Antony and Cleopatra, and Mordred in Camelot at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Purry performed at Philadelphia Theatre Company as Floyd Barton in Seven Guitars, Arizona Theatre Company as Wolf in Two Trains Running, and as Troy Maxson in Fences at Portland Playhouse, Palm Beach Dramaworks and Los Angeles Performing Arts Center. He also played the role of Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Children’s Theatre Company,  Most recently he performed the role of Charles Grace in Fireflies at South Coast Repertory Theatre and in Thurgood, as Thurgood Marshall at Geva Theatre Center, Portland Playhouse and Penumbra Theatre.