FAT HAM is Coming to The Huntington in September

The Huntington in association with Alliance Theatre and Front Porch Arts Collective has revealed the cast and creative team of Fat Ham, the acclaimed new play written by James Ijames and directed by Tony Award-nominated Stevie Walker-Webb. The production runs from Friday, September 22 – Sunday, October 22, 2023 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (527 Tremont St).
 
In this deliciously funny, Pulitzer Prize-winning new play, sweet and sensitive Juicy wants to make his own way as a queer Black man growing up in a Southern family, until his father’s ghost turns up at a backyard barbecue and insists that Juicy avenge his murder. Ay, there’s the rub!
 
“James Ijames’ brilliant, hilarious play is Hamlet and is not Hamlet,” says Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco. “This is the beginning of our rigorous exploration of the classics – powerful stories that continue to speak to us – as re-dreamt for our time. In Ijames’ deft hands this exploration of masculinity, queerness, and familial acceptance boasts of muscular language, emotional truth, and the wildly entertaining foibles of family.”
 
This smart and sharp reinvention of Shakespeare’s masterpiece premiered in a filmed production for the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia in 2021 before making its Off Broadway debut at The Public Theater the following year. The play won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and in spring of 2023, The Public Theater transferred their production to Broadway where it received five Tony Award nominations and even more critical acclaim. The New York Times called it “Hot and sizzling! A raucous, flat-out hilarious comedy! Fat Ham is a revelation!”
 
“I am very excited for Fat Ham to meet the audiences in Boston,” says playwright James Ijames. “The play has a powerful message of transformation, radical acceptance, and joy! This show is for anyone looking for a space of liberation and beauty.” 
 
The cast of Fat Ham includes:
 
James T. Alfred as Rev, Tedra’s husband, her dead ex-husband’s brother, a kind of Claudius. And also as Pap, the Ghost of Juicy’s father. Credits include the national tour of Jitney and Black Odyssey Off Broadway.
 
Amar Atkins as Larry, an awkward marine with a secret, a kind of Laertes. Credits include: the national tour of The Color Purple revival, and As You Like It and King Lear at The Public Theater.
 
Thomika Marie Bridwell as Rabby, Larry and Opal’s mother, Tedra’s friend, a kind of Polonius. Credits include Joy and Pandemic and K-I-S-S-I-N-G (in co-production with Front Porch Arts Collective) at The Huntington, and Chicken and Biscuits at Front Porch Arts Collective.
 
Marshall W. Mabry IV as Juicy, beautiful, lonely, and smart; a kind of Hamlet. Credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream in Harlem at Pittsburgh Public and Once on this Island at SpeakEasy Stage.
 
Lau'rie Roach as Tio, Juicy’s clever cousin and oldest friend, a kind of Horatio. Credits include Toni Stone at Alliance Theatre and Milwaukee Rep, and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at Alliance Theatre.
 
Victoria Omoregie as Opal, one of Juicy’s only friends, a kind of Ophelia. Victoria was a winner of the August Wilson Monologue Competition with The Huntington’s education department. Other credits include Fairview at SpeakEasy Stage and The Bomb-Itty of Errors at Actors’ Shakespeare Project.
 
Ebony Marshall-Oliver as Tedra, Juicy’s mother, a kind of Gertrude. Credits include Ain’t No Mo’ and Chicken and Biscuits on Broadway, and Merry Wives at The Public Theater.
 
Understudies include: David J. Castillo, Vincent Ernest Siders, Kai Tshikosi, and Shanelle Chloe Villegas.

The creative team for Fat Ham includes scenic design by Luciana Stecconi (Witch and The Art of Burning at The Huntington), costume design by Celeste Jennings (Malvolio at Classical Theatre of Harlem), lighting design by Xiangfu Xiao (The Diamond at Pregones/PRTT), sound design by Aubrey Dube (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Clyde’s at The Huntington), hair and wig design by Earon Nealey (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at The Huntington), and illusions design by Evan Northrup (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at The Huntington. The choreographer is PJ Johnnie Jr, dialect coach is Amani Dorn, and the fight choreographer and intimacy coach is Jesse Hinson. The associate director is Dawn M. Simmons. The production stage manager is R. Lamar Williams and the stage manager is Ashley Pitchford.

 

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

 

James Ijames

(Playwright) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, 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) and Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) and have received development with PlayPenn New Play Conference, The Lark, Playwright's Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Villanova Theatre, Wilma Theater, Azuka Theatre and Victory Gardens. James is the recipient of the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist and two Barrymore Awards, for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Brothers Size with Simpatico Theatre and Gem of the Ocean with Arden Theatre Company. James is a 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting, the 2015 winner of the Terrence McNally New Play Award (for WHITE), the 2015 Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize winner (for ...Miz Martha), a 2017 recipient of the Whiting Award, and a recipient of the 2019 Kesselring Prize (for Kill Move Paradise), a 2020 Steinberg Prize, and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. James was a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia’s first playwright producing collective. He received a BA in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta and an MFA in acting from Temple University in Philadelphia. James is an associate professor of theatre at Villanova University. @FatHamBway

 

Stevie Walker-Webb

(Director) is a Tony Award-nominated, Obie Award-winning director, playwright, and cultural worker who believes in the transformational power of art. His work has been produced on and Off Broadway, including Ain’t No Mo’ (The Public Theater/Broadway), One in Two (The New Group), Black Odyssey (Classic Stage), Fairview (Woolly Mammoth), and Our Town (Baltimore Center Stage). Upcoming productions include Gun & Powder (Paper Mill Playhouse). He is founder of Hundreds of Thousands, an arts and advocacy organization that makes visual the suffering and inhumane treatment of incarcerated mentally ill people. He has received the Princess Grace Award for Theater and The Lily Award from the Dramatists Guild of America, and is a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a visiting artist and lecturer at Harvard University, and the founding artistic director of the Jubilee Theatre in Waco, Texas. Stevie has created art and theatre in Madagascar, South Africa, Mexico, and across America. steviewalkerwebb.com

 

 

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