Calvin Leon Smith News

FAT HAM, the 2022 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, celebrated its opening night last night at The Public Theater! Go inside the celebration!

Check out the critic's reviews from the New York Times and elsewhere for the The Public Theater and National Black Theatre production of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Play FAT HAM at The Public Theater.  

The Public Theater and National Black Theatre has announced that the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Play FAT HAM has extended again now through Sunday, July 3rd at The Public Theater.  

See the first photos from FAT HAM! Critically-acclaimed playwright James Ijames reinvents Shakespeare’s masterpiece with his new drama, FAT HAM. Juicy is a queer, Southern college kid, already grappling with some serious questions of identity, when the ghost of his father shows up in their backyard, demanding that Juicy avenge his murder.

FAT HAM, the reinvented, comedic version of HAMLET, started previews last week at The Public Theater, co-produced with National Black Theatre. Playwright James Ijames won the Pulitzer Prize for FAT HAM last week.

The Public Theater and National Black Theatre will begin previews on Thursday, May 12 for the upcoming New York Premiere of FAT HAM, written by James Ijames and directed by Public Theater Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director Saheem Ali.

Following an exciting and innovative filmed production produced by The Wilma Theater in 2021 during the shutdown, FAT HAM will make its live New York premiere this spring in the Anspacher Theater.

Special Offer - Fat Ham: A new kind of Hamlet 👑

Special Offer - Fat Ham Casting: Meet Juicy

The Public Theater and National Black Theatre announced complete casting today for the upcoming New York Premiere of FAT HAM written by James Ijames and directed by Public Theater Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director Saheem Ali.

Symphony Space will present Wall to Wall Selected Shorts, a monumental celebration of short fiction, March 26 in Symphony Space’s Peter Jay Sharp theater in New York City (2537 Broadway at 95th Street).

The second annual Write It Out! program for writers living with HIV will stream performances of students' work during a final sharing on Wednesday, December 1 at 7pm ET.

The HBO comedy series HIGH MAINTENANCE, created by Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, returns for its nine-episode fourth season FRIDAY, FEB. 7 (11:00-11:30 p.m. ET/PT). The critically acclaimed series uses The Guy (Sinclair), a marijuana dealer, to connect a variety of distinctly authentic, empathetic and insightful stories about the New York community, including his own. 

Racism and homophobia reign in 1950s Houston, the setting of Ricardo Pérez González's world premiere of On the Grounds of Belonging. The play begins as white drag queen Thomas Aston (Jeremiah Clapp) from whites only gay bar, The Red Room, hides from a raid at The Gold Room, a blacks only gay bar. Thomas falls head over his high heels for Russell Montgomery (Calvin Leon Smith), a quiet, erudite journalist who has a not too distant past with fellow patron Henry Stanfield (Blake Anthony Morris). But against the advice of bar manager Hugh Williams (Thomas Silcott), Thomas and Rusty begin a serious love affair. This is not a good time or place to be an interracial gay couple, but their biggest threat is Henry, who bashes Thomas in the head out of jealousy and hurt. Mooney Fitzpatrick (Craig Bockhorn), the gay and bigoted owner of the two gay bars, tells Russell that Thomas, whom he loved like a son, died of his wounds. He threatens to lynch the person who killed him. Sounds a bit like Romeo and Juliet, but neither character dies at the end. They are just separated seemingly forever. Rounding out this excellent ensemble is Tanya Starr (Tracey Conyer Lee), a torch singer at The Gold Room, who helps Henry escape. All the cast members are genuine in their roles, playing them without stereotypes. You can't help but feel their loneliness. Bockhorn is chilling as a man who, with his partner, took in a very young orphaned Thomas, yet is vindictive enough to lynch someone. Lee is a talented singer as well as actress.

Long Wharf Theatre presents the first production in the 19-20 Season, On the Grounds of Belonging, written by Ricardo Pérez González and directed by David Mendizábal.

Long Wharf Theatre announces dates, complete casting and the complete creative team for the first production in the 19-20 Season, On the Grounds of Belonging, written by Ricardo Pérez González and directed by David Mendizábal. Performances begin on Wednesday, October 9, 2019 for a limited run through November 3, 2019.

Doug Nevin and Michael Urie, in partnership with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater closed out the Pride Plays' festival of play readings commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, with a benefit reading of Terrence McNally's Some Men, helmed by Logan Reed, on June 24 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

Festival producers Doug Nevin and Michael Urie, in partnership with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and Festival Director Nick Mayo announce casting for the benefit closing night reading of Some Men, written by Terrence McNally

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) will begin performances of the MOBILE UNIT NATIONAL TOUR of Lynn Nottage's powerful Pulitzer Prize-winning play, SWEAT, directed by Kate Whoriskey, on September 27 in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Juilliard Drama, celebrating its 50th anniversary, announces its 2017-18 season of fully staged productions featuring Juilliard's Group 47 acting students in their fourth and final year in the drama program.