Listen: Playwright James Ijames Talks 21st-Century Masculinity, Theater, and More on TIME's Person Of The Week Podcast

TIME has released the latest episode of its podcast Person of the Week, featuring a sit-down interview with Playwright James Ijames. The weekly podcast hosted by TIME Senior Correspondent Charlotte Atler features candid conversations with those who are shaping the world in an attempt to understand the forces that shaped them.

In this week's episode, the two talk about everything from their shared love of theater to Ijames' experience growing up in the South, to how his work explores 21st-century masculinity. 

Ijames shared why he gravitated to Hamlet for his Broadway debut with Fat Ham, saying, "I identified with his conflictedness, his ambivalence. I identified with him feeling a little bit like an outsider, 'cause around the same time I was figuring out that I was, gay. And there was something kindred about Hamlet and me and my journey at that moment. But I just kept coming back to the play over and over again. I just thought about it a lot.”

He also shared how the experience of writing plays as a teen as a hobby turned into a career.

"I never thought of it as a career until about 15 years ago when I really started to send things out and say, okay, I, I wanna see what other people think about this," he revealed. "For me, it was a way to metabolize how I was feeling. I grew up working class, and I had, like, anxiety and maybe a little depression when I was a kid and didn't have access to therapy. And so, like, so many working class and poor people of color, Black people in particular, we find ways to take care of ourselves. And one of the things that I did was I wrote, I would be upset about something and I would have someone like my grandmother say, write it down.”

Listen to the full episode below:

About James Ijames

James Ijames is a Pulitzer Prize winning and Tony Award nominated playwright, a director and educator. 

James’ plays have been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon, Wilma Theatre, Theatre Exile, Azuka Theatre (Philadelphia, PA), The National Black Theatre, JACK, The Public Theater (NYC), Hudson Valley Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Definition Theatre, Timeline Theater (Chicago IL) Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) and have received development with PlayPenn New Play Conference, The Lark, Playwright's Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Villanova Theater, Wilma Theater, Azuka Theatre and Victory Garden. 

James is the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist recipient, and two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Brothers Size with Simpatico Theatre Company and Gem of the Ocean with Arden Theatre. James is a 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting, the 2015 winner of the Terrance McNally New Play Award for WHITE, the 2015 Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize winner for ....Miz Martha, a 2017 recipient of the Whiting Award, a 2019 Kesselring Prize for Kill Move Paradise, a 2020 and 2022 Steinberg Prize, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama recipient and a 2023 Tony nominee for Best Play for Fat Ham

James was a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia’s first playwright producing collective. 

He received a B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and a M.F.A. in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. James an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University. He resides in South Philadelphia.