NEWS
Common Thread Theatre Collective Presents Fat Ham
by James Ijames
About this show – Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames reinvents Shakespeare’s masterpiece with a delectable comic tragedy in 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. It feels like a familiar story to Juicy, well-versed in Hamlet’s woes. What’s different is Juicy himself, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man trying to break the cycles of trauma and violence in service of his own liberation. From an uproarious family barbecue emerges a compelling examination of love and loss, pain and joy. [From Concord Theatricals]
CONTENT WARNING:
This show contains strong language and adult references. Recommended for ages 16 and up.
Performance Schedule
June 14-16
June 19 – 22
June 27 – 30
About the Common Thread Theatre Collective: Common Thread Theatre Collective was founded by theatre faculty members at Davidson College and North Carolina A&T State University. Our goal is to create professional, engaging productions that focus on voices and stories that have traditionally been underrepresented in American mainstream theatre. We want to create a new kind of summer-stock theatre: one that balances inventive entertainment with thoughtful content, that knits together disparate elements of our local artistic community, that fosters a humane consent-based rehearsal approach for our artists, that prioritizes community engagement around issues of contemporary relevance. As educators, we all felt that our students, serving as paid interns, would benefit from exposure to new kinds of shows, new ways of working, and new professional contacts. Despite the differences between our respective institutions, the four of us and our students were bound together by the “common thread” of our commitment to theatre as a force that can influence change, in individuals and across society.