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Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage
Old Globe Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
May 25 – June 23, 2024
Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage
Old Globe Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
By James Ijames
Original direction by Saheem Ali
Directed by Sideeq Heard
The 2022 Pulitzer-winning, Tony-nominated sensation Fat Ham is a fresh and funny take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet that The New York Times called “a flat-out hilarious comedy.” During a Southern family cookout, Juicy is confronted by the ghost of his father, who demands revenge for his murder. But Juicy, a young, queer, Black man, has enough on his plate. James Ijames’s remarkable play uses uproarious humor and profound insight to explore the conflict between what you owe your family and what you owe yourself. “Smart, fearless, and wildly entertaining” (The Chicago Tribune).
This production includes strong language, mature themes, sexual content, and mild violence.
Vicki and Carl Zeiger Insights Seminar: Tuesday, May 28 at 6:00 p.m.
Community Night: Friday, May 31 and Friday, June 7 at 6:30 p.m.
Post Show Forum: Tuesday, June 4; Wednesday, June 12; and Wednesday, June 19 (evening performance).
Open-Caption Performance: Saturday, June 15 at 2:00 p.m.
Fat Ham is supported by lead production sponsor Terry Atkinson.
James Ijames (Playwright) is a playwright, director, and educator. James is the recipient of the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist, two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play, two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play, a Pew Fellowship for Playwriting, the Terrance McNally New Play Award, Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize, the Whiting Award, a 2019 Kesselring Prize for Kill Move Paradise, a 2020 and 2022 Steinberg Prize, and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. 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 is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University. He resides in South Philadelphia.
Sideeq Heard (Director) (he/him) is a multi-hyphenate, award-winning director. He was the Associate Director of the Tony-nominated Broadway production Fat Ham. Currently, he serves as the Associate Artistic Director at JAG Productions. He was awarded Best Director for the short film Here is a Man at the 2023 Oscar-qualifying film festival Reel Sisters of the Diaspora. Recent directing credits include Fat Ham at the Geffen Playhouse; Men Like Us, a new digital set to premiere summer 2024; Rhyme Deferred by Kamilah Forbes at Howard University; The Waiting Room, a devised play at the Eugene O’Neil Center; A Curious Thing written by Jeremy O’Brian at JAG’s Theatre on the Hill festival; Word Becomes Flesh by Marc Bamahuti Jospeh at NYU’s Freeplay Festival; a staged reading of Fat Ham at the American Airlines Theatre with Arts in the Armed Forces. Lastly, he’s had the privilege of serving as assistant director to Carl Cofield on Classical Theatre of Harlem’s award-winning adaptation of Twelfth Night, and Saheem Ali at The Public Theatre’s Off Broadway production of Fat Ham. BFA: Howard University. MFA: NYU Grad Acting. sideeqheard.com.
Saheem Ali (Original Director) Saheem is a proud immigrant from Kenya. He received a Tony Award nomination for directing the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Fat Ham on Broadway, an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations for Fat Ham’s Off Broadway run at The Public Theater, where he serves as the Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director. His production of Merry Wives (Shakespeare in the Park) was recorded for PBS’s Great Performances and was the subject of the documentary Reopening Night on HBO. Productions include Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic Theatre Company); Goddess (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater); Romeo y Julieta, Shipwreck, and Richard II (radio plays). Other productions: Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep), Sugar in Our Wounds (Manhattan Theatre Club), Tartuffe (PlayMakers Repertory Company), Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre). He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, a Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow, and a Shubert Fellow.
Maruti Evans (Scenic Design) Fat Ham (Broadway and Public Theater), Angels in America (Arena Stage), In Our Daughter’s Eyes (LA Opera +BMP), Real Enemies (BAM), Else Where (BAM), CM Dance (BAM), Epiphany (BAM), At the Wedding (Lincoln Center Theatre), Daphne (Lincoln Center Theatre), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theater), The Ring Cycle (Opera Australia), and Angel’s Bone (Hong Kong Music Festival, Beijing Music Festival). Awards: Fat Ham (Ensemble and Creative Team Obie Award), Tiny Dynamite (Drama Desk), Pilo Family Circus (Drama Desk). Drama Desk nominations: Peculiar Patriot, Kill Move Paradise, Deliverance, In the Heat of the Night, Slaughterhouse 5, and Blindness.
