To prepare himself for his latest role, Los Angeles-based actor Rex Hudson spent two months hiding from society.

“I quite literally isolated myself in my apartment and stopped hanging out with my friends,” explains Hudson, reached by phone last week. “I stopped talking to certain family members. All I wanted to do was be in a dark room with the blinds down. I didn’t want to talk to anybody.”

Hudson forced himself into solitude to inform his portrayal of Kenneth, the main character in Virginia Rep’s new play “Primary Trust.” Penned by Eboni Booth, “Primary Trust” won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2024, with Pulitzer calling it “a simple and elegantly crafted story of an emotionally damaged man [that illustrates] how small acts of kindness can change a person’s life and enrich an entire community.”

Set in a fictional suburb of Rochester, New York, “Primary Trust” imparts the story of a 30-something Black man who finds out that the bookstore he’s worked at for 20 years is closing. This sets him off on a journey of self-discovery.

“The play has quite a range of tones,” Hudson explains. “It’s tricky to find the rhythm of those tones within the arc of the story, so it’s a lot of ideas flying around between the levity of the play, the tenderness of the play, the rage, the sadness, the melancholy. You try to find the range between all of those feels.”

Through the course of the show, it’s revealed that Kenneth endured a childhood trauma that has led to his self-isolation. He spends most of his time at a tiki bar called Wally’s.

“The main gist of the story is the recognition of how important human connection is to living a full life,” says Tawnya “Dr. T” Pettiford-Wates, professor of acting and directing with Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Theatre and the show’s director. “You can’t guess what’s going to happen. It surprises you and it touches your heart.”

Kenneth’s journey to overcoming his isolation is a compassionate one, aided by his love of Mai Tais.

“I see Kenneth as someone who’s in a state of living death,” Hudson says. “I’ve definitely become someone who’s deeply afraid, who’s isolated. The thing that I love about Kenneth’s character is that it’s not all lost, there’s this still better part of me that wants better for myself, wants to come out of that state, and you see it happen within conversations.”

Hudson lauds Pettiford-Wates and his fellow castmates, which include Brian Anthony Simmons, Zakiyyah Jackson and Joe Pabst.

“We have some veteran actors, we have a wonderful director,” Hudson says. “Dr. Tawnya has been very clear in her vision and had a high standard of what she expects from the company. That attention to detail is so important through the process of telling a story.”

Overall, “Primary Trust” imparts a message of the importance of connection and relationships to living a full life.

“It’s a good human story,” Pettiford-Wates says. “It’s a story that has poignancy, humor and pathos.”

“Primary Trust” plays through March 29 at Virginia Rep’s Theatre Gym, 114 W. Broad St. For more information visit va-rep.org or call 804-282-2620.