The Script Society Reads "Fat Ham" by James Ijames

The Script Society is a collaborative group reading of dramatic works, led by Roxanne Baker. No experience required! The Script Society is our collaborative play reading group led by Roxanne Baker. Let's enjoy drama without the anxiety of memorizing lines or donning costumes! Choose a Reader ticket if you'd like an assigned role and the chance to participate in the reading, or a Listener ticket if you'd prefer to sit back, follow along, and enjoy the performance unfolding around you. No experience required; all you need is curiosity, enthusiasm, and a love of great storytelling. This month's selection is James Ijames's Fat Ham—winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a wildly funny, big-hearted reinvention of Shakespeare's Hamlet. At a family barbecue in the American South, Juicy, a queer Black college student, is visited by the ghost of his father, who arrives with a familiar request: avenge his murder. But Juicy isn't so sure he wants to follow the script he's been handed. Ijames transforms Shakespeare's tragedy into something joyous, irreverent, and deeply moving, asking what might happen if we refused to inherit our families' cycles of violence. Full of ghosts, grudges, love, laughter, and one very complicated cookout, Fat Ham is a celebration of choosing softness, liberation, and joy—even when tragedy seems inevitable. We will meet in person in the loft at our store at The Mark, 117 S. Pineapple Ave. The book club is $17.95, which is the cost of your copy of Fat Ham to be picked up at Bookstore1 any time before our meeting. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: James IJames is a playwright, director, actor, and educator. Ijames was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Fat Ham. His other awards include a Pew Fellowship, the F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Artist, the Terrence McNally New Play Award, a Whiting Award, a Kesselring Prize, and a Steinberg Prize. His other plays include The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington and White. He resides in South Philadelphia. ABOUT THE FACILITATOR: Roxanne Baker hails from the mecca of film, Rochester, NY, where she introduced films at the George Eastman House. Since she arrived in Florida, she has moderated film talk-backs at Burns Court and taught Film Appreciation at Sarasota Art Museum through Osher Life Long Learning.