James Ijames
{{Short description|American playwright}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = James Ijames
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1980}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/theater/james-ijames-fat-ham-drama-pulitzer.html|title=James Ijames on Winning a Pulitzer and Making 'Hamlet' a Comedy|date=May 9, 2022|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 13, 2023}}
| birth_place = Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.
| occupation = Playwright
| education = Morehouse College {{small|(BA)}}
Temple University {{small|(MFA)}}
| awards = Whiting Award{{cite web|title=2017 Whiting Award Winner Profile: James Ijames|url=https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/james-ijames#/|website=Whiting.org|publisher=Whiting Foundation|accessdate=24 January 2018}}
F. Otto Haas Award{{cite web|title=F. Otto Haas Winners All Years|url=http://www.theatrephiladelphia.org/barrymore-awards/all?field_year_value=&tid=31&keys_award=}}
}}
James Ijames ({{IPAc-en|aɪ|m|z}}){{cite news|last=Fox|first=David|date=October 21, 2017|url=https://www.phillymag.com/things-to-do/2017/10/21/james-ijames-actor-playwright/|title=James Ijames: Breakout Bard|work=Philadelphia|access-date=June 11, 2023}} is an American playwright originally from Bessemer City, North Carolina. He received his B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and earned his MFA in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, where he is now based. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University{{cite web|url=http://www.jamesijames.com|title=WELCOME|website=Jamesijames.com|access-date=13 November 2017}} and former co-artistic director of the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia.{{Cite web |title=James Ijames |url=https://wilmatheater.org/artist/james-ijames/ |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=Wilma Theater |language=en-US}} Ijames is a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia's first playwright producing collective.{{cite web|url=http://www.orbiter3.org|title=Home|website=Orbiter3.org|accessdate=13 November 2017}} His adaptation of Hamlet, titled Fat Ham, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2022 after premiering as a "digital production" at the Wilma in 2021.{{cite web |title=FAT HAM |url=https://wilmatheater.org/event/fat-ham/ |website=The Wilma Theater |access-date=7 October 2024}} A second production ran at The Public Theater during the summer of 2022,{{Cite web |title=FAT HAM |url=https://publictheater.org/about/press/21-22/fat-ham |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=publictheater.org}} before opening on Broadway in April 2023. He is the recipient of the 2018 Whiting Award for drama and the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist.
Early life
Ijames grew up in Bessemer City, North Carolina. He received his BA in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and his MFA in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is gay.{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Amanda Marie |title=How James Ijames and Saheem Ali Found The Perfect Recipe for FAT HAM |url=https://www.theatrely.com/post/james-ijames-saheem-ali-fat-ham-interview |website=Theatrely |access-date=18 April 2024 |date=13 May 2022}}
Career
Ijames' work has been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon (Norristown, Pennsylvania), The National Black Theatre (Harlem), Ally Theatre Company (Washington, DC), and others.
Kill Move Paradise had its premiere at the National Black Theatre in 2017. Ben Brantley of The New York Times noted that "Mr. Ijames's play has no sense of an ending, or of resolution. It takes place in a nightmare of history, in which events are repeated, fugue-like, into eternity." He compared Ijames' work to the early works of Suzan-Lori Parks.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/theater/kill-move-paradise-review.html|title=Review: The Unspeakable Pain of an African-American Afterlife|first=Ben|last=Brantley|date=11 June 2017|website=The New York Times|accessdate=13 November 2017}}
White was produced at the Theatre Horizon. In his review, Jim Rutter of the Philadelphia Inquirer remarked on the play's ending and how it "adds a surreal twist by driving home Ijames' exploration of black women's exploitation by feminism, by contemporary culture and white women."{{cite web|url=http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/arts/white-at-theatre-horizon-racial-conflict-art-and-laughs-20170510.html|title='WHITE' at Theatre Horizon: Racial conflict, art, and laughs|website=Philly.com|date=10 May 2017 |accessdate=13 November 2017}}
Moon Man Walk was produced by Orbiter 3 in Philadelphia. Bryan Buttler writing for Philadelphia Magazine praised the quality of the new work, stating "there's a lot of talk about "new work" in theater and opera in this town, but Moon Man Walk provides the kind of artistic quality that the Philadelphia arts community needs to not only achieve with new works but invest in."{{cite web|url=http://www.phillymag.com/ticket/2015/07/06/review-moon-man-walk-with-orbiter-3|title=REVIEW: "Moon Man Walk" with Orbiter 3|date=6 July 2015|website=Phillymag.com|accessdate=13 November 2017}}
Plays
- Abandon (NEA supported, Theatre Exile, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania){{Cite web |title=Abandon |url=https://theatreexile.org/shows/abandon/ |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=TheatreExile |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-05-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230508035039/https://theatreexile.org/shows/abandon/ |url-status=dead }}
- Good Bones (Commissioned by Studio Theatre, Washington, D.C., 2023){{Cite web |title=Studio Theatre {{!}} Good Bones |url=https://www.studiotheatre.org/plays/play-detail/2022-2023-good-bones#:~:text=A%20Studio-commissioned%20play%20by,only%20just%20beginning%20to%20understand. |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=www.studiotheatre.org}}
- Reverie (Azuka Theatre, 2022){{Cite web |title=Reverie |url=https://www.azukatheatre.org/reverie |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=Azuka Theatre |date=December 2022 |language=en-US}}
- Youth
- History of Walking (Theatre Exile, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- Matter Out of Place (InterAct Theater Company and Available Light Theater, Columbus, Ohio)
- Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre, 2017)
- White (PlayPenn New Play Conference, Theatre Horizon, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- Moon Man Walk (Orbiter 3 Playwrights Collective, 2015)
- The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Flashpoint Theater Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- The Threshing Floor
- Fat Ham (Wilma Theater, 2021){{cite web|title=A New Hamlet Centers Black and Queer Characters|url=https://www.theatrephiladelphia.org/theatre-news/a-new-hamlet-centers-black-and-queer-characters}}
- TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (Ally Theatre Company, 2020)
Awards and nominations
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Award ! Category ! Work ! Result ! Ref. |
| rowspan="2" | 2011
| F. Otto Haas Award | colspan="2" | Emerging Artist | {{won}} |
| Barrymore Award
| Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play | {{won}} |
| 2012
| Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play | Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches | {{won}} |
| 2014
| Outstanding Direction of a Play | The Brothers Size | {{won}} |
| rowspan="2" | 2015
| Terrence McNally Award | New Play | White | {{won}} | |
| Pew Fellowship in the Arts
| colspan="2" | Playwriting | {{won}} | |
| 2017
| colspan="2" | Drama | {{won}} |
| 2018
| Playwriting | Miz Martha | {{sho|Honorable mention}} |
| 2022
| Drama | rowspan="3" | Fat Ham | {{won}} |
| 2023
| {{nom}} | |
| 2024
| Drama | {{Pending}} | {{cite web |url=https://www.them.us/story/lambda-literary-awards-2024-shortlist-announcement |title=Announcing the Finalists for the 36th Annual Lambda Literary Awards |work=them. |date=2024-03-27 |access-date=2024-04-05 }} |
References
{{Reflist|2}}
{{PulitzerPrize DramaAuthors}}
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Category:African-American dramatists and playwrights
Category:African-American LGBTQ people
Category:American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights
Category:American male dramatists and playwrights
Category:Gay dramatists and playwrights
Category:LGBTQ people from North Carolina
Category:Morehouse College alumni
Category:People from Bessemer City, North Carolina