Dominique Fawn Hill (Costume Design) Dominique’s designs include world premieres of plays and musicals produced at venues such as The Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Playwright’s Horizons, and Geffen Playhouse. Her theatre credits include Broadway: Fat Ham (Tony Award nomination). Off Broadway: Tambo & Bones (Lucille Lortel Award nomination) (Playwrights Horizons), Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (MTC), The Dark Girl Chronicles (The Shed), and 125th & FREEdom (National Black Theatre). Dominique is currently designing across the nation while being an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds a M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. DominiqueFHill.com.
Bradley King (Lighting Design) is a parent, proud union member, and lighting designer based in NYC. Broadway: Lempicka, Water For Elephants, How to Dance in Ohio, Fat Ham (Tony nom), Hadestown (Tony, Drama Desk winner), The Great Comet (Tony, Drama Desk winner), Flying Over Sunset (Tony nom), Bernhardt/Hamlet. Recent Off Broadway: Moonsoon Wedding (St Ann’s), Endlings (NYTW), Evita (City Center Encores), Alice by Heart (MCC), Apologia, The Last Match (Roundabout), The Treasurer (Playwrights Horizons), shows for Atlantic Theater Company, LAByrinth, The Kitchen, Signature Theater, the Vineyard, CSC, and many others. Regional: The Alley, ART, The Guthrie, Long Wharf, The McCarter, The Old Globe, TUTS, Yale Rep, and many others. International: UK, Canada, Qatar, India, China. MFA, NYU. USA829 member. bradleykingld.com, @bradleykingld.
Mikaal Sulaiman (Sound Design) The Old Globe: Debut. Broadway: Enemy of the People, Doubt, Thanksgiving Play, Fat Ham, Death of a Salesman, Cost of Living, Macbeth, Thoughts of a Colored Man. Off Broadway: Sabbath’s Theatre (New Group), The Half-God of Rainfall (NYTW), Primary Trust (Roundabout), On Sugarland (NYTW), Sanctuary City (NYTW), Fairview (Soho Rep), Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova). Awards: Tony Award nom, Drama Desk nom, Obie Awards, Creative Capital Award, Henry Hewes Award, and CTG Sherwood Award. mikaal.com.
Darrell Grand Moultrie (Broadway Choreography) Select credits include Fat Ham (Broadway and The Public), Disney’s new revival of Aida, Space Dogs (MCC), Merry Wives (Shakespeare in the Park), Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC), Daddy (The New Group/Vineyard Theatre), Invisible Thread (2nd Stage), and Goddess (Berkeley Rep). Moultrie has created works for American Ballet Theatre, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, among others. Moultrie served as a choreographer on Beyoncé’s world tour, The Mrs. Carter Tour. Moultrie is the recipient of The Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award and a graduate of The Juilliard School.
Skylar Fox (Illusion Design) Obie Award–winning director, writer, and designer based in Brooklyn. He is co-artistic director of Nightdrive, where he has directed, designed, and co-written The Grown-Ups (Top 10 NYC Productions of the Year in Time Out New York); Alien Nation; Providence, RI; Thank You Sorry; and Apathy Boy. Other directing includes Pussy Sludge (HERE), Passion Play (IRNE Award nomination). In his other life, he designs and stages magic for theatre. Broadway: Fat Ham; associate designer for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Back to the Future, and A Beautiful Noise. Off-Broadway/International: Once Upon a Mattress (Encores!); Boop! (Broadway in Chicago); The Preacher’s Wife (The Alliance); The Comeuppance (Signature); You Will Get Sick (Roundabout); Wicked, Matilda (Atelier de Cultura, São Paulo); and Damn Yankees (Shaw Festival). www.skylarfox.com, www.nightdrive.org.
Earon Chew Nealey (Wig, Hair, and Makeup Design) is an Obie Award–winning and Drama Desk–nominated hair, wig, and makeup designer. Broadway: Fat Ham; Goodspeed Musicals: Dreamgirls, Little Girl Blue: The Nina Simone Musical; The Public Theater: Hamlet, shadow/land, The Harder They Come, Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge, Fat Ham, cullud wattah, Mojada. Other designs: Dames at Sea, Kinky Boots, The Last Supper, Twelfth Night, Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Matilda, On Sugarland, Nina Simone: Four Women, Little Women, Cadillac Crew. @earonnealey on Instagram.
Lisa Kopitsky (Fight Director) is a New York-based fight and intimacy director and movement dramaturg. Broadway: Fat Ham, How I Learned to Drive, Flying Over Sunset, The Iceman Cometh, The Children, The Father. Public Theater: Hamilton, Fat Ham, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure (Shakespeare in the Park); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth (Mobile Unit); Detroit ’67, Urge for Going, Neighbors (Public LAB). Off Broadway: Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic); Nollywood Dreams, School Girls… (MCC); Epiphany, Intimate Apparel, Greater Clements, Power Strip, Marys Seacole (Lincoln Center). Metropolitan Opera: Carmen, Rigoletto. Founding member and Creative Director of Vixens En Garde.
Caparelliotis Casting (Casting) The Old Globe: Stir, King James, English, The Age of Innocence, Exotic Deadly, Under a Baseball Sky, What We Talk About…, Dial M for Murder, Mala, Shutter Sisters, Hurricane Diane, Noura, They Promised Her the Moon, Tiny Beautiful Things, Barefoot in the Park, The Wanderers, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Skeleton Crew. Select Broadway: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Grey House, Ohio State Murders, Macbeth, The Minutes, King Lear, Hillary and Clinton, Ink, The Waverly Gallery, Meteor Shower, A Doll’s House, Part 2, Jitney, Blackbird, Disgraced. Additional theatre: MTC, Signature, Atlantic. Television: “New Amsterdam” (NBC), “American Odyssey” (NBC).
Ryan Patrick Kane (Production Stage Manager) Broadway: Fat Ham, I Need That. Off Broadway: Fat Ham (Public), Oh, Mary! (Lortel), Infinite Life (Atlantic), Sandblasted (Vineyard/WP), Selling Kabul, The Thin Place, Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons), On Set with Theda Bara (The Brick), This Beautiful Future (Cherry Lane). Regional: The Niceties, A Guide for the Homesick (Huntington), Violet on a Bus (A.R.T), Romeo & Juliet (Boston Ballet). Television: “76th Annual Tony Awards,” “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” “WeCrashed,” “Harlem.” Education: BFA in Stage Management from Emerson College.
Sam Allen (Production Stage Manager, Assistant Stage Manager) (they/them/theirs) The Old Globe: King James, Pleasant (Powers New Voices Festival), The Merry Wives of Windsor, All Day (workshop). Regional credits: Animals Out of Paper, Flowers of Hawaii (Chautauqua Theater Company), #SLACabaret (Salt Lake Acting Company), Cherry Wine in Paper Cups (Sackerson), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (West Valley Performing Arts), The Audacity, Where Are You From?, Flora Meets a Bee, P.G. Anon (Plan-B Theatre), Prometheus Bound, Women of Trachis (Classic Greek Theatre Festival). Education: B.F.A. in Stage Management and Directing from Westminster University, M.F.A. in Stage Management from University of California, Irvine.
Evelyn G. Myers (Assistant Stage Manager) (she/her) The Old Globe: Globe for All (The Comedy of Errors), Globe for All (Henry V). La Jolla Playhouse: The Garden, POP Tour (Hoopla!), POP Tour (Pick Me Last), POP Tour x National Disability Theatre (Emily Driver’s Great Race Through Time and Space). North Coast Repertory: Sense of Decency, Pippin. Grand Central Art Center: Savage in Limbo. Hollywood Fringe Festival: The First and the Last (Encore Award). Young Theatre: Bell, Book, and Candle (Kennedy Center Excellence in Stage Management Award).
Jha’Neal Blue (Associate Director) An actress, director, playwright, and international slam poetry champion from Baltimore who served as the Assistant Director of Trouble in Mind for Hartford Stage’s 60th season. Recently, she completed NYU’s Film & TV Essentials program and a four-year film fellowship at Johns Hopkins. Her written works and photography have been featured in several notable editorials, including The New York Times. In June, she will be performing at PAC NYC for the Criminal Queerness Festival in the play The Survival. This fall, Blue will attend CalArts for her M.F.A. in Acting. Jhanealblue.com.
Anjee Nero (Stage Management Swing) The Old Globe: Ride, Cabaret, Destiny of Desire, Come Fall in Love, Almost Famous, The Gardens of Anuncia, The Heart of Rock & Roll, Bright Star, Allegiance, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Benny & Joon, October Sky, Rocky Horror Show, Life After, The Wanderers, Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show, Twenty-Seventh Man, A Room with a View, Kingdom, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Be a Good Little Widow, more. Broadway: Bright Star. Regional highlights: Bright Star (Kennedy Center), Fly, Sideways, Ruined, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Herringbone, The Seven (La Jolla Playhouse), Ruined (Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Kiss Me, Kate (Hartford Stage), Venice (Center Theatre Group), Antigone (SITI Company).